How to Download the Available Soundpacks for GarageBand (iPhone/iPad)

GarageBand for iPhone and iPad offers a treasure trove of soundpacks to improve your music projects. And it’s really straightforward to download all of them (assuming you have enough storage space on your device).

What Gear You’ll Need

1) An iPhone/iPad with At Least 32GB of Storage Space

I have an iPad with 1TB of storage and that’s good for me but most won’t need something like that. I imagine that soundpacks will get larger and larger over time.

I’m prepared to host not only all available sounds, but additional data that’s not GarageBand-related.

2) Solid Wi-Fi

If you don’t have good Wi-Fi, this is going to take forever. Make sure you’re sitting somewhere with a great connection.

To download soundpacks for GarageBand iOS, in the Sound Browser, go to the “Sound Library” icon by scrolling left. Click on it, and you’ll see a list of all the soundpacks. Tap the one you want, then hit the “Get” button. Make sure you’re connected to Wi-Fi and also check you have enough space.

My Video Tutorial (How to Download All Soundpacks)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1OwfUdQo7Q

How to Access the Sound Library

Contents - Sidebar TOC ->

1) Open GarageBand & Then Open Your Project

If you’re already in your project. You’ll want to go directly to the Sound Browser page, which is the part of the interface where you select all of your instrument and sound types.

Sound Browser in GarageBand iOS — The Sound Browser icon looks like this. I used to wonder why it looked like that, but now that I think about it, makes sense.

2) Scroll Left in the Sound Browser to Find the “Sound Library”

3) Explore the Soundpacks

Click on the specific soundpack you want to try, and then you’ll enter the following interface that you can see in the next image.

General Overview of the Sounds of a Sound Pack — Preview the soundpack. See what’s in them, what they sound like & read descriptions of each soundpack and whether it’s worth downloading.

4) Select “Manage Packs” in the Top Left

5) Tap the “Get” Button to Begin Downloading

Some Troubleshooting Solutions to Soundpack Problems

1) Issues with Downloading?

Pausing the Soundpack Download Due to Issues — If a download stalls, try pausing and resuming. Restart the app if needed.

2) Missing Soundpacks?

2) Redownload GaraegBand from the App Store — If you can’t find a soundpack, update GarageBand to the latest version or delete it and re-download it again to see if the Soundpacks get refreshed.

It’s also possible that you’re using an iPad that’s simply too old. This can cause all kinds of random problems that are unexplainable.

3) Use Reputable Wi-Fi

For reasons I can’t explain, I’ve had issues downloading soundpacks in GarageBand in shopping malls and some other commercial areas. I’ve even had trouble accessing my own website in shopping malls.

In cases such as these, I’ll use my phone’s cell signal as a personal hotspot instead of the Wi-Fi. I have a good cell phone plan though; you may be unable to accomodate that much data.

Either way, you want to use WIFI that you know, for a fact, is high-quality.

Any thoughts, comments, or questions ? Let me know in the comment section below. It would be great if you could share which soundpacks you’ve discovered and how they’ve influenced your projects.

Your insights could help other people.

Plugins, Sounds & Presets