Troubleshooting Automatic Updates
- Live Versions: All
- Operating System: All
Automatic updates keep the version of Live installed on your computer up to date. If automatic updates are not enabled or did not succeed, to update Live manually, log in to your Ableton account for the link to download and install the current version.
If Live is not updating automatically:
1. Make sure Automatic Updates are enabled
2. Make sure that you have an active internet connection
3. Wait until the update has downloaded
4. Restart Live
5. Verify permissions on the autoupdates folder
6. Check which version you are trying to update to
7. Check that the update is incremental
8. Check your installation path
9. Check security applications
10. Check the compatibility of your operating system
11. Update Manually
1. Make sure Automatic Updates are enabled
Make sure that Get Automatic Updates is enabled in the Licenses/Maintenance tab in Live's Preferences. Since Live 11, you can choose between the options Never, Ask me and Always.
2. Make sure that you have an active internet connection
Updates can only be downloaded while Live is running and your computer has an active internet connection.
3. Wait until the update has downloaded
Updates are very small files and the actual download usually should not last longer than a couple of minutes (but this depends on the speed of your connection). If you quit Live before the download has finished, it is not resumed with the next start of Live. Instead, a fresh download of the update is started again.
4. Restart Live
The download of an update is triggered when Live is started. If an update is released while Live is running, it won't download instantly. Restart Live in order to let it find and download the update.
5. Verify permissions on the autoupdates folder
Autoupdates are triggered from a special folder. If the permissions on this folder are read only, or assigned to a different user, this could prevent autoupdates from functioning.
Mac: Users/YourUsername/Library/Application Support/Live 11.1.
Note: This is a hidden folder.
Windows: C:\ProgramData\Ableton\Live[versionnumber]\_autoupdates. Right click and select Properties > Security, then make sure that it's assigned to your login with full read/write permissions.
Note: ProgramData is a hidden folder.
6. Check which version you are trying to update
Live 11.1 introduced significant changes and updating from Live 11.0.12 to 11.1 or higher has to be done manually. Likewise autoupdates don't work between Live 10 and Live 11, as this is a paid upgrade rather than a free update.
7. Check that the update is incremental
Updates are only applied incrementally. If you want to update from, e.g. 10.0.1 to 10.0.6, Live will need to update incrementally from 10.0.1, to 10.0.2, to 10.0.3 and so on. In this case it's easier to download the latest version and update manually.
8. Check your installation path
If you're running Live on Windows, make sure that it is installed in the default location. This is necessary due to access rights Live needs in order for the automatic update function to work properly. Live's installation path can be changed during the installation process, but depending on the specific permission settings, automatic updates might not be supported.
9. Check security applications
Check all applications on your computer that observe downloaded data, like firewalls or anti-virus tools. Depending on their specific settings, they might not recognize Live's update files and block or quarantine them without further notice.
10. Check the compatibility of your operating system
With the release of Live 11, macOS El Capitan 10.11, Sierra 10.12, and Windows 8 are no longer supported.
11. Update Manually
If all else fails, download the latest version of Live from your Ableton User Account and manually install it.