Thank you for clearly showing and explaining this process. It ended my frustration of exporting a song from MAC to IOS Garage Band. I was trying so many other things before that.
I'll be honest, The main reason I got a Mac was because the frustration of optimising performance was driving me crazy on iOS. So I'd be unlikely to want to export more than a mixdown back to iPad. The reason I'd want to do that is because I have a lot of good plugins on iPad (Mixbox and some Nembrini stuff, for example) that I either can't get or can't afford on Mac. Workflow could get a little interesting, but I can see myself recording and merging some tracks on iOS and bringing them back to Mac. This of course would have been so much easier if the iOS apps had all worked on the M1 chip, as was originally suggested. Ah well. Apple gives, and Apple takes away.
I REALLY HOPE they update this feature. I didn't know that the compatibility between iOS and MacOS was just 1 way. I create everything on my iPad because it's just so much more easier (for me). And as a backup, I transferred and opened ALL of my iOS projects on my MAC to save them on an external hard drive. I then saved them on iCloud. WELL, my hard drive has been stolen (along with my original iPad), and although I have everything on iCloud, I had the very nightmaresque surprise that none of my songs would open on my new iPad. I JUST WANT TO WORK ON MY PROJECTS AGAIN 😭 Some of them were really advanced with a lot of tracks. I want to have to freedom of editing every single note if needed. Being stuck with only a 'song' track is absolutely problematic for me. Please update us if Apple finally changes this feature 😭😭
Thanks for the video...but wow...that was a HUGE let-down, Apple! Such a misleading label to share "Project to GarageBand for iOS". We'd get the same results by exporting the project as a wav and then importing that to a new project in GB iOS if we want to. :(
So right. If I save an Excel file in CSV, it tells me I can lose some features or formatting but allows me to keep a more basic version of the file. I understand GB projects are more complicated than spreadsheets, but I wish it would work similarly
Any chance of Logic Pro on iPad importing a multitrack project from GarageBand on a Macbook? Or any way to get that going without losing midi tracks as midi tracks and all of that or is that a technical restriction between the two architectures of OS's? In my mind the Project file is only a container having multiple wav files in it for instrument/mic line ins and midi tracks with some sort of metadata file that contains automation info and track infos (when which wav/midi starts on what track). I thought this shouldn't be to hard to interpret but either it seems i'm really wrong or it is a business decision :D
is there a way to convert software instrument midi into audio in garage band ios, or must one export and re-import? i'm used to ableton live where one an record simultaneously an audio and midi track, or freeze midi to audio. i'm new to garage band, but bought an ipad and decided have fun with the software instruments in garage band.
Hi from 2025! Thanks for the great GB Tuts! Has Apple made the process of Sharing a Song PROJECT with Separate Tracks from desktop MAC to iPhone any easier?
Thanks for this reality check video. I am an idiot for assuming I could just transfer Mac GB projects to GB ios on my new iPad 9. I'll have to continue using my 1st gen MacBook with no wifi working on it to finish my projects.Just sucks! I hope it doesn't die on me anytime soon. I was hoping to buy better plug-ins but f**k that lol
this is why i wanna sell my ipad pro 12.9..i was hoping i can jump back and forth smoothly from mac and ipad..but sadly i can..so i dont need the ipad anymore
I like consistency You can be consistently pleasant You can be consistently annoying … and we’re good. .. it’s the consistently annoying pleasantries apple brings me that provoke bouts of anger and frustration.
Maybe use another DAW on the Mac (I use PS1 anyway) and export as stems? It seems clear that GarageBand on Mac is intentionally kneecapped in favor of Logic. Shame.
Hello Patrick! I was quite curious spotting your latest video's title in my email inbox. Consequently, I should have been highly disappointed at 2:19, shouldn't I? Instead I wasn't. I think the idea to import the stereo mixdown track, add some tracks and go back to the Mac for giving your creation the final touch (or another iteration) is appropriate. It puts a very low demand on the iOS side of the production, relieving a modest iPad (non-Pro) from a bunch of hard work like rendering audio from MIDI though a virtual instrument, playing back a number of audio tracks with carefully assigned FX etc. Instead you have most of your device's power left to handle the new stuff you are about to add to your masterpiece. Re-exporting the creation Mac-ward will later be a track-by-track story . I'm quite happy with this feature, but it isn't what the menu item suggests: You don't actually »share the project« but transfer the song, just like in the topmost two menu items.
TLDR: You can only transfer one audio track at a time from Mac to iOS. You cannot transfer whole projects or MIDI tracks. But you *can* transfer whole projects from iOS to Mac (the other direction).
