GarageBand Will Not Load

Question

Level 1

12 points

GarageBand Will Not Load

MacBook Pro Retina (early 2013)

MacOS 10.15.7

I have not used GarageBand for a couple of years and I tried using it recently and it will not load.

It starts downloading things it and gets about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way through that process and then the download window goes away. It just disappears right before my eyes.

It is not running in the background because I have checked "Force Quit" to see what is running and GarageBand is never in that list after it disappears.

I must have tried loading it 20 or 30 times. Same thing every attempt.

Here's what it looks like right about the time it stops.

I do not know what version of GB it is. I tried "Get Info" on the app both, from the dock and also in the Applications folder in Finder and there is no version number that I can see.

When I open the AppStore and view my purchase history there are two entries for GarageBand and I don't understand that. I know I have only downloaded it once. I have done some updates from time to time but I know I never downloaded it a second time.

The first GB entry in my list of purchases requires MacOS 12 and my MacBook has what I believe to be the last MacOS version available for my hardware so that version is not an option.

The second GB entry in my purchases is version 6 and that is probably about the right version number for when I first got it.

When I click "Open" from within the AppStore it just does the same thing and there is no option to download it again from the AppStore.

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jun 27, 2023 04:11 PM

Reply

Answer 1

BMW-KTM Author

Level 1

12 points

Jul 1, 2023 01:00 PM in response to Henderson_86

Thanks for the advise and for your time.

Unfortunately, Apple was not able to help me. They absolutely will not provide a link to download an older version of an app under any circumstance. I did a screen share with an Apple support person and after spending some time with me they concluded GB was corrupt and was irreparable .... irreparable because they won't provide older versions to reinstall. In my opinion that should be illegal. GB came bundled with the computer so I paid for GB when I bought the computer and now they are disallowing me to have what I paid for. My comments on that fell on deaf ears with Apple support. Even worse, apparently it's not that they can't, it's that they won't. To say that's frustrating is putting it mildly.

Whatever.

Moving forward, I will research and find an alternative to GB but my real concern now is that if apps can and sometimes do become corrupt and I cannot get them back then I need a way to create an exact copy of the entire app (or apps) complete with every single file. Simply reloading the app from my purchase history in the AppStore isn't good enough. The support person and I did that twice and it did not work. Restoring it from a Time machine backup was also fruitless. In both instances, AppStore and Time machine, it just went back to exactly where I was with the download window that self terminates.

I never want this to happen to me again so I think what I need is some kind of cloning software that creates an exact copy of my entire disk, including the boot sectors, environment settings, etc. and all hidden files, everything and provides a way to restore parts of it (like apps) that I can select.

Do you have a suggestion?

Reply

Answer 2

Jun 28, 2023 03:49 PM in response to BMW-KTM

Hi BMW-KTM,

We'd like to share some guidance for issues you have downloading GarageBand again. We recommend the guidance in If you can't download or update apps on your Mac - Apple Support as this is the most relevant resource for troubleshooting issues like this. Further we would recommend contacting Apple Support if you continue to have issues downloading this.

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.

Reply

GarageBand Will Not Load

Similar questions