Managing Audio Clips and Samples

Learn how to organize audio clips and samples in Ableton Live, manage file locations, and fix missing files with Collect All and Save.

Audio file locations
Live's File Manager
Missing samples
Removing unused audio files

Audio file locations

Each audio clip inside an Ableton Live Set contains a reference to a sound file stored on your computer. Audio files are not saved inside the Live Set file itself. The clip tells Live where on your computer’s drives to find the sample, which part of the sample to play, and how to play it. Learn more about working with Ableton Live's Browser and managing files and Sets in the Live manual. 

There are three main locations where samples may be stored:

• Factory Content sounds are downloaded and stored along with the Core Library. These files are only accessible from within Live, in the Browser sidebar while Live is open. 
• Current Project samples, created when you record or process audio in Live, are saved by default directly into the Project Folder for the current Set. Open Current Project in Live's Browser to see these files:
  
  
   
• External samples may be stored anywhere on your computer, depending on where they were originally created, downloaded, or saved. Using an external sample in a Live Set does not necessarily copy the original file into your Live Project, unless you perform Collect All and Save, which creates a new copy of each sample in the current Set (depending on which locations you select) and collects the copies into the Set's Project Folder.

For more information about Project Folders and options for saving Sets, see the article Saving Projects. 

---

File Manager

To see where your Set's media files are stored, you can use File Manager to view the file paths:

1. Open File Manager in Live by going to File ⭢ Manage Files ⭢ Manage Set ⭢ View Files.
2. By hovering over the file name or location, you can display the complete file path at the bottom of the File Manager panel.
   
   

---

Missing samples

For each audio file used in a Set, Live saves a link to the file's location so it can be accessed when the Set is opened. If you move an audio file on your computer, for example while reorganizing files or transferring a Live Set to a different computer, this link is no longer accurate, and the media file will be shown as "missing" in Live. 

To avoid this problem, you can use Collect All and Save to copy external files into the Samples folder inside your Set's Project folder. This allows the Live Project folder to be moved freely without the samples becoming unlinked from the Set. However, creating duplicate copies of media files takes up additional storage space on your computer, so it should be used only when needed. Learn more about Collect All and Save.

You can use File Manager to find and replace missing media files by repairing the links to the file locations. For instructions, visit the guide How to find and replace missing media files.

---

Removing unused audio files

To reduce the size of an Ableton project folder, you can remove unused files following these steps:

1. Create a backup copy of the project folder.

2. Make sure all relevant files are stored on a local drive, not in cloud storage.

3. Open the Live Set, remove all unnecessary clips (including clips in Take Lanes), then save the Live Set. Learn more about Managing Take Lanes.

4. Remove old .als files from the project folder (including those in the Backup folder) so that only one .als file remains in the project folder.

5. Open the Live set and identify unused files by navigating Menu > File > Manage Files > Manage Project > Unused files, then remove unnecessary files using Live's Browser.

Note: If you see no files in the “Unused files” section, please make sure there is only one .als file in the project folder.