Garageband backup

[Mandody]

Hello All, I recently bought an iPad mini for recording whilst on the road in India, but I need to backup my work. I'd like to backup entire Garageband projects, not just exported audio files. Trying to do this via iCloud or email isn't an option, given the files sizes and poor connection speeds. I thought using an external WIFI disk would be the best option but after doing a little research it looks like this isn't as straight forward as I'd hoped. If anyone can provide a solution I'd be forever grateful. Hoping someone can help.

 

[twerppoet]

The only option I can think of requires a computer with iTunes installed.

You share the song via iTunes and select the GarageBand format, connect to your computer, launch iTunes, select the iPad in iTunes, Go to the App settings, scroll down to the File sharing section, select the GarageBand app, then drag the file into a folder on the computer.

It's part of how you export a project from iOS to OS X's version of GarageBand.

To restore the file you would drag the file back into iTunes (again with the iPad Connected) then use the Copy from iTunes File Sharing option when creating a new song on the iPad.

If this is feasible for you, and the instructions are not clear enough, let me know. I can go into more detail, and perhaps even add a few screen shots.

 

[Mandody]

Hi Twerppoet,

Many thanks for the reply, I really appreciate it, but sadly this isn't going to work for me. I'll be working on my projects daily so I need to do regular backups. Also I can't carry another computer around with me just for backups, so I'd have to rely on whatever machines are available to me in internet cafes. Just not practical. I fear my brand new shiny iPad Mini Retina 128GB is completely useless. Thanks to Apple's continued and unfathomable policy of not providing any expandable storage options for the iPad, what could be an incredibly versatile and powerful tool is nothing more than an expensive gimmick.

I'll have to start researching Jailbreak options :-/

But thanks again for the reply

 

[twerppoet]

If you choose the iCloud icon when the song is collected it will be uploaded to iCloud. It's a backup of sorts. Your songs will only backup when you have internet, but they will still be accessible on the iPad when you don't. If the iPad should have a mishap the songs would sync back to another iOS device set up with the same account.

A partial solution at best, but better than nothing if you find nothing else. You'd have to be careful to visit a decent internet cafe every so often, open GarageBand, and wait for the songs to all update to iCloud.

 

[Mandody]

Once again, thank you very much for your reply. My biggest concern is with the file sizes and connection speeds. I'll be recording lots of multi-track audio projects and Garageband uses an uncompressed audio format. As such, I think any kind of cloud solution is going to be impractical. Other people have suggested using 3rd party software like iTools, but I think you understand my plight - attaching my iPad and an external hard drive (which will also contain photos, documents etc) to a machine in an internet cafe is too much of a risk. You can pretty much guarantee I'll get a virus of some sort. I learned this the hard way. Maybe the iPad will be safe, but my backup drive containing all my other data is just too vulnerable.

 

[twerppoet]

Ok. Good luck with your search.