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I have GarageBand taking 2.46 GB space on my system even after I deleted the app. Couldn't find any other files when searched via spotlight.

Manage Storage

Is there any way to find these files and remove them?

Ankit Jain
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  • See http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/38184/how-do-i-remove-garageband also http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/149205/how-do-i-remove-purchased-garageband-content & http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1045 – Tetsujin Sep 11 '16 at 19:09
  • @Tetsujin Second link (http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/149205/how-do-i-remove-purchased-garageband-content) helped me remove 1 GB of data but I still cannot find where is the rest 1.45 GB data stored. – Ankit Jain Sep 11 '16 at 19:23

6 Answers6

25

On a fresh install of Sierra 10.12.2, the GarageBand files are:

/Applications/GarageBand

/Library/Application Support/GarageBand

/Library/Audio/Apple Loops/Apple/Apple Loops for GarageBand

/Library/Receipts/com.apple.pkg.GarageBand_AppStore.bom

/Library/Receipts/com.apple.pkg.GarageBand_AppStore.plist

/System/Library/Receipts/com.apple.pkg.MAContent10_AssetPack_0325_AppleLoopsGarageBand1.bom

/System/Library/Receipts/com.apple.pkg.MAContent10_AssetPack_0325_AppleLoopsGarageBand1.plist

~/Library/Application Scripts/com.apple.STMExtension.GarageBand

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.STMExtension.GarageBand

Delete those and you should be GarageBand free.

Notes:

  • You might want consider also removing /Library/Audio/Apple Loops/Apple and /Library/Application Support/Logic (those loops aren't GarageBand-specific — Logic Pro uses them, for example).

  • If you're comfortable with the command line, you can delete this list programmatically. I recommend using the tool trash. First copy the above list and save it in a new file. Then run

    xargs trash <pathtothefile

    For example if you save the list on your Desktop as garageband-files-to-delete.txt, you'd run

    xargs trash <~/desktop/garageband-files-to-delete.txt

    (this may require sudo. you could also use rm -rf instead of trash, but that's dangerous).

henry
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  • 3
    Still GarageBand using 1.45 GB !!! – mythicalcoder Mar 23 '17 at 20:20
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    Also removing this helps a lot!: Macintosh HD/Library/Audio/Apple Loops – seleciii44 Jun 22 '17 at 08:40
  • last one should be ~/Library/Containers not ~/library/containers, and – michaelsnowden Jun 28 '17 at 01:53
  • @jason-harrison your edit touches the ability of other apps to work with GarageBand. can you confirm that reinstalling GarageBand reinstates the iLifeMediaBrowser and StorageManagement files? – henry Aug 14 '17 at 14:07
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    @henry, I cannot but I can add a warning. – Jason Harrison Aug 14 '17 at 17:57
  • In that case your edit takes takes this question in a different direction from my intention. Good info though @JasonHarrison! Reverting, but I hope you to post your version as a separate answer – henry Aug 15 '17 at 15:48
  • @kenorb the locate information is valuable but should be a comment or separate answer – henry Oct 12 '17 at 16:03
  • What do you know about /Library/Application Support/Logic? It's 867MB here (El Capitan) – Steven Lu Jan 25 '18 at 19:23
  • @StevenLu nice, looks like those are Logic samples etc. Probably worth keeping if you do any sound work, otherwise likely safe to delete. See https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5579593 – henry Jan 25 '18 at 20:36
  • @henry That was also the result that I found when I Googled. I still don't understand what Logic is, or what instruments and automations going into songs are, even conceptually. Presumably someone who does have such data would not be going down this path of purging these files. In fact I'm curious about it now, but not to try to play with it on my work machine (the one that is sorely in need of more space). – Steven Lu Jan 26 '18 at 21:26
6

The "Storage Management.app" now allows you to remove the instruments.

enter image description here

More information on Storage Management is in "A modern and faster alternative to Disk Inventory X" (macOS 10.13.5 shown)

Greg
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thadk
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1

I used CleanApp to remove applications from macOS. You can try it or any similar uninstaller, but you need the application installed to remove it.

Also check "Delete GarageBand to Save Precious Gigabytes of Mac Storage".

Greg
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Boris A. Ivanov
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1

You can use locate command to locate all files used by GarageBand, e.g.:

locate GarageBand

Note: To rebuild db for the first time, run: sudo /usr/libexec/locate.updatedb.

The main locations are:

  • /Applications/GarageBand (app it-self)
  • /Library/Application Support/GarageBand
  • /Library/Audio/Apple Loops/Apple (GarageBand subfolder)

Also check for any user's data files at the following locations:

  • ~/Library/Application Support/GarageBand
  • ~/Library/Preferences/GarageBand
  • ~/Library/Caches/GarageBand

See: Uninstall Mac Applications.

kenorb
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0

I have been using "AppDelete" to completely delete other applications from macOS. It is very small and does one thing and does it well: it finds all of the files associated with an application and asks if you want to delete them. It even does a dry run to show which files will be deleted, to let us pick the files.

AppDelete is fully-functional to try before you buy it. The developer keeps it up-to-date and it runs on macOS 10.12 Sierra.

Greg
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Michael Sheaver
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0

Download and unzip the free AppCleaner app. Set its preferences to allow it to remove protected apps. Drop the GarageBand icon into the app. Let it find all the GarageBand files and folders. Delete. Done.

Juan Jimenez
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