How to speed up plugin scannin in ableton 11.2. In the past version even version 11.0 the scanning process was very quick. Now Ableton is scanning in parallel when I am working but it takes forever. I have the impression that it's start from zero when I install new plug in. Any hint what is the best hint how to speed up the scanning process. It's the same on VST2 and VST3. I am working in windows10. It seems that they changed something in vesion 11.1 and on regarding this topic.

 

Last edited: Dec 26, 2022

My expectation is to scan only the new ones and not the old ones that are already scanned. Let me know if it's possible.

 

you could try turning your anti-virus or windows defender off/whitelisting the program. when updating a program it is likely that the whitelisting of the previous program has no influence on the updated version. i've noticed before that FE FL studio's scanning for new plugins is severely slowed down by anti-virus programs as it scans the program's process every step of the way.

 

Last edited: Dec 26, 2022

Pretty sure it's just a bug with Ableton since 11.2, it'll probably just be resolved eventually.

I'm just on 11.1 until I hear that it's resolved.

 

seems to be correct, a simple google search confirms this as loads of people are experiencing problems with 11.2 incl opening projects and such

 

I am still using 11.1.6 and its slow as hell! It takes more than 10 minutes every time I add a new plugin. Its definitely a bug in Ableton because the older versions didn't take more than a minute or two at most. I'm waiting for that to be fixed before updating again.

 

yeah this is driving me crazy too. It literally takes 15 minutes for about 50 or so VST/VST3

 

I'm on 11.1 (Build 2022-1-27), and don't have the issue

What sucks though is that if someone sends you an 11.2 Project you can't open it. Ugh.

 

It is very likely Ableton has issues with symbolic links and other "non-standard" installations of plugins.

 

I have a new system and whether it be 1 single plugin or 50, it always takes between 10-15 minutes for the scan to complete.

I can work while it scans, but the new plugins don't show up in the browser until the scan finishes. When there aren't new plugins installed, it opens right up to the template no background scan waiting whatsoever.

Prior to Live 11 I never had this issue regardless of how new/old a PC was.

Its very annoying to say the least.

 

I'm using the latest version of Ableton. it scans 370 plugins in under a minute and is done.

but i know the problem from the past, i had the problem that i saved patches for synths in the vst folder. With each scan, large folders (GigerByte's) had to be scanned, that took time

I copied the patches out and it went much faster. so no unnecessary stuff in vst fordner can help

But it is also possible that Ableton has updated something
When they release a new version I often had problems at the beginning but ableton always fixed it itself with autoupdate in the next few days

maybe you have such an unstable version

All the best

 

I have 1037 plugins (just a wild exaggerated guess) and it scans and opens the template in about 3 seconds. That isn't the issue. Its NEW plugins installed that take a consistently long time to scan...

Unless you meant you just installed 370 NEW plugins and it scanned them in under a minute? Youd be the lucky one then, cause most, if not all, hundreds of posts Ive read are not achieving this scan speed.

 

I misunderstood something, no not all new installd

 

The most important question is what's your hardware setup
I barely see any lag or waiting time for new plugins
I'm on Ryzen 5 5600x & SN850 SSD anytime I have new plugins Ableton starts...in the first 5-10 seconds if I have new plugin Ableton scans it-them in no time I'm on v11.2.6

My only issue is with Adobe Premiere Pro now that's really annoying because it scans all of my vsts all the time doesn't matter if I have old or new ones but anyway I use Premiere Pro very rarely

 

i am on 12900k (11.6) and can also confirm that for some reason the plugin scans are very slow .. about 5.10 times slower as seen on Ableton 10 with slower CPUs.. for multi thread performance, mhmm, i sometimes feel it is also a bit weaker or CPU Spikes sooner as compared to older versions, my avenger 1.85 is barely ok on that maschine (1 VST loaded nothing else.. 1 Midi Track, 256Buffer,48k,Motu4,USB) but on slower CPUs with Ableton 11.6 or 11.2 it spikes like hell..and i need to go to 512Buffersize - with Ableton 10 and latest updates i could make 64 or 128 without much problems - but that could also be a problem with Windows 11 vs 10, Thread Doctor on my HybridIntelSystem and so on...

What makes me sick is the pure raw CPU Power and Threads i have and it seems that in real world performance it just dont matter that much what you put infront of a daw ( .. all EIST,C-STATE,HT,PowerPlan,Primocache - much RAM and an WD 850X settings set-up like it should)...

Seems that even in coming up 2023, real time Audio on Windows is still inefficient but cheap...
To put 100 Tracks in a daw, or bounce the hell out of a channel, that was never a problem (mostly time consumeing, but..works) - i mean the real time power of 1-8CH live setup is still aweful enough on a PC compared to what it could be...

 

Last edited: Dec 26, 2022

Version 10 did it for me

 

Symlinks can make the scan take even longer; especially broken links. Some of the u-he preset folders had this issue for me.

 

I reinstalled 11.1 Version it works like it should. It make a double check of the old ones and takes several seconds to check the new one in the beginning of the sessions. Do not need to wait several minutes as version 11.2. Thank you for your answers.

 

So there's something tricky with Ableton going on, I recently reformatted and reinstalled Ableton 11.2.7 and at first everything was super slow, took forever to open and plugin scanning went on for daays. But I messed around a bit, no idea what I did that helped but now it goes super quick. Ableton opens in 5 seconds and plugin scanning of 190+ plugs takes maybe 2 seconds (I barely have time to see it scanning on the bottom and its done).

Here's a few things you could try that I did.
1. Make sure automatic updates/send usage data is off

2. Use Custom VST folders for both vst2 and vst3, on a different drive then Ableton (Abletons on my C, vst folders and samples on D)

3. Turn off "Show Downloadable Packs" and "Show Cloud"

4. Content Library: "User Library" , "Folder for Packs"(which is core library) and "Temp Library" are all changed to my D drive. (default was C)
- Basically I made a folder called "Ableton" on my D drive, and inside that I have all these subfolders, and also a SAMPLES folder(all my samples of course). anytime I want to reformat or wipe the drive or wtv, I just move this whole folder over to an external, and then move it back again. I also keep random stuff in there like Ableton skins, max4live devices, a grooves folder, Impulse Response lib, and plugin-libraries for my favorite synths, or anything that I want to keep all together with ableton.

5. Inputs and Outputs: Ableton uses CPU for all inputs and outputs activated, so If you don't need some you can deactivate.
For example I use only my Inputs 1/2 in mono (deactivated stereo), and I use only Outputs 1/2 (both mono and stereo is On) so I deactivated 3/4.

6. Open up Ableton, then open up task manager, click on the dropdown for Ableton, and right click on Ableton Index. click end task.
It'll come back up every time you open up Ableton but as far as I can tell after doing these things my Ableton runs super smooth again, sometimes midi channels can take a few seconds to open up but im still troubleshooting that, no idea why.
(No I don't end task on the indexer every time, I just did it the one time and everything is smooth now.)

EDIT: 7. I had also gone in Windows Security->Device Security->Core Isolation , and turned off memory integrity. I did a reboot, opened up Ableton, things were smooth. Then I turned memory integrity back on, rebooted again, and everything's still fine. IDK if this has anything to do with it but might as well mention it.

I also want to mention that my D drive is a SSD, and not an external drive. I use external only for kontakt libs or any plugin that has massive libraries.

Hope this can help someone.

 

Last edited: Dec 26, 2022