Why can't I open a GarageBand recording on my iPhone in GarageBand on Mac OSX?

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Level 1

6 points

Why can't I open a GarageBand recording on my iPhone in GarageBand on Mac OSX?

I recorded an acoustic performance of my vocal quart last night on an iPhone running GarageBand 2.0.1 on iOS 7.1.2. But I can't open it in GarageBand 11 (6.0.5) on Mac OSX 10.9.5. What gives?

Not only will it not open (and the software on my Mac platform is way more recent than on my iPhone, so you'd think it would be upward compatible), but when I try to open this iOS-created file on the Mac, it asks me where I want to save it ... it's already saved, I'm just trying to open it.

I've looked at the reviews for the latest GarageBand, which it tells me I need to upgrade to, and they are terrible! Many report that they wish they hadn't upgraded and that they could get back to an older version of GarageBand on their Mac.

Does this mean I'm stuck and the two GarageBand platforms are not compatible and that I won't be able to open this file? ... other thanes an mp3 in iTunes ...

Thanks for any insights you can give me.

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), iMac/MacBook Pro/iPad mini/iPhone..

Posted on Feb 28, 2015 1:55 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

HangTime

Level 9

53,841 points

Feb 28, 2015 2:42 PM in response to BigMacUser

BigMacUser wrote:

I recorded an acoustic performance of my vocal quart last night on an iPhone running GarageBand 2.0.1 on iOS 7.1.2. But I can't open it in GarageBand 11 (6.0.5) on Mac OSX 10.9.5.

[...] when I try to open this iOS-created file on the Mac, it asks me where I want to save it

it sounds like it's opening fine, but you're just not letting it finish.

it's asking you to save a version of the song for the mac; if it saved over the original file, it could no longer be opened on the iOS device, if you needed to alter something later

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

194,755 points

Feb 28, 2015 3:23 PM in response to BigMacUser

See: GarageBand for iOS and Mac: Project compatibility

it asks me where I want to save it ... it's already saved, I'm just trying to open it.

GarageBand for Mac cannot directly open GarageBand iOS 2 projects. It needs to convert the project to a new format and to store the converted project, before it can open it

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Answer 3

BigMacUser Author

Level 1

6 points

Feb 28, 2015 3:54 PM in response to HangTime

Thanks for your feedback. It's great to get ideas from this community.

I had two problems opening this file. The first one was that it wanted me to upgrade the software to the new version that I've been reading terrible feedback about. In other words, it never really completed the task of opening the file. The second one was about it trying to save it as a different file.

But I see from another response that the filetypes are different for the iOS and OSX platforms, so maybe that explains part 2; but I'm still concerned about part 1, where it appears that I have a "Catch 2" -- it won't open for me unless I upgrade, and if I upgrade, I'll have a lot of problems with the new app.

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Answer 4

BigMacUser Author

Level 1

6 points

Feb 28, 2015 3:56 PM in response to léonie

Many thanks for this insight, léonie. I wasn't aware that these were two different filetypes … although I s'pose that it makes sense, being on two different operating systems ⚠.

Yet I still have the problem of incompatibility between the iOS and OSX platforms, where apparently the iOS app is not upwardly compatible with the OSX version ...

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