Garageband now crashes out on startup - iOS 18 / iPadOS 18 implicated.

Went to start my beloved GarageBand today, NONE of my hundreds of songs will start up. As music creation for me, is almost exclusively performed using GB on my iPad M1, and it’s been almost flawless for a couple of years, this was a shock…

…Conundrum: Looking on the App Store, at the GarageBand entry, it now clearly states ‘iOS 18 needed’. This is a little odd, as I definitely have not updated to iOS/iPadOS18, being wary of flaws or faults that may arise with a new OS. It’s happened before, with GarageBand.

Facts:

1 - If iOS18 was truly required, surely when iOS 18 was first released, my GB/iPad Pro M1 would have dropped out back then? It did not. However, although there’s no update possible to my GarageBand version, nonetheless the Appstore states iOS18 is required.

2 - Users that HAVE gone onto iOS18 report crippling bugs, primarily that volume automation has died a death. This, is a key feature, so even if I did move onto iOS18, my GB would still be unusable, in practice.

So I cannot go forward with my iPad Pro M1’s iOS, as it will cripple GarageBand. I cannot remain where I am, as GB simply crashes if I try to start up a song - they all work fine, as of a couple of weeks ago, because I immediately weed out any AUv3’s that cause a crash and notify the developers.

Open to any solution that doesn’t involve updating to iOS18. I am presently on iOS17, the latest version before it was knocked off the options in ‘settings’.

Very grateful for any assistance. Finally got time tonight to get on, and my system’s primary software - it’s entirely why I obtained Apple Silicon - is inoperable.

Not life or death, merely miserable!