Rescanning plug-ins in Live 12.1

Ableton Live 12.1 automatically rescans all plug-ins when first launched after updating. This is necessary due to a change in the location where plug-in data is stored. As of Live 12.1, plug-ins scanning data is written into a plug-in database file, which is separate from Live's main database file.

This change is expected to improve Live’s performance, compared with earlier versions. Once an initial full rescan is completed in Live 12.1 or later, an automatic rescan will not be triggered on subsequent launches of Live 12.1.

Important: If you experience slow launch, hanging, freezing, crashing on startup, or missing plug-ins, check that all installed plug-ins are updated to the latest versions and officially supported in Live 12 on your OS. 

The plug-in scanning database file, named Live-plugins-1.db, can be found inside the following folder on your computer:

• Mac:  /Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/Ableton/Live Database/
• Windows: \Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Ableton\Live Database\

After updating your devices and checking that they are correctly installed and configured, if you still experience issues during Live's plug-ins scanning, you can follow the steps in this guide to reset the plug-ins database file: Resetting Live's Database.

For more information, visit our guides to Troubleshooting a crash and Plug-ins Tips and Troubleshooting.