AbleSet opens as a black/empty window

Support
1

Describe your issue here:

Hi everyone,

I’m running into a recurring issue with AbleSet when transferring a reduced version of my main Ableton Live Set to my live laptop.

My main Ableton session is quite large and contains basically everything I need for the full production:

  • All songs and sections

  • Meter changes, which are also used to send meter information to our keyboard player running a separate Ableton session

  • Lyric sheets

  • Vocal processing tracks

  • Vocal effects

  • Tempo automations

  • Backing tracks

  • Lighting show / lighting control data

  • Various other live-related tracks and information

When I open this full session together with AbleSet on my main computer, everything works perfectly.

For live use or testing purposes, however, I regularly create a reduced version of this same Ableton Set. For example, I remove the vocal processing tracks, lyric sheets, lighting-related tracks and other things that I don’t need on the laptop. I then transfer this reduced Ableton session to my MacBook, which is the computer I actually take on stage.

This is where the problem occurs:

When I open the reduced Ableton Set on the MacBook and then start AbleSet, AbleSet sometimes opens as a completely black/empty window. The set itself is open correctly in Ableton Live, but AbleSet does not seem to recognize or load its corresponding session data.

I found a temporary workaround:

If I copy the AbleSet folder from my original/main session and replace/copy it into the corresponding AbleSet folder of the reduced session on the MacBook, AbleSet immediately starts working again and everything appears correctly.

However, this fix does not seem to persist.

After restarting the MacBook, I can end up with exactly the same problem again: I open the Ableton Set, open AbleSet, and AbleSet is black/empty again.

So in short:

Full original session → works

Reduced copy transferred to MacBook → AbleSet may open completely black

Copying the AbleSet folder from the original session → fixes it

Restarting the MacBook → problem may return

Has anyone experienced something similar?

Is there something about how AbleSet identifies an Ableton Set or stores its session/project data that could break?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Please fill out these values to make it easier to troubleshoot:

  • OS and Version: maxOS Tahoe 26.5.2
  • Version of AbleSet: 3.1.4
  • Version of Ableton Live: 12.4.3

Also I added a set of logs from my MacBook Pro while the black screen persisted.

2

Hey @Basstor,

Thanks for the detailed write-up, and for attaching the logs.

We’ll take a look at the logs and get back to you :slightly_smiling_face:

3

Hi @agustinvolpe,

any updates on this?

Best,

Max

4

Hey @Basstor,

Thanks for your patience while we dig into this!
We’ll reach out as soon as we have a fix.

5

Hey @Basstor, thank you for reporting this issue!

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to reproduce this on my end yet and the logs don’t show anything unusual. My hunch is that the size of the project (number of locators and clips) is causing sporadic issues in 3.1.4.

I’m currently working on improving this and the latest beta should be a lot more stable in that regard. Could you give it a try and check if that improves things for you?

If you experience this again, could you send me a screen recording of the issue along with another log package so I can take another look?

I’m looking forward to your reply!

6

Hey @Basstor, I think I finally figured this out, and the latest beta should already have a fix for this. The project you sent over with the log package doesn’t have any Canvases, but AbleSet is still configured to load the “Canvas Max” Canvas as the default view.

In current non-beta versions of AbleSet, loading a Canvas that doesn’t exist leads to a black screen without any error message. Current betas and the next release will show an error message along with buttons to exit out of the Canvas or select a different one.

In the meantime, the easiest fix would be setting the default view to the Setlist or including the Canvas in the minimal version of your project.

Let me know if this helps! :slight_smile: