Resetting Live's Library

Learn how to reset Ableton Live’s Library to restore User Library and Factory Packs to default locations, remove custom folders under Places in Live's Browser, and revert Collections labels on macOS and Windows.

Saving custom folders into Live's Browser can be a useful way to quickly access files that exist in various locations on your computer. However, referencing large folders or entire drives in Places can put a heavy load on Live's file indexer. Resetting Live's Library is a fast way to remove all of these folders at once to reduce demand on Live's file indexer.


Resetting Live's Library does the following:

Folders added under Places in Live's Browser are removed.

The folders themselves and their content are not deleted from your hard drive.

Collections labels are renamed to their default values.

The tagged items themselves are not deleted. Once a Collection color is re-enabled, any previously tagged items will reappear.

The User Library folder is re-directed to its default location.

  • macOS: Macintosh HD/Users/[Username]/Music/Ableton/User Library
  • Windows: C:\Users\[Username]\Documents\Ableton\User Library

The Factory Packs folder is re-directed to its default location.

  • macOS: Macintosh HD/Users/[Username]/Music/Ableton/Factory Packs
  • Windows: C:\Users\[Username]\Documents\Ableton\Factory Packs

Resetting Live's Library does NOT affect:


How to reset Live's Library

To reset Live's Library, you'll need to access folders that are usually hidden on your computer. Learn how to access hidden folders.

Note: When following the steps below, rather than deleting the Library.cfg file, you can instead move it to another location, such as your Desktop. If the Library reset doesn't help, you can move Library.cfg back to the original location afterwards to restore your previous Places folders and Library settings.

macOS Windows
  1. Close Live.
  2. Open this hidden folder for your current Live version:

    Users/[username]/Library/Preferences/
    Ableton/Live x.x.x/
     
  3. Delete Library.cfg.
  4. Launch Live.
  1. Close Live.
  2. Open this hidden folder for your current Live version:

    Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\
    Ableton\Live x.x.x\Preferences\
     
  3. Delete Library.cfg.
  4. Launch Live.

 

Ableton offers these in-depth help and learning resources:

Was this article helpful?