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Apple Loops not showing in Loop Browser

So, got a new Mac Mini a few months ago and decided I'd make the move to Logic 10.5. Immediately had to Time Machine back to 10.4.8 due to incompatible 3rd party stuff. That's been ironed out so opened up 10.5.1 and all is working great except nothing showing in Loop Browser. I have tried "Reindex All Loops" several times to no avail, with the longest wait being overnight for 10+ hours...still spinning "Indexing Apple Loops Library" the next day. My sounds have always lived on an ext. drive. It's not an issue for any Apple instrument; Alchemy and Sampler all see their libraries and Alchemy has its browser full intact. I've gone so far as to "Relocate Sound Library..." and actually yesterday just "Download All Available Sounds" even though they're already in my system, just to see if some download receipt was corrupted by having both 10.4.8 and 10.5.1 on the same system or something. No change. The loops are all there...30Gb+ of them. I can Finder search by caf, or some favorites by name and pull them into a session and they work as expected. But nothing in Loop Browser still. I don't use Apple Loops all that much, but definitely want to get this resolved.

Mac mini 2018 or later

Posted on Aug 1, 2020 1:17 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 3, 2020 8:28 AM

Thx for the replies! I seemed to have figured it out. In my case, the issue wasn't the lack of content or placement - it had all been downloaded (and installed) through 10.5.1 several times over. But somewhere in the back and forth between 10.4.8. and 10.5.1 a database folder had been deleted (or possibly just never created?). After creating a new user on this Mac and having the indexing and loop browser all up and working just fine, I copied the "Databases" folder from the newly created user into my regular user... this is where it lives... /Users/[my regular username]/Music/Audio Music Apps ... lo and behold, that did the trick. Thx for the advice from Greg and Edgar on symlink. I suppose I just never noticed (I guess since 2009!) that the loops were still on system drive. What's curious to me is that 10.4.8 never stopped showing the full lib in the loop browser (in my regular user). So either that particular Database folder or file is a new thing, or it was referenced or kept elsewhere for 10.4.8 (did this replace "Apple Loop Index"?). At any rate, hope this might help someone down the road! Cheers!

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 3, 2020 8:28 AM in response to rogerfromleander

Thx for the replies! I seemed to have figured it out. In my case, the issue wasn't the lack of content or placement - it had all been downloaded (and installed) through 10.5.1 several times over. But somewhere in the back and forth between 10.4.8. and 10.5.1 a database folder had been deleted (or possibly just never created?). After creating a new user on this Mac and having the indexing and loop browser all up and working just fine, I copied the "Databases" folder from the newly created user into my regular user... this is where it lives... /Users/[my regular username]/Music/Audio Music Apps ... lo and behold, that did the trick. Thx for the advice from Greg and Edgar on symlink. I suppose I just never noticed (I guess since 2009!) that the loops were still on system drive. What's curious to me is that 10.4.8 never stopped showing the full lib in the loop browser (in my regular user). So either that particular Database folder or file is a new thing, or it was referenced or kept elsewhere for 10.4.8 (did this replace "Apple Loop Index"?). At any rate, hope this might help someone down the road! Cheers!

Aug 1, 2020 5:26 PM in response to rogerfromleander

rogerfromleander wrote:

My sounds have always lived on an ext. drive.


Unfortunately, the Relocate Sound Library feature in Logic DOES NOT apply to Apple Loops. They have to stay on the boot drive (unless you create your own symlink setup)


I would recommend to download the Apple Loops again from the Sound Library Manager



Hope that helps,


Edgar Rothermich

Graphically Enhanced Manuals (GEM)

www.LogicProGEM.com

https://www.youtube.com/c/MusicTechExplained/


Aug 2, 2020 4:29 PM in response to rogerfromleander

Hey Roger

Not clear from your post if you are trying to use an external drive for your Loops or if you want to install on new internal drive??

As Edgar has said, re-downloading should work if you want to install internal to MacMini or you can manually copy the folders from old to new.

If you want to use the external drive to store your Loops, you need to create a "Symlink", as Edgar said.

I store all my Logic/GarageBand/FinalCutProX sounds and samples on a fast sd card. These total over 73GB and keeps my internal drive leaner.

I use Terminal to create the symlinks but, I have also set up an Automator services script to make it even faster.

Here is a help article to show both… https://www.howtogeek.com/297721/how-to-create-and-use-symbolic-links-aka-symlinks-on-a-mac/


Pay attention to the Folder/File names.

Hope this Helps, Greg

Apple Loops not showing in Loop Browser

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