How do I restore Garageband Jam Pack/Expansion Pack INSTRUMENTS from a back-up drive?

Question

How do I restore Garageband Jam Pack/Expansion Pack INSTRUMENTS from a back-up drive?

It recently became necessary to replace my Mac Desktop Hard drive. After finding and reinstalling GarageBand on my external backup drive, I found that all of my Jam Packs instruments and loops were missing. Upon digging around my external backup drive, I found the loops and all of the SFX and reinstalled by "dropping and dragging" them into the browser. However, I have searched everywhere and can't seem to find the actual expansion pack SOFTWARE INSTRUMENTS (i.e. Sunburst Guitar, Pizzicato Strings).

Can anyone help me determine where the actual instrument patches might be located?

Thanks so much,

David

GarageBand '08, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)

Posted on Aug 25, 2013 11:01 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

Christoph Drösser

Level 6

11,318 points

Aug 26, 2013 3:57 AM in response to davidaaronaustin

All your instruments are in HD/Library/Application Support/GarageBand/Instrument Library. If your new system only contains the standard instruments, it might make sense to copy your whole Instrument Library over from the backup to the new drive.

Reply

Answer 2

Aug 26, 2013 9:48 AM in response to davidaaronaustin

Christoph -

Thank you so much for your assistance. I can't tell you how many different folders from multitudinous back-ups I went through in search of this folder. It was all right there.

Forgive me if this is yet another pedandtic question but, I've dragged the entire Instrument folder to the desktop. First, I drag and dropped into the bottom Loops window of Garageband and, while it appeared they were loading, upon reboot, the instruments are still not there. I then tried to open them in Apple Loops Utility but that's a no go as well. So... can you tell someone who's moderately challenged where/how I should be saving this folder so that the instruments automatically load in Garageband and Logic?

Thanks again!

Reply

Answer 3

Aug 27, 2013 1:13 AM in response to davidaaronaustin

You can't install instruments by dragging them into GB's windows. Instruments aren't loops, they have to be put in the appropriate folders. Normally, when you install e.g. a Jam Pack, this is done by the Installer software.

When you migrate to a new computer or install a new hard drive, people have experienced the Migration Assistant not copying their Instrument Library over. That happens when you install GB from scratch on the new machine and then do the migration. (Don't know how you did your restore.) In that case, as I said, it makes sense to simply replace the new Instrument Library with the old one. That works with the Loops folders too, as long as you also copy over the Index files.

Reply