Why your plug-ins aren't showing up in Ableton Live

Don't see your plug-ins in Ableton Live? Here's how to fix it.

In this video, you'll learn how to enable AU and VST plug-ins in Ableton Live, so you can use third-party plug-ins to create music in Ableton Live.

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[EvolvingMike]

Thank you! You'd think the software would have that enabled from the jump?

[riqdotwav]

Thank you! I recently switched from Windows to Mac AND from FL to Ableton and for the life of me I couldn't figure it out considering all my Native Instrument and Plugin Alliance VSTs worked perfectly. Turning on the Audio Units was all I had to do :)

[videlladelveen]

What about if you updated to live 11 and your instruments disappeared. But not all instruments and some of the instruments that disappeared still work in the tracks I already used in a track.

[BSADNB]

thanks man turning on the system folder for vst3 made all my recent installed plugins appear despite being in another folder.

[YouriHL]

No idea what's going on at my system, I bought the Korg M1 VST pack a couple of years ago and had no issues using it in Live 8 Suite on Windows 7 and later Windows 8 and 8.1 .. Now I'm back in the game with Ableton Live 11 and yes, I'm on Windows 11. But nothing shows up. I can use the Korg M1 plugins standalone on Windows, but not in Ableton. It's freaking me out, because I literally spent over 8K on all the VST's I bought between 2004 and 2017. None of my VST's show up. The only thing that shows up is the 'Riplink' thing of other software that I use, called RipX (HitnMix) by DeepAudio.

[campar]

my plugins show up but the preset menus dont show up, like with trackspacer, theres usually a menu at the top of it to choose your sidechain source, its not there

[andresarmua]

it is not working for my, not a single plugin is being recognized, uninstalled ableton completely (roaming, programdata, AppData, etc..) I keep trying, with a bunch of plugins and it does not recognize any. the plugin scan logs don't show any useful info. any ideas? windows 11, ableton 11.3

[urbannpa]

I am amazed that when I load up FL studio I can find every one of My vst's, even one's from the mid 2000's that I got with Future Music and Music Tech magazines. I still use FM7 and Absynth's but can't run them in Ableton. Also Ableton needs to get a clue of the newer hardware controllers out here.

[MarcelVanderWerf]

Even in the right folder and a rescan, my Nexus 2 just doesn't show up. Tried multiple times, but just no result. Is there anything more to try?

[serhiifedosha]

how to fix the size of the plugin to the entire window?

[seanboni]

THANK YOU SO MUCH. i have spent HOURS trying to figure out why my brand new arturia keylab 88 mkii wont play anything into ableton, while also trying to figure out how to use analog lab sounds in ableton. you have just ended hours of headache for me, thank you so much.

[Cassarian-wzfr]

anyone know why... i installed Cardinal and it shows up and plays perfectly, i just can't get Ableton to record the sounds no matter what i try - all other plugins work perfectly

[Wreckhouse]

My preferences doesn’t have plug in tab just file folder w the plug in sources but no vs2 vs3 options

THANK YOU!!!! this is the answer to find in Ableton LTC for Dolby Atmos Renderer

[maschiavone]

What if Ableton cannot find plugin because version was put in to the name (i.e. "Spire" vs. "Spire-1.5")
I.e. I have someone's LiveSet open, where they have it as "Spire-1.5" as opposed to "Spire". As a result, Ableton is saying that "Spire-1.5" cannot be found, even though I have Spire downloaded.

Is there any way to solve this?

[AngelusFromHell]

Is this guide still valid for Ableton Live 11? 'Cause I can't find any type of vst plug-ins installed.

[sonalikasinhamusic]

A very useful video indeed. I still cant find my external instrument, but im getting closer.

[zaiah]

I’m still having trouble finding my gclip and span vsts even if I have them in custom folders. Any help? 😢

[devnickk]

are third party plugins supported on ableton live 11 intro?

[JamesSturmer]

I'm lost. I had my neural dsp plug-ins on there an now there all gone... it still shows I have them in the folder. But when I look at the folder in ableton live nothing is there.. kinda weird. I need a fix please help.