I recently updated my MacBook Pro to Catalina to see if it would resolve some performance issues I was experiencing on my mac and now GarageBand and won't work. I try to download update for GarageBand and app store is saying I need Big Sur which is not supported on my machine. How can I download a version of Garageband that is compatible with Catalina?
I just downgraded from Big Sur to Catalina. Initially I had the same problem. I couldn't download a compatible version from the App Store. But clicking on my name in the bottom left-hand corner to reveal my purchases worked for me. I found GarageBand in my list of purchases and I was able to download a Catalina compatible version. So it's out there! Maybe it's critical that GB shows up in your purchases.
Another suggestion - if you've got GarageBand for Catalina on another Mac (or a friend does), it may be possible to send the app via sharing on iCloud Drive. I was able to do this with MainStage. A friend of mine has High Sierra on his MacBook and wanted to download MainStage for all the extra sounds that gives. No-go from the App Store... I dragged the app to my desktop and sent it to him via iCloud Drive. He's really not so good with computers but was still able to get it up and running...
And I don't see how switching to a new OS such as Windows is going to help with GarageBand. lol. I have a nice Dell Win machine and the music and video software available on it is much harder to use, limited and NOT FREE.
If it's any consolation it doesn't seem to work as the old version automatically tries to update itself as you open it and hits the same incompatibility issue.
Thank you boa froggery that worked fit me big time for my 2012 mbp worked like a charm plus I got iMovie .. whew that was close
Thank you! This is so user-hostile!
Hello ivette0712,
Welcome to the Apple Support Communities! From you message we can tell that you're needing to reinstall a version of GarageBand which is compatible with macOS Catalina.
Follow the steps from this article on how you can redownload an app that you previously had on your Mac: Re-download apps and games from Apple.
All the best.
Unable to install GarageBand on Catalina
