Usage Data
Live collects a limited amount of usage data about how it runs on your setup and how its features are used. Live never analyses your audio, your Sets’ contents, or your creative work.
Why we do it
Every data point we collect is useful and helps us build better software for everyone using Live.
We collect data for three reasons:
Understanding how Live is used, including which features matter and on which systems
Catching bugs before they affect more people
Deciding where to focus development next
What we do
Data collected by default
By default, Live collects a small set of anonymous data. Since Live 12.4, Live sends a limited set of events using an analytics tool called Snowplow. This covers technical data about your setup (Live settings, edition, version and license type, operating system and hardware information), how Learn View lessons are used, and roughly how long and how often Live is used.
We collect this data on the basis of Ableton’s legitimate interest in improving Live and fixing bugs. That doesn’t require your explicit consent, but you can still opt out of transmitting any data to us at all by following the instructions below. We apply a high level of anonymisation regardless: identifiers are randomly generated, and your IP address is stripped before it reaches our systems.
Data collected with ‘Send Usage Data’ on
If you turn on Send Usage Data in Live’s settings, Live additionally shares a fuller picture of your setup (hardware, audio and MIDI configuration, installed Packs and plug-ins), how specific features are used, and how stable Live is on your system (crashes, errors, and slowdowns).
Crash and status reports
Live may generate a crash report automatically after a problem, and you can create a status report yourself via the Get Support menu command. These reports include information about your license, your Set, Preferences, plug-ins and technical setup, plus crash dumps if available.
Nothing is sent unless you send it or with your consent. If you share a report with us, usually when contacting Support, we’ll have it alongside your contact details and the installation identifier, so we can identify you and use the report to find and fix the issue you’re facing.
Your choices
Default collection: opt out via Options.txt
This data collection is on by default, but you can opt out by adding the debug option -_DisableSnowplow to your Options.txt file. See how to find your Options.txt file. If you opt out, we’ll collect less information about how Live runs on setups like yours, which can make issues harder for us to spot and fix.
Send Usage Data setting
You can opt in and opt out of data collection by toggling Send Usage Data in Live’s Settings → Licenses & Updates (previously Licenses / Maintenance), or in Account Settings → Personal Details. You can change it at any time.
Usage Data in Note
Ableton Note's Usage Data page contains two options for sharing data about your experience with Note in the background. Here you can choose to share general Usage Data or Crash Reports with our developers. For more information about using Note, visit the Note Knowledge Base.
See our Privacy Policy for more on how we handle your data.