How to move GarageBand to a new Mac

file-transfergaragebandilife

I have a copy of GarageBand 4 (I think it's branded as "iLife 08" in the retail box) on an old Mac. I bought a new Mac, and want to transfer the app to it. (By my reading of the license, this is perfectly legal, as long as I don't continue to use it on the old computer.)

I copied GarageBand.app over, and then it complained about missing "Application Support" and "Apple Loops Index". I've started copying these files, but my network isn't the fastest (the set of Loops is pretty big).

Is there an easier way to go about this? Am I missing something here?

I don't think the older Mac came with physical media for iLife — only OS X. I see some .pkg bundles in /Library/Recepits/ with "GarageBand" in the name — is there an automatic way to copy or repackage these?

Best Answer

If iLife came pre-installed on your computer back in 2008, your computer came with one or two install discs. If there were two, iLife installers exist on the second disc.

You didn't specify what kind of computer your old or new computers are, but if they both have FireWire ports, you could use Target Disk Mode and a FireWire cable to transfer files faster than via your slow network.

A third method to transfer GarageBand (and other applications) from your old computer to your new would be to use the Migration Assistant application. You can't select individual applications to copy, but you can fairly seamlessly transfer applications from one computer to another, then delete what you don't want.

Without knowing any specifics about hardware or OS version, it's difficult to give you better advice, but your three best bets to more seamlessly copy the application are 1) the install disc, 2) copy the files using Target Disk Mode, or 3) use Migration Assistant.