In 2018, how do I transfer a GarageBand project from the iPad to mac OS, step by step?

I've found lots of old tutorials for this, and lots of "sure you cans" and so on, but either everything's out of date with 2018 GB versions (GB has changed significantly), or there is nothing that says just how to do it. Please someone can you give me this step by procedure? It's OK to be one way, iOS to mac OS.

Posted on Oct 27, 2018 1:21 PM

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9 replies

Oct 28, 2018 12:29 PM in response to jeffmil

Ahhh. I see now.


i think if you contact Apple and explain that you made a mistake, if they would consider helping you to merge all to one unique apple id - I believe they would facilitate this. Have them contact you by phone when you have time and if needed, grant them access to your Mac and devices so they can guide you and see that it is done correctly. It’s worth the shot! Go for it! Let me know how it goes ok?


Apple Store Customer Service at 1-800-676-2775 or visit online Help for more information.

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Oct 27, 2018 5:16 PM in response to léonie

This worked. Thank you. Although I already had GarageBand enabled for iCloud in my iPad settings, there was nothing in iCloud from GarageBand until I manually did this move to iCloud you pointed me to. Yes, that worked, but I expected to find all my GarageBand .band files already in iCloud. Apparently it doesn't work that way, so why can it even be configured as if it does work that way?


Worse yet, I have 2 iCloud accounts, one using my old @mac.com email address (which no longer functions for email) that I use as my Apple ID (unfortunately) and Apple Developer ID, and one for iCloud with @icloud.com that I would PREFER to use for all but maybe my developer ID. But I can't change it because all my App Store purchases are tied to me @mac.com. In fact my iPad won't even let me change from @mac.com to @icloud.com, even if I wanted to, without losing all my apps and who knows what else. So I'm permanently hosed by Apple with this. But at least I now know how to manually move a GB project from the iPad to the Mac. Thank you.

Oct 28, 2018 9:22 AM in response to Cåts

Thank you! In fact I do have both @mac.com and @icloud.com accounts, and I can receive email at my @icloud.com address. The problem is, they are 2 SEPARATE accounts. So if I log into iCloud with one of them, I don't see content from the other iCloud account. My Apple ID is my @mac.com account. If I change that to my @iCloud.com account I will lose all my purchased apps from the Apps Store. I've shared from each to the other. Somehow I set up family sharing in one direction. But stuff available from my iPad or iPhone (per my initial question here) goes to iCloud under my @mac.com ID, not my @iCloud.com ID. I would sooooo like to merge them to my @iCloud.com account. Is it possible? I don't want to lose all my purchases if on the next iPhone I get I set it up with my @iCloud.com ID. So I am stuck with this @mac.com ID forever, it seems?

Dec 12, 2018 7:25 PM in response to Cåts

OK. I have the solution to my problem with 2 Apple IDs. And it's not simple. There are 2 answers to the question of how to merge Apple IDs that are the same except one is @mac.com and one is @icloud.com:


1) You must delete the iCloud account and ID and wait 30 days, after which Apple can do what they were supposed to do in the first place and create an iCloud account for you based on your Mac account. There are 2 problems:

A) You will lose everything in your @icloud account unless you figure a way to manually save it all off

B) You run the risk of someone else grabbing your username for their own iCloud account while you patiently wait to get yours back


2) The almost 100% good workaround is this:

A) As your @mac.com personna, turn on Family Sharing and invite your @icloud.com personna

B) As your @icloud self, accept your doppelgänger's invitation

C) On one of your devices where you've always been signed in with your @mac ID, backup everything locally to iTunes on your Mac (where you're also signed in as .mac. Note that you're in this situation because you had your .mac ID first before iCloud arrived and Apple didn't move stuff to a new equivalent iCloud account for you properly)

D) Sign out of your device, agreeing to turn off Find My [device}, and

E) Say YES when asked if you want to keep a copy of the data on the device (your @mac ID's data)

F) Log back in with your iCloud ID (mine's the same user name but I guess it doesn't have to be)

G) As you log in it will ask you if you want to Merge what's on the device with your @icloud account. Answer YES INDEED!


At this point you have basically overcome Apple's limitation. Do this on all your devices and you will have all the everything that your old @mac.com ID had now available to your @icloud.com ID. Cool, huh?! One caveat - it appears that if you recorded musical ideas in Music Memos, they do not come over when you log into your device as your @icloud self. This may be a bug in the Merge function. :-( Clearly Apple doesn't have these capabilities working completely. The process isn't absolutely perfect so it might be a good idea to first backup your device with your original @mac.com ID to *both* iTunes and as much as you can to iCloud.

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In 2018, how do I transfer a GarageBand project from the iPad to mac OS, step by step?

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