Why can't I drag and drop GB loops suddenly?

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Level 1

19 points

Why can't I drag and drop GB loops suddenly?

Reposting this as I thought I had found the solution but the problem has returned. Running current version of Lion on my Macbook Pro. Did software updates earlier this week and now I can no longer drag loops from the Garageband loop browser. I can drag, drop and play a single loop. I'm then able to select (click on) and audition subsequent loops but GB won't allow me to subsequently drag any additional loops into a new project. Everything else seems to be running fine (the application isn't frozen). Each time I start by opening a new project. I've restarted my laptop, I've tried repairing permissions and nothing. This happens with loops of any color. Anyone else having this problem? Am I missing something obvious? Thanks.

17 inch widescreen Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5), 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo/2GB/256MB VRAM/160GB

Posted on Apr 4, 2013 10:12 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Christoph Drösser

Level 6

11,318 points

Apr 5, 2013 1:11 AM in response to MarcInDC

Have you tried deleting GB's preference files?

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Answer 2

MarcInDC Author

Level 1

19 points

Apr 5, 2013 9:44 AM in response to Christoph Drösser

Thanks. The plot thickens. For some reason, no Library folder is listed among the contents of my Home folder. So I guess I have to solve that mystery first.

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Answer 3

Apr 5, 2013 1:54 PM in response to MarcInDC

The reason for that is that Lion and Mountain Lion hide the Library folders. In the Finder, hold the option key and select the Library from the "Go" menu.

To make it permanently visible, open Terminal and enter

chflags nohidden ~/Library/

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Answer 4

MarcInDC Author

Level 1

19 points

Apr 5, 2013 6:46 PM in response to Christoph Drösser

Thanks very much for your help. I had no idea about the hidden Library. I trashed the files and that seems to have fixed the problem (but then I thought I had resolved the issue earlier).Hopefully this will be the ticket. Thanks a bunch.

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Answer 5

MarcInDC Author

Level 1

19 points

Apr 5, 2013 8:24 PM in response to Christoph Drösser

Once again I spoke too soon. Very strange and now the problem seems to be worse. I've opened and closed GB several times. Sometimes I can only drag one loop and sometimes not even one. Gonna google this to sse if this is common. Thanks again.

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Answer 6

léonie

Level 10

194,723 points

Apr 5, 2013 9:45 PM in response to MarcInDC

Each time I start by opening a new project.

What template are you using for your new project? May be that template is broken?

Have you tried a different "New Project" template?

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Answer 7

MarcInDC Author

Level 1

19 points

Apr 6, 2013 10:12 AM in response to léonie

I'm almost always using the Loops template. This seems random. I tried a couple of the others this morning but I haven't able to duplicate the problem today so far. Btw, when you say "broken" I'm guessing you mean corrupted somehow. If so, how would I address that? By doing a re-installation? Thanks for your response.

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Answer 8

léonie

Level 10

194,723 points

Apr 6, 2013 10:26 AM in response to MarcInDC

All templates that you are seeing in the opening window are simply empty, predefined GarageBand projects.

They are stored in the System Library:

/Library/Application Support/GarageBand/Templates/Projects/

Have a look: Open your Macintosh HD in the Finder, then the folder Library, the subfolder Application Support, etc.

Try to copy "Loops.band" to the desktop and open the copy directly. Does it work?

If there should be a problem with this template, you could restore a previous version from your backup.

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Answer 9

MarcInDC Author

Level 1

19 points

Apr 23, 2013 8:20 AM in response to léonie

Sorry I just noticed your reply. I followed your instructions and the problem persists. Clicking on the copy of the loops file opens Garageband, I'm able to drag one loop onto the timeline and then nada. I can audition but not drag any loops from the loop browser window. What's frustrating is that it seems to be intermittent (the majority of the time it doesn't work).

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Answer 10

léonie

Level 10

194,723 points

Apr 23, 2013 8:35 AM in response to MarcInDC

Have you tried to work from a different User Account? This will tell us, if something in your main account is not working, or if you have a system wide trouble:

See: Isolating an issue by using another user account

If GarageBand does not work properly from a different user account, you should reinstall GarageBand, unless Christoph has another idea.

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Answer 11

MarcInDC Author

Level 1

19 points

Apr 23, 2013 2:12 PM in response to léonie

This is turning out to be very labor intensive. hehe...but I appreciate your help. I started to explore the guest account approach but I don't have my guest account set up such that I can access all the apps I currently use. I've never had this kind of difficulty before and I've been using Garageband for years. I'm going to keep investigating around the web. If I can't get it working, I might just have to take a trip to the genius bar. Thanks again.

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Answer 12

MarcInDC Author

Level 1

19 points

Apr 26, 2013 3:31 AM in response to léonie

Just wanted to follow up with you. I think I may have resolved the issue (again). Earlier Christoph told me to trash my GB preferences but up until today, I think each time I'd tried this, GB was still open --which I'm guessing makes a difference (since trashing the preferences with the application closed seems to have solved the problem). I'd been trashing the preferences while GB was still open and then simiply restarting GB (and perhaps that's why the problem persisted?). Anyway, wish me luck. So far so good.

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Answer 13

léonie

Level 10

194,723 points

Apr 26, 2013 6:32 AM in response to MarcInDC

. I think I may have resolved the issue (again). Earlier Christoph told me to trash my GB preferences but up until today, I think each time I'd tried this, GB was still open

That would explain it! Good catch! 🙂 If GarageBand is still running while trashing the preferences, it will use the settings it has already read and stored, And when you finally quit GarageBand, it will write the stored preferences right back.

And if you are running MacOS X 10.7 or later, even quitting GarageBAnd may not be sufficient. You should log off and on again, to make sure that all GarageBand processes will really be terminated. The "Automatic Termination" process system used in the newer MacOS X versions may keep GarageBand processes cached and simply restart the cached version with the old preference setting, if you do not log off.

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