Is Apple working on a fix for this so Windows users can import a .band file?

I know that I and others have posted bug reports or provided feedback on this issue, but perhaps you can add your own. Hopefully the issue will be addressed at some point.

GarageBand for iOS Feedback

tt2

Hi - This may not be exactly on point, but I can copy iPad / GarageBand audio files into my PC (Mixcraft 6) doing this:

iPad / GarageBand to PC / Mixcraft 6 - Copy audio files from Ipad to PC:

1. Record your song using MIDI or Audio.

2. "Merge" each individual MIDI track, which will create an audio version

3. Close/Save the song

4. On iPad, click Edit / Share / iTunes

5. Connect iPad to PC, open iTunes, click on Devices / iPad / Apps / GarageBand

6. Select the song (it will be a folder), and at the bottom of the screen click "Save to..." and save the folder to the Desktop or wherever.

7. Locate folder on the PC, open it and then open the "Media" folder.

8. All the audio files will be there in the .aif format. The file names will be the original GB names; rename them if you like. The converted MIDI tracks will be labeled "Merged Track (1,2,3, etc)." Play the tracks to identify what instruments are on those tracks, and rename them.

9. Copy each track and paste it to an open audio track in Mixcraft 6.

This will probably work with any recording program that supports .aif files.

YMMV, good luck, it's working for me!

Ripley

Yes, you've missed the point. Currently there is no way to take a GarageBand project "as is", save it to your PC, do some more work on the project, decide you'd like to go back to an earlier version, and restore the copy from the PC. Yes you can get a mixed down version to your computer, and it might even be possible if you hack around with third party tools, but it doesn't work as it ought to. You can save the project to the PC, but you can't add it back to the device.

tt2

I've been prompted to look at this again and have found a decent workaround...

Annoyingly the Windows version of iTunes doesn't handle .band projects properly. You can use .iTunes to transfer a project from one device into the file sharing area for the app and save it to your computer, but you can't drag a .band folder into that area to upload to another device. In contrast a round trip is possible for iMovieMobile as those project folders are rolled up into a .zip file.

I've just tested iFunBox which allows you to copy files to and from the iOS device's file system. Share the GarageBand project to iTunes on the device in the normal way, connect it to a computer running iFunBox, click the iFunBox Classic button, expand the tree to show App File Sharing > GarageBand and drag the project folder to your computer. Connect the other device, show the App File Sharing > GarageBand view, drag the project folder in, then in GarageBand on the device use the plus symbol in the My Songs view to copy the project from iTunes.

My only slight reservation is that AVG flagged up one of the components of iFunBox as a security risk, although having let AVG take remedial action the iFunBox program carried on working and there is no sign that AVG actually quarantined any files. I suspect a false positive, the program has been around for some time and has plenty of good recommendations. I'm sure if it were known to be malicious I'd have found the evidence.

tt2

Turingtest2,

The procedure that you mentioned really works!

Thank you!

You're welcome. 🙂

tt2