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Guides / Missing samples

Missing samples

You open a Set in Live and Live says it cannot find some files. This guide says why, and what you can do.

Why it happens

A Set does not hold your samples. It holds the place of each sample on a disk. When the sample is not at that place, Live cannot load it.

This happens when you move or rename a sample, delete it, or take a drive away. It also happens when you open a project on another computer that does not have the same folders.

What to do by hand

  1. Open the Set in Live. Do not save it yet.
  2. Use the search that Live offers for missing files. Point it at the folder that holds your samples.
  3. Check that every track plays as before.
  4. Save the Set under a new name. Keep the old Set as it is.

This works well for a few files. It is slow when many projects miss many samples.

What Nearfield does

Nearfield counts the projects that cannot find some samples. The number shows on the “Fix” tab. The list “Projects that can't open” shows each project.

Nearfield looks for each missing sample by the fingerprint that the project recorded. It does not guess from the name alone.

  1. Open the “Fix” tab.
  2. Under the list “Projects that can't open”, press “Scan my whole library”. The screen “Put samples back” opens.
  3. Press “Scan my whole library”. The scan writes nothing.
  4. Press “Write repaired copies”. Nearfield shows “Before we write anything”, with a list of each project that gets a new Set.
  5. Press “Write the repaired copies”.
  6. Open a repaired copy in Live. When it opens and sounds right, go to the project's page. Open “Everything else about this project” and press “It opens and sounds right”.

Nearfield writes a new Set beside your Set. The new Set has [repaired] in its name. Your own Set stays as it was.

For one project, press “Put samples back” on its row in the list. Then press “Write a repaired copy”.

Sometimes more than one file has the name that a project asks for. On the “Samples” tab, open “Choose which file a name means”. Press “Find unclear names”, listen, and choose the right file once. Then press the button that writes the repaired copies. It says how many copies it writes.

Read more in the help for Put samples back and Choose which file a name means.