Fix “media files missing” in Ableton for good

Ableton Live doesn’t store samples inside a set. A .als file keeps a path to each file, and when a path stops pointing at its file, Live shows the yellow bar: media files are missing. The audio is usually still on your drive. It’s just somewhere else.

Why samples go missing

• A folder was renamed or moved after the set was saved
• The sample lived on an external drive that mounts under a different name on this machine
• The set was made on another computer and copied without its samples
• The sample was in Downloads and got cleaned up

Relinking by hand

1. Click the yellow bar to open the File Manager, then choose Locate
2. Point Live at a folder to search, ideally where the samples used to be rather than your whole drive
3. Once they’re found, choose File › Collect All and Save so copies live in the project folder

Collect All and Save fixes one set, but it copies every sample into every project. Ten projects that share a drum kit end up with ten copies of it.

Stopping it at the source

Prod Crate reads every Live set in your library and knows which files each one uses. Moves and renames are checked against those references first, and the set is updated so its paths still resolve. A two-year-old project opens with every sample, including the kick you renamed last spring.