Just can't deal with Live's slow plugin scan

[wasi]

Man I really thought I was coming back to Live with 12. I love the new features, they ironed out a few UX issues, it felt fresh again. But I was demoing a few plugins recently and almost lost my mind. I would wait a literal half hour for them to show up in Live (Bitwig: two minutes max. Renoise: After startup).

I know Live hates simlinks and maybe there is a plugin or two that's messing with the scan (or more likely Live is trying to parse some external files as VSTs) and I know it really hates iLok stuff on first install but man, this is is untenable. I can index my entire file system in that time using other programs. What the hell.

Any suggestions? For now I gave up and went back to Bitwig.

[apoclypse]

It's never taken that long on my machine. It takes a minute at most. I heard that on Windows this can be an issue. Are you on a Windows machine?

[legendCNCD]

No issue at all on Windows here. I think it took a bit of time after installing Live 12, but nothing like a minute to scan the plugins. I have iLok too. It seems it does not depend on OS if reading some other forums, maybe its some plugins?

Live 12 opens in around 4-5 seconds - no plugin scans done

[wasi]

Yeah windows, but it's always been like this, give and take ten minutes. I've done clean setups of my computer over time and it didn't change.

I heard that live scans all presets it finds as well and follows all links and scans all files it finds there trying to parse them as a plugin or preset. When they're not a plugin or a recognizable preset, it slows down the scanning process because it will keep trying for a while before it moves on.

I have all my presets on a separate drive (where the plugin allows it) and also all sample content. I'm wondering if live is re-scanning my entire preset and sample library every time because it follows the link and then starts chewing through the entire location.

But even if it was doing that it would be slow. Honestly stumped by this issue.

[eLawnMust]

I think one would first have to note how many plugs they have to scan... Of course there's no issue if you got 10-20-30 plugs but if you are scanning 500-600 plugs then ableton quite the dog, been that way for a long time too. Many other even oddball sequencers or trackers are better. Even old Cakewalk Project5 DX wrapper will wrap all the VST plugs to use as DX in way less time with less failures....

[elxsound]

Do you have any folders saved in Places?

Removing these might speed up load times.

[legendCNCD]

A bit over 100 plugins here, there is no scan in the beginning of Live 12 starting. Just tested. It was the same with Live 10, I've skipped Live 11.

[stuman]

I'm also on Windows and noticed that Live 12 takes about 5 - 10 minutes to scan all of my vsts. I have around 1100 though. This happens each time I start Live after system startup.

[Resonant- Serpent]

I have a few hundred plugins, and always let the program start and scan for 15 to 20 minutes before I use it.

[wasi]

I have a few hundred plugins, and always let the program start and scan for 15 to 20 minutes before I use it.

Same. On weekends I literally make a point to start it up and install any new or updated plugins before breakfast, so I know they're ready when I come back in half an hour or so. But when I want to run that new or updated plugin right away I go nuts. This time was particularly bad. I had to wait for more than half an hour (over the usual 20 minutes).

As mentioned by eLawnMust, no other DAW is even remotely this bad.

I gave up. Live has its strengths but I'm just a hobbyist don't have that kind of time to wait around for a plugin scan (who does, I wonder, but it doesn't seem to be an issue with the majority).

[elxsound]

Do you have any folders saved in Places?

Removing these might speed up load times.

Just gonna ask again...

Some context here as I understand its Windows user reporting. Mac user w/500+ plugins on separate machines. 1 is Intel and the other M2.

Before removing folders from Places, the Intel startup machine took 5-10 minutes. It was that way with L11 too. Since removing folders, the startup time is about 1 minute.

M2 is a breeze, but I never added folders to Places either.

So, if you find you have long startup times, it might be worthwhile to remove saved locations from folders to see if that changes anything.

I would also advise reporting to Ableton.

[wasi]

Do you have any folders saved in Places?

Removing these might speed up load times.

Just gonna ask again...

Some context here as I understand its Windows user reporting. Mac user w/500+ plugins on separate machines. 1 is Intel and the other M2.

Before removing folders from Places, the Intel startup machine took 5-10 minutes. It was that way with L11 too. Since removing folders, the startup time is about 1 minute.

M2 is a breeze, but I never added folders to Places either.

So, if you find you have long startup times, it might be worthwhile to remove saved locations from folders to see if that changes anything.

I would also advise reporting to Ableton.

Thanks! I somehow missed your post on my phone. Removing everything from places did speed up the scan process a bit but I still had to wait 20 Minutes for a freshly installed VST3 to show up. I can start using Live almost immediately, I just have to wait for a while until the plugin shows up.

I'll make a ticket with Ableton, but I've had this issue for ages and somehow overlooked that it was still there when I gave Live 12 a try. With the current Bitwig version it's essentually instantaneous.

Thanks for the help though.

[Resonant- Serpent]

I have a few hundred plugins, and always let the program start and scan for 15 to 20 minutes before I use it.

Same. On weekends I literally make a point to start it up and install any new or updated plugins before breakfast, so I know they're ready when I come back in half an hour or so. But when I want to run that new or updated plugin right away I go nuts. This time was particularly bad. I had to wait for more than half an hour (over the usual 20 minutes).

As mentioned by eLawnMust, no other DAW is even remotely this bad.

I gave up. Live has its strengths but I'm just a hobbyist don't have that kind of time to wait around for a plugin scan (who does, I wonder, but it doesn't seem to be an issue with the majority).

I've noticed that when I update Native Instruments programs lately, the scan of the new plug takes forever. But that's not just Live. Cubase does the same as well to their plugs. The cataloging of "similar items" is what takes the longest in my case. I never use the function, so I just kill that scan, and everything seems to get up to speed faster.

It's completely annoying how long it takes for Live to scan the plugs.

[wasi]

Bitwig 5.1.8 took twenty seconds to show the same plugin changes that took live twenty minutes. It's frankly ridiculous.

[anttimaatteri]

yeah its absolutely nervewrecking.
i install plugins open renoise and there you go.
ableton live: hold my beer *leaves the room