I can't update GarageBand

OK. I've managed to get rid of the annoying update badge (using TimeMachine only) on my iMac Late 2013 running Catalina 10.15.7.

First, make sure you have a TimeMachine backup which includes GarageBand 10.3.5 (or make one).

Second, delete the GarageBand App** by dragging the App icon in Launchpad to the trash. Restart your machine and the red badge will no longer be showing in the App Store icon.

Third, now open a Finder window, select Applications and then enter TimeMachine.

Fourth, Select the latest backup and the finder window will show that last backup's Applications window.

Lastly, scroll down and right click on the GarageBand App icon and choose restore. when it asks "where to" select your Applications folder.

GarageBand will then re-installed and be ready to use.

Obviously, make sure you have backed up all your projects before attempting this.

** do NOT delete this App without a backup as you will NOT be able to re-download it from the App Store.

boblishman said "Sign in with YOUR Apple ID, then go to your “Purchased” Section. Garage band should appear there with the option to re-download."

That's what worked for me with a 2017 MacBook Pro running Catalina 10.15.7

I went to the purchase section and there was an icon for Garageband and a 'cloud' icon to download it. If I clicked on the Garageband icon it took me to a page to download the Big Sur version. If I click on the 'cloud' download, a popup said, there's a newer version or continue to load the most current version for my system. I took the 'my system' path and Garageband loaded and works. I can't tell you what version it is because the 'about Garageband' is greyed out hence not selectable.

But if I do a get info on the .app file it shows version 10.3.5, created Aug. 22, 2019

I have tried to install Garageband to macOS 10.15.7 (Catalina) after years of not using it (and not having it installed). When trying to install it from the app's detail page in the Mac App store, it fails with the mentioned error message.

However, it is possible to install it from the Mac App Store by going to the Purchased section of your user profile and finding Garageband amongst those apps. Trying to download from there will yield a message that allows you to choose the latest supported version of Garageband to be installed instead of the most recent one.

Restore GarageBand from your Time Machine backup. You cannot recover GarageBand from the AppStore, as long a you have not upgraded to the current system version Big Sur. Since the introduction of the AppStore we have to keep our system version updated to the current version, to be able to reinstall applications from the APpStore.

There is no guarantee, that we will be able to download older versions of an application, once the AppStore is offering a newer version of an app for the current system.

To be able to reinstall our apps, we have to keep diligently a backup of the applications that are compatible with our current system, as the AppStore keeps moving on, and one day our Mac may be too old to keep up with the newer systems, or we may not want to upgrade to the most recent system version, because it may render expensive applications incompatible.

It is a bit annoying that the  > Storage > Manage Storage panel does not tell us, which applications can safely be removed temporarily, because they can be downloaded again from the AppStore. If I need to remove an app to free storage, I would always make sure I have a backup, before deleting it.

jacobreed wrote:

I've never had, used, or downloaded Garage Band before.

That seems to be the actual problem with the new version. From what I can tell so far, the most convenient workaround *) at the moment is to find someone with a Mac running Big Sur, let them to create a temporary user account for you on their Mac, then use it to log into your App Store account and "buy" GarageBand on that Mac. Once completed, GarageBand will appear on your Catalina Mac in your Purchased tab.

*) Alternatively you may want to install Big Sur on a separate partition or on an external drive if your Mac supports it. But it's not necessarily a trivial task.

Ok, apparently I hadn't installed Big Sur but had only hit the download and install button. After installing, the problem went way for me.

Aeursemb wrote:

However, it is possible to install it from the Mac App Store by going to the Purchased section of your user profile and finding Garageband amongst those apps. Trying to download from there will yield a message that allows you to choose the latest supported version of Garageband to be installed instead of the most recent one.

While this method should always work in theory, in practice at the moment there seems to be generally something faulty in the App Store land:

In the past two days I was updating a Mojave partition which I haven't used in weeks; but just a few weeks ago I have successfully downloaded the latest Mojave compatible version of Logic Pro (10.5.1). A few days ago I wanted to update some other apps from the App Store, but got an error everytime. Waited a day, logged out of App Store, logged in again, and the update downloads have worked again.

Today I noticed that I never downloaded GarageBand to this partition yet. So I did the usual procedure by clicking the "download-from-cloud" button, only to get the dreaded "GarageBand can't be installed on XY because macOS version 11 or later is required" message. App Store log-outs and Mac reboots didn't help, except once when the "you can download the latest compatible version" briefly appeared, only to be replaced by "can't be installed" message again.

Luckily the latest Catalina compatible version of GarageBand is also 10.3.5, so in the end I have copied the app from my Catalina partition.

For what it's worth, on Catalina I also see the "Update" button for the Big Sur version of GarageBand, which of course doesn't work: no Big Sur on my MacBook Pro 2012, the last model with matte display and DVD drive which they will once pry from my cold, dead hands… ;)

Long story short:

Folks, don't waste too much of your time trying to fix it yourselves since there likely not much that can be fixed at user's end. We're at Apple's mercy here.

Sign in with YOUR Apple ID, then go to your “Purchased” Section. Garage band should appear there with the option to re-download.

I was able to resolve this by simply moving GarageBand to the trash. The update indicator immediately went away. Then I immediately moved GarageBand back to the Applications folder, and haven't seen the update alert for that app since.

Its really quite simple. Don't upgrade what you can't upgrade. It sucks that they left the users with year old machines behind, but obviously most of the people here didn't have to to deal with the problems of dealing with OS 7, 8 or 9, not to mention Windows. Does MS give out a free DAW? Wait awhile and the red dot will probably disappear. Unless you're a masochist don't push that button. Garageband still works just not 10.4.

Too old perhaps but still capable.

Model Name: MacBook Pro

Model Identifier: MacBookPro9,2

Processor Name: Dual-Core Intel Core i7

Processor Speed: 2.9 GHz

16 gb RAM

512 gb SSD

Machine is more than capable of running Big Sur.

Same problem here. I have an iMac (late 2013) which can't install macOS Big Sur, so I'm stuck with Catalina 10.5.7 for the time being. The App Store shouldn't offer to update an app that requires a newer macOS than the one I'm using.

It is exactly my problem too, i think it is very annoying to keep seeing an update that can not be done, and the worst thing is that according to technical support there is nothing that can be done to avoid it. I have disabled both, in the App Store and in the system preferences the automatic updates or even that it tries to look for them, but it just keep insisting. So i made a GarageBand back up, then i have uninstalled it to install it again from the hard drive, the notification disappears but reappears as soon as I reboot. I'm not interested in upgrading my old iMac to Big Sur, but i don't want my current Apps to be affected by this either! Apple should solve this pesky Bug.

The solution to make sure you've got a (Time Machine) backup, delete Garageband, restart your Mac, and restore Garageband from the (Time Machine) backup worked for me. No red '1' anymore in the icon of the App Store.

Although it's indeed a shame that there is no 'Skip update' option anymore (right-click on update mention) in the new App Store. It was absolutely present in the past to solve these kind of issues in older versions.