Ableton Forum

I recently switched to a new laptop and reinstalled all my VSTs, but when I open up an Ableton set I made on my previous laptop some of the VSTs won't load, and Ableton says they are disabled. I've tried rescanning (and holding Alt), and I've made sure all the .vst3 are in the VST3 folder and all the .dll are in the VST2 folder. I'm wondering if maybe some of my VSTs changed versions from VST2 to VST3 in between my downloading them originally and redownloading them, and maybe that's causing a compatibility issue. If so, is there any way to recover the old VSTs? Or if not, is there a way to un-disable the VSTs? What's strange is that some of them seem to still work (Analog Lab), but others don't (Spitfire Labs, Kontakt, BBC Orchestra).

Thanks in advance, and let me know if I can clarify anything.

The VST2 file extensions are *.dll and VST3 are *.vst3, which I read somewhere that they should be stored in separate directories. I had mine mixed and stored in multiple locations. After creating subfolders, under C:\Program Files\Common Files, I pointed my multimedia apps to this location, for 64-bit apps. This solved a lot of problems.

You might try downloading the latest versions of the VSTs that are problematic and re-assigning them. If using Windows, know that a full uninstall is never possible; so you might need to remove the footprints in the registry of the problematic plug-ins. The home edition of Registrar Registry Manager (by Resplendence) is free and works like a file manager to find all related keys, so you can completely and quickly clear old data that might still affect a new installation of a program.

Did you move vst files After doing the installation? Because moving files around after installing is very much not a good idea. It is best to install, and during the installation, point the directory to the appropriate spot. Moving anything afterwords could break the plug-in.

40eridaniB wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 19, 2023 8:46 pm

I recently switched to a new laptop and reinstalled all my VSTs, but when I open up an Ableton set I made on my previous laptop some of the VSTs won't load, and Ableton says they are disabled. I've tried rescanning (and holding Alt), and I've made sure all the .vst3 are in the VST3 folder and all the .dll are in the VST2 folder. I'm wondering if maybe some of my VSTs changed versions from VST2 to VST3 in between my downloading them originally and redownloading them, and maybe that's causing a compatibility issue. If so, is there any way to recover the old VSTs? Or if not, is there a way to un-disable the VSTs? What's strange is that some of them seem to still work (Analog Lab), but others don't (Spitfire Labs, Kontakt, BBC Orchestra).

Thanks in advance, and let me know if I can clarify anything.

Come out of Ableton, delete the plugins that are disabled from your VST folder and then reinstall them. When you open Ableton they will be back working exactly the way they where before they got disabled, even the settings you left them with and presets will be in working order.