This is ridiculous by APPLE. The iPad has gotten so powerful there’s no reason you couldn’t get full GB. Pages is the full app, just some interface tweaks for touch. Apple acting like you can’t record Dark Side of the Moon on your iPad and then just polish on the MAC is absurd!
Why do creators always ‘take a moment to like’ I hear it on every, single, video. So much so it pisses me off and I deliberately don’t press like. I would if not asked. At this point, everyone knows to like if ye like the video. Am I alone in thinkin this?
if I’m being honest, I’m having a really hard time understanding why I put the search, “ how to transfer your iPhone GarageBand project to your GarageBand project on your Mac- then to make it even worse the first thing you say is cut off then you say you’re going to do what i to id only to then say are NOT…. That is seriously SOOOOOO FRUSTRATING
GRREAT WORKAROUND MAN! Since I'm working on my new Macbook Pro and using my iPhone Pro Max 12, here in 2024 now, do you have any updates that can garner smoother results? Also I am SO GLAD that I gave your channel that TICKLE! Much love and mad respect from NEW ORLEANS BABY! ^..^😺⚜🦀🦞🦐🥃🍺🎭🐊
hmm, too much of “not making music”. dissapointing… thanks for the vid. all my questions were answered. just subscribed thing is, if it wasnt for garageband, i probably wouldn’t be creating. so 🫤
Thanks so much for the clarification on the issues I was facing. This incompatibility issue is frankly pretty unacceptable.
TYSM for this!!!
I'm trying to get a few VA projects ready for export to my iPad and I think you just saved me a lot of tears and cursing
Thank you for clearly showing and explaining this process. It ended my frustration of exporting a song from MAC to IOS Garage Band. I was trying so many other things before that.
yo thanks sooo much bro i was tryna get song on rapfame and spotify
Thank you! I’ve been struggling for a half hour
What if you do not have access to a mac any more please help
Thank you bro this really helps out
That was smart! I had just given up. I may give it another try
Cumbersome, but it is what it is... Thanks Patrick for showing us the way once more! 🤗
I'll be honest, The main reason I got a Mac was because the frustration of optimising performance was driving me crazy on iOS. So I'd be unlikely to want to export more than a mixdown back to iPad. The reason I'd want to do that is because I have a lot of good plugins on iPad (Mixbox and some Nembrini stuff, for example) that I either can't get or can't afford on Mac. Workflow could get a little interesting, but I can see myself recording and merging some tracks on iOS and bringing them back to Mac. This of course would have been so much easier if the iOS apps had all worked on the M1 chip, as was originally suggested. Ah well. Apple gives, and Apple takes away.
I REALLY HOPE they update this feature. I didn't know that the compatibility between iOS and MacOS was just 1 way. I create everything on my iPad because it's just so much more easier (for me). And as a backup, I transferred and opened ALL of my iOS projects on my MAC to save them on an external hard drive. I then saved them on iCloud. WELL, my hard drive has been stolen (along with my original iPad), and although I have everything on iCloud, I had the very nightmaresque surprise that none of my songs would open on my new iPad. I JUST WANT TO WORK ON MY PROJECTS AGAIN 😭 Some of them were really advanced with a lot of tracks. I want to have to freedom of editing every single note if needed. Being stuck with only a 'song' track is absolutely problematic for me. Please update us if Apple finally changes this feature 😭😭
Cheers Patrick. Brilliant stuff as always ✊🏼🥸
Appreciate the help 🙏🏼
Thank you for explanations.
Excellent. Remember folks this *is* free software so there has to be the odd ball ache (much as I’d love it to work seamlessly). Cheers. Lee
Thanks for the video...but wow...that was a HUGE let-down, Apple! Such a misleading label to share "Project to GarageBand for iOS". We'd get the same results by exporting the project as a wav and then importing that to a new project in GB iOS if we want to. :(
A lot of work. Apple could have made this so much easier. Oh well, thanks for the tips bro. Appreciate it.
Yep, seems crazy to have to jump through these hoops. Thanks for watching!
So right. If I save an Excel file in CSV, it tells me I can lose some features or formatting but allows me to keep a more basic version of the file. I understand GB projects are more complicated than spreadsheets, but I wish it would work similarly
Apple... Why, oh why ? A simple "export as stems" option would do just fine... Is that too much to ask ? 🙄
A feature they unfortunately reserve for Logic Pro.
@@TheGaragebandGuide And, knowing how GB works, that means that the option is probably in there... we just don't have access to it.
@@marcbrault You're right, it sucks.
