Transferring Ableton Live Packs Folder
For a few years now I've been rocking a 27" iMac (late 2012 model) and it's served me quite well. However a lot of good changes in my life have demanded a more mobile solution. Before I had an iMac as my work horse I had 17" MacBook Pro (when they still made them), and now I've upgraded to a brand new fully specced out 15" MacBook Pro and couldn't be happier with it. But before I sell my iMac, I've a few things to transfer to my new machine, one of them being my Ableton Live setup.
Ableton makes it pretty straight forward when installing and transferring your library to a new computer. You just have tell it which folders are your User Library and your Packs installation folder. Ableton does the rest. However there's one caveat you might run into.
When transferring your Ableton Live Packs folder to your new computer, all you have to do is navigate to the installation folder of your choice from the Preferences: Library > Installation Folder for Packs. In this case you would be selecting the existing folder that you copied over. Live's default Pack installation folder name is "Factory Packs", so if you have used that same name when migrating, Ableton might not recognize your existing Packs besides the Core Library. Don't freak out and think you need to go through and reinstall your massive selection of audio goodness, there's a simple fix. Ableton just doesn't know about the other packs in that folder yet because you haven't selected a "new" destination.
Just do this: from the Preferences: Library > Installation Folder for Packs select Desktop (or any folder that doesn't have Packs in it) as your Packs installation folder and choice NOT to transfer your existing packs to the new location. Then, go back and repeat the same process, choosing your migrated folder (in this case "Factory Packs"). Now Ableton will scrub through the folder and all of your Packs will be recognized.
Done!
One last thing when transferring Ableton Live 9 to a new computer. If you're using Max for Live don't forget to select the version of Max (download link is in your Ableton account) your using in the preferences: File > Max Application so you can utilize those sweet sweet Max Packs.
