All GarageBand songs mysteriously lost on my iPhone

Hi,


Recently I had a problem with my GarageBand files, which went missing all of a sudden. I regularly have my work created and saved on the GarageBand iPhone app, and in the Apps settings of my GB I have enabled the storage of documents in my iCloud Drive. I use the app every once in a while and when I open it, my songs are always there, as good as ever. However, unfortunately, today, the moment I launched the app, everything has completely vanished from the “Recents” folder. I then tried looking in the “Browse” section and neither were my files there. I then turned to check my Files, access the “GarageBand for iOS” folder and to my despair, nothing was there. Nothing but mp3 recordings, some of which were used in some of my song files WHICH also contained my beats and melodies. The mp3 files are located in the “GarageBand File Transfer” by the way. And nothing else. My own creations all disappeared. I have also checked around other sections such as “Recently Deleted” along with “iCloud Drive” but nothing to do with my GB songs turned up. Anyway, my iCloud has been full on storage and hasn’t been updated or backed up once for a while now, probably way past the time I first started using GB to create songs on iPhone in around June 2022. The thing is, from that time until now, all my songs had always been automatically saved in the app’s main folder securely, though there were a few issues with uploading some files to iCloud; in spite of that they just stayed on my device. I mean, my assumption is that even if it fails to upload files to iCloud then they should stay put on my device. The thing is, I have done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to my phone (like updating the version or transferring data to another device) or my song files (such as exporting them) apart from having a review over them, opening each song one by one so I could listen to them just a week before they disappeared today. The only thing I noticed then was that prior to my opening of the files, they started to be downloaded (presumably from my cloud to the device or vice versa, or maybe sth else, correct me if I’m wrong though) except for 2 certain song files whose upload to the cloud somewhat failed, which contained more data than the rest. The two files, along with all the others, were still accessible though, and I could hear all my tracks just fine. Only now did this strange problem occur, and I am both totally clueless and worried. Was it due to the interruption of the files’ uploading process to the cloud that had them swept away? Or were there other causes? I would highly appreciate it if someone could explain this to me and recommend practicable solutions. Sincere thanks in advance.

iPhone 12 Pro Max, iOS 18

Posted on Mar 14, 2025 10:36 PM

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All GarageBand songs mysteriously lost on my iPhone

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