Hi there, I started downloading the "all available sounds" library and it took overnight and it's still not done. How do I cancel it???? I've tried quitting, shutting down, turning off wifi. No matter what it just starts up again. I have 10.3.4 running on Mojave Any tips to get this download to work as well would be great. I just want a frickin' drum kit frankly Karen

Hi Karen - AFAICT there's no (simple) way to cancel this download. (I'm sure there must be some kind of Terminal command but I've no idea what that might be.) The only suggestion that people claimed to have worked was shutting off WiFi, but you tried that.. I did find this suggestion on an Apple forum, regarding downloading the (same) library content in Logic: (Quote) My biggest success in this story was to find the phone number of the Apple support service and I was really surprised to have somebody on the line within short. He told me how to stop the repeated and repeated download attempt: start the Mac in the Safe Mode [not sure this is the correct term as I'm only familiar with the German terms] and then start over again. (Unquote) To start up in Safe Mode you boot the Mac while holding down Shift; if that works then you can restart normally (without Shift) and try again. Keep in mind that GarageBand needs at least the first 2GB of sounds ("essential content") to run. The "essential content" download should take only a few minutes (maybe 5-10 minutes?) via a typical high-speed connection—AFAIK the entire content should be around 25GB or so..?. If you find that you're unable to cancel the current in-progress download, or a second try also goes that slowly, it might be best to just bite the bullet and just call Apple support directly—if you can get through to an upper-level tech, they're usually quite knowledgable and helpful. Btw—the drum kits are among the largest sounds..

I ran into same problem. But it went away but I am still short of many loops and sounds. I dont need anymore loops. I would like more free sounds though. Can you go over the process for bringing in free plug in sounds especially synths and how you get them to show up in the instrument choice screen...?

Thanks Joe!! I ended up going to my neighbour’s who has fibre optic internet and it finished the download - so that solved the problem without my having to deal with cancelling it. My internet is usually plenty fast so I don’t know what’s up there. Anyway, I’ve been a bit scared to close the program because in my reading around this I’ve seen others with the problem that even after they’ve loaded the sound libraries it tries to reload then every time they open GarageBand. And my neighbour probs won’t appreciate THAT many visits 😂. But having the safe mode option is great in case that happens. And yes... calling Apple. I’ve found that a bit hit and miss with past issues - sometimes you get someone super-knowledgeable, sometimes they just keep telling you the obvious stuff you’ve said you’ve already done, but luck of the draw I guess. Anyway thanks so much for your quick and detailed reply!

(Quote) Can you go over the process for bringing in free plug in sounds especially synths and how you get them to show up in the instrument choice screen...? (Unquote) As this is a new topic, I'm going to start a new thread—please break up different topics into separate threads..

Hi Karen - Happy to help—glad you got it working! :-) According to many people, apparently sometimes Apple's servers are very slow, and then another day they're back running at normal speeds—luck of the draw I guess.. That issue where GB keeps insisting on wanting to reload already-completed library downloads is often a result of installing or moving the library items to another disk (and accessing them via symbolic links or aliases)—if you installed in the normal (default) location hopefully shouldn't be a problem. Re Apple support, as with just about all tech support services often level 1 techs will just go through a checklist, while level 2 (or higher) techs will be far more knowledgeable—I've had good luck with them of late.

can I totally shut off library downloads??? its showing a different status every time I quit GB and I think its eating up data on my plan.....not good.

AFAIK, you have to let it download at least the Essential Content, but if you at some point told it to download the full library then your best bet is to just let it finish, as the O.P. did—if necessary via a faster (preferably wired) connection, if possible. Does GB give you a message about missing content? Exactly what do you mean by "a different status"? It's hard to troubleshoot without a specific description of what's happening—what messages (if any) are you seeing, and if you're not getting a warning or dialog box, how do you know GB is still downloading content? The devil is in the details.. On the other hand, if GB told you the download was complete, but it still says it wants to re-download already-downloaded content, then you could be running into the common issue mentioned in the previous posts. There's apparently still no definitive solution for that, though one person claims to have traced the problem to a particular Project with a missing Loop, so it might be worth it to open GarageBand directly into a new Project—one that doesn't yet have any Loops or Instruments instantiated—and see if it still wants to download content. Another possibility might be if your drive is too full, and the download is failing, so it keeps trying (unsuccessfully)—again, what messages has GB put up regarding this? I guess you could always try the solution suggested above (boot up in Safe Mode, shut down, and then boot normally). If GB still insists on trying to download content that you're sure has already been (successfully) downloaded, my next step would be to go to the source (Apple tech support)—they should have some experience responding to this issue (since it's so common), and hopefully if you provide enough detail they may have more specific suggestions for possible solutions.

I found a place for secure wifi and got all the library and went to Catalina also.... the install takes much longer than the downloads... should be ok now..

(Quote) I found a place for secure wifi and got all the library ... should be ok now.. (Unquote) Great! :-) Hopefully you'll be all set for a while—at least until Apple adds additional sounds/instruments to the library (which they do occasionally, along with updates to the program), in which case you'll probably be prompted to do a (smaller) download of the new stuff..