Recovering A Lost Ableton Live Library With Time Machine

Copied from an old wiki page, because Blogger is a little better than my Time Warner Cable internet connection (which sucks sometimes).

If you've somehow managed to erase your main Ableton Live Library, you may try to recover it with Time Machine only to find that the /Users/<you>/Library directory doesn't appear in Time Machine.   Don't worry, Time Machine backed up your files.   You just need to do a little command line configuring.

Part One - Recovering the files

The basic problem is that Finder considers /Users/<you>/Library a hidden file, so the Time Machine UI (which is Finder) won't let you see it.

1. In Terminal, tell Finder to let you see hidden files:
   

   defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES
   

2. Force Finder to restart with:

   kilall Finder

3. Then, use Time Machine and locate the /Users/<you>/Library/Application Support/Ableton directory.
4. Click Restore.
5. Wait.   This may take a pretty long time.
6. In terminal, restore Finder to it's original settings, force Finder to restart:

   defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles NO
   killall Finder
   

Part Two - Repairing the Library

The recovered library files might be inconsistent, so it is likely that you will need repair it (building indexes).

1. Start Live
2. Go to Live->Preferences (cmd-,)
3. Select the Library tab.
4. Click Repair Library.

NOTE: This might take some tiime.   Be ready to go do something else while Live re-indexes everything.

Part Three - (Optional) Reinstall Live with Content

If the library was very damaged or partially deleted on the backup, you can also re-install Live and the default content.

1. Download Live from http://www.ableton.com/account/downloads, select 'With Sounds'.
2. Wait.   This is a very big file.
3. Open the '.dmg' file and drag the application icon into the Applications folder.
4. Wait.  This is going to copy a lot of stuff onto your disk.