@@TheGaragebandGuide I’m using Logic Pro and have been trying to properly send stems to somebody for two days… 😅 help me jesus
There has to be a business reason to make it so cumbersome.
when i click project to garageband for ios that drop
down menu thing aint popping up
for me
Just came back to this video because I need to know how to send a project from Garage band on the Mac to Logic Pro for iPad. Please help 😢
Any chance of Logic Pro on iPad importing a multitrack project from GarageBand on a Macbook? Or any way to get that going without losing midi tracks as midi tracks and all of that or is that a technical restriction between the two architectures of OS's? In my mind the Project file is only a container having multiple wav files in it for instrument/mic line ins and midi tracks with some sort of metadata file that contains automation info and track infos (when which wav/midi starts on what track). I thought this shouldn't be to hard to interpret but either it seems i'm really wrong or it is a business decision :D
is there a way to convert software instrument midi into audio in garage band ios, or must one export and re-import? i'm used to ableton live where one an record simultaneously an audio and midi track, or freeze midi to audio. i'm new to garage band, but bought an ipad and decided have fun with the software instruments in garage band.
Does Logic Pro make this process easier?
Yes, as it allows you to batch export your individual tracks as stems.
Hi from 2025! Thanks for the great GB Tuts! Has Apple made the process of Sharing a Song PROJECT with Separate Tracks from desktop MAC to iPhone any easier?
Thanks for this reality check video. I am an idiot for assuming I could just transfer Mac GB projects to GB ios on my new iPad 9. I'll have to continue using my 1st gen MacBook with no wifi working on it to finish my projects.Just sucks! I hope it doesn't die on me anytime soon. I was hoping to buy better plug-ins but f**k that lol
this is why i wanna sell my ipad pro 12.9..i was hoping i can jump back and forth smoothly from mac and ipad..but sadly i can..so i dont need the ipad anymore
I like consistency
You can be consistently pleasant
You can be consistently annoying
… and we’re good.
.. it’s the consistently annoying pleasantries apple brings me that provoke bouts of anger and frustration.
Well what about ios to macios
Maybe use another DAW on the Mac (I use PS1 anyway) and export as stems? It seems clear that GarageBand on Mac is intentionally kneecapped in favor of Logic. Shame.
Hello Patrick! I was quite curious spotting your latest video's title in my email inbox. Consequently, I should have been highly disappointed at 2:19, shouldn't I? Instead I wasn't. I think the idea to import the stereo mixdown track, add some tracks and go back to the Mac for giving your creation the final touch (or another iteration) is appropriate. It puts a very low demand on the iOS side of the production, relieving a modest iPad (non-Pro) from a bunch of hard work like rendering audio from MIDI though a virtual instrument, playing back a number of audio tracks with carefully assigned FX etc. Instead you have most of your device's power left to handle the new stuff you are about to add to your masterpiece. Re-exporting the creation Mac-ward will later be a track-by-track story . I'm quite happy with this feature, but it isn't what the menu item suggests: You don't actually »share the project« but transfer the song, just like in the topmost two menu items.
Meh apple. Makes no sense to restrict this inho. Another option is to export wav's per track in import on in iOS
Yep, that’ll work too
TLDR: You can only transfer one audio track at a time from Mac to iOS.
You cannot transfer whole projects or MIDI tracks.
But you *can* transfer whole projects from iOS to Mac (the other direction).
This is ridiculous by APPLE. The iPad has gotten so powerful there’s no reason you couldn’t get full GB. Pages is the full app, just some interface tweaks for touch. Apple acting like you can’t record Dark Side of the Moon on your iPad and then just polish on the MAC is absurd!
tldr: gband is bad way to go
Its just silly it has to be this complicated or time consuming.
thank you. That is painful to hear
Why do creators always ‘take a moment to like’ I hear it on every, single, video. So much so it pisses me off and I deliberately don’t press like. I would if not asked. At this point, everyone knows to like if ye like the video. Am I alone in thinkin this?
No, I need reminding but I'd rather be reminded at the end than the beginning
if I’m being honest, I’m having a really hard time understanding why I put the search, “ how to transfer your iPhone GarageBand project to your GarageBand project on your Mac- then to make it even worse the first thing you say is cut off then you say you’re going to do what i to id only to then say are NOT…. That is seriously SOOOOOO FRUSTRATING
GRREAT WORKAROUND MAN! Since I'm working on my new Macbook Pro and using my iPhone Pro Max 12, here in 2024 now, do you have any updates that can garner smoother results? Also I am SO GLAD that I gave your channel that TICKLE! Much love and mad respect from NEW ORLEANS BABY! ^..^😺⚜🦀🦞🦐🥃🍺🎭🐊
hmm, too much of “not making music”. dissapointing…
thanks for the vid. all my questions were answered.
just subscribed
thing is, if it wasnt for garageband, i probably wouldn’t be creating. so 🫤