GarageBand file won't open. Help!

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Level 1

8 points

GarageBand file won't open. Help!

So I've spent several days and late nights recording/arranging/tweaking a song and now I can't open the file. While working on the song in GarageBand, I noticed the warning flag turning yellow and then the computer froze. After restarting the computer, I have been unable to open the file, though I can open other GB files. When I try to open the file, it initializes and then simply stalls with the picture of the blue & white striped bar.

I've tried a few things to no avail. I changed settings to optimize GB performance. I unpacked the file and locked all of the individual tracks.

Please help!

PowerBook G4

Posted on Jul 1, 2010 1:08 AM

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Answer 1

jsamuelpage Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 1, 2010 6:36 PM in response to HangTime

Thanks for all your help, HangTime. After trying to fix this for about five hours, I have decided to just rebuild the song using an earlier version and the region files from the corrupted file. Blah. 12 hours of work down the drain, though I did learn a few more things about GarageBand. I also successfully fought off a lingering temptation to descend into a wild and shameful temper tantrum.

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Answer 2

jsamuelpage Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 1, 2010 1:21 AM in response to HangTime

HangTime:

I control-clicked on the file and chose the Show Package Contents option. Then all of the individual track (or region?) files appeared. Then I control-clicked on each track file, revealing a "get file info" (or something like that) option. From there, I was able to lock each track.

Message was edited by: jsamuelpage

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Answer 3

HangTime

Level 9

53,853 points

Jul 1, 2010 1:22 AM in response to jsamuelpage

altering file attributes within a GB project's file is never a good idea.

if the project will not open the best you can hope to do is recover the audio recordings.

create a new project and drop all the files from the Media folder (from the broken project) into the timeline of the new project.

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Answer 4

jsamuelpage Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 1, 2010 1:31 AM in response to HangTime

HangTime wrote: "create a new project and drop all the files from the Media folder (from the broken project) into the timeline of the new project."

I tried that, but the regions don't go into their proper places on the timeline, and all of the editing info (cutting, volume, etc.) is lost.

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Answer 5

HangTime

Level 9

53,853 points

Jul 1, 2010 1:35 AM in response to jsamuelpage

jsamuelpage wrote:
I tried that, but the regions don't go into their proper places on the timeline, and all of the editing info (cutting, volume, etc.) is lost.

unfortunately that information is not recoverable, you'd have to be able to open the project in GB to recover any edits.

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Answer 6

HangTime

Level 9

53,853 points

Jul 1, 2010 1:40 AM in response to jsamuelpage

note: i would NOT expect this to help, i'm pretty sure the project itself is corrupt, but the "oddball" problem fix is at least something to try:

first two things to try for “oddball” probs:

http://www.bulletsandbones.com/GB/GBFAQ.html#oddballprobs

(Let the page FULLY load. The link to your answer is at the top of your screen)

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Answer 7

HangTime

Level 9

53,853 points

Jul 1, 2010 2:44 AM in response to jsamuelpage

jsamuelpage wrote:
When I try to move them to the trash, a circle with a slash appears

that sounds like a permissions problem (i just created a new User-Only account to test, and even without admin privs i could delete files in my prefs folder)

out of curiosity i'd probably Get Info on the files, and then the enclosing folders to make sure i had both Read and Write access, but like i mentioned above, it's really not very likely that any of this will solve the file problem

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Answer 8

HangTime

Level 9

53,853 points

Jul 1, 2010 2:48 AM in response to jsamuelpage

i just thought of a quick way to work around the prefs issue.

make a copy of the corrupted project and move it to either your "Shared" folder, or even the root directory of your hard drive.

create a new user account, log into that, and try to open the copy of your project (the new user account won't have any prefs files until the first time you launch GB)

(again, don't expect a miracle, but it is something to try)

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Answer 9

HangTime

Level 9

53,853 points

Jul 1, 2010 1:11 AM in response to jsamuelpage

jsamuelpage wrote:
I unpacked the file

what does that mean?

and locked all of the individual tracks.

how did you "lock" the tracks if you couldn't open the file?

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Answer 10

jsamuelpage Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 1, 2010 2:23 AM in response to HangTime

HangTime: I found the .cs and .plist files, but I cannot delete them. Any more suggestions? Thanks for everything so far.

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Answer 11

HangTime

Level 9

53,853 points

Jul 1, 2010 2:26 AM in response to jsamuelpage

jsamuelpage wrote:
I found the .cs and .plist files, but I cannot delete them.

what happens when you try to delete them?

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Answer 12

jsamuelpage Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 1, 2010 2:31 AM in response to HangTime

When I try to move them to the trash, a circle with a slash appears, indicating that's not allowed. When I try to delete the files with the asterisk-like icon, nothing happens.

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