everyday mac tools

Delete GarageBand from a Mac and get the sound library space back

· 6 min read

Yes, you can delete GarageBand from a Mac. It is an ordinary app, not part of macOS, and dragging it from Applications to the Trash removes it. The catch is that the app is the smaller part. The instruments and loops live in separate folders at the top level of the disk and stay behind, so removing those is what actually frees the space. Everything can be downloaded again for free from the App Store later.

Before you delete anything: keep your songs

GarageBand projects are saved in the GarageBand folder inside your Music folder, as files ending in .band. Deleting the app does not remove them, but nothing else on a standard Mac will open them afterwards.

If there is anything you want to keep listening to, export it first:

  1. Open the project in GarageBand.
  2. Choose Share, Export Song to Disk.
  3. Pick a format (AAC, MP3, AIFF or WAVE) and a quality, then click Export.

Keep the .band files too if you might return to them. They are your only editable copies.

One more check. If you use Logic Pro or MainStage, stop here and read the next sections carefully: those apps share part of the same sound library, and deleting it removes sounds they rely on.

See how much space it is using

Open Terminal, in Applications, Utilities, and run:

du -sh /Applications/GarageBand.app "/Library/Application Support/GarageBand" "/Library/Application Support/Logic" "/Library/Audio/Apple Loops" 2>/dev/null

You get one line per item that exists, with its size. On most Macs the app is the smallest figure and the library folders are several times larger. Check disk space from the Terminal on a Mac explains how to read du output if it is new to you.

For a view without Terminal, open System Settings, General, Storage and look for a row called Music Creation. Its size is the sound library.

Remove the app

  1. Quit GarageBand if it is open.
  2. In Finder, open Applications.
  3. Drag GarageBand to the Trash, or select it and press Cmd-Delete. macOS asks for an administrator password.
  4. Empty the Trash.

That removes the app and nothing else.

Remove the sound library

There are two ways, and the first is easier when it is available.

From System Settings

  1. Open System Settings, General, Storage.
  2. Find the Music Creation row and click the i button beside it.
  3. Click Remove GarageBand Sound Library and confirm.

The row only appears when macOS finds the library, and its wording has varied between macOS versions. If you do not see it, use Finder.

From Finder

  1. In Finder, choose Go, Go to Folder (Shift-Cmd-G).
  2. Paste each of these paths in turn and drag the folder it opens to the Trash: - /Library/Application Support/GarageBand holds the instruments and the built-in lessons. - /Library/Application Support/Logic holds sampler instruments that GarageBand shares with Logic Pro. - /Library/Audio/Apple Loops holds the loops. - /Library/Audio/Apple Loops Index holds the index of those loops.
  3. Enter an administrator password when asked. These folders belong to the whole Mac, not to one user.
  4. Empty the Trash.

Notice that every path starts with /Library, not ~/Library. This is the mistake that sends people in circles: they look in the Library folder inside their home folder, find almost nothing, and conclude the library is hidden. It is not hidden. It is in the Library folder at the top of the startup disk, shared by every account.

If you use Logic Pro or MainStage, remove only /Library/Application Support/GarageBand and leave the other three alone.

Your home folder holds a few minor leftovers. In ~/Library/Containers there is a GarageBand folder with the app’s settings, and ~/Library/Audio/Apple Loops exists only if you saved loops of your own. Look inside that second one before deleting it, because those are your recordings, not Apple’s.

If the space does not come back

Free space in Finder can lag behind what you just deleted. Two usual reasons:

  • The Trash has not been emptied, or the items went into the Trash of a different user account.
  • Time Machine is holding the deleted files in a local snapshot on the internal drive. macOS releases those on its own schedule, usually within a day.

You emptied the Trash but your Mac got no space back covers both in detail.

Getting GarageBand back later

Open the App Store, search for GarageBand and click the download button. It is free. On first launch it fetches a basic set of sounds. For the full set, choose GarageBand, Sound Library, Download All Available Sounds, and expect that to take as much space as it did before.

Your .band projects open again once the app is back. If a project uses a sound that is not installed, GarageBand offers to download it.

The same applies to the other Apple apps that come with a new Mac, such as iMovie, Keynote, Pages and Numbers. If you never open them, they can go, and the App Store will hand them back whenever you ask. Find the apps you never use on a Mac and remove them shows how to list them by when they were last opened.

Where a tool helps

Doing this once by hand is reasonable. The general problem, an app whose files are spread across several Library folders, comes up with almost every app you remove, and Uninstall an app on a Mac completely walks through the manual hunt.

Crumb is a menu bar disk cleaner whose Uninstall tool removes an app together with its leftovers. If you are unsure about an item, Ask Crumb explains what it is, whether it regenerates, and what breaks if it is gone, then proposes a plan. Nothing is deleted until you approve that plan, which is the moment to check it if you use Logic Pro. The read-only audit of the whole Mac is free; Uninstall and Ask Crumb are part of the $9 one-time unlock, which covers up to 2 Macs.

Questions

Will deleting GarageBand break anything in macOS? No. It is a separate app. System sounds, the Music app and audio in other apps do not depend on it.

Why did deleting the app free so little space? Because the app and its sound library are stored separately. The library sits in /Library/Application Support and /Library/Audio, and it stays until you remove it.

I use Logic Pro. Can I still remove GarageBand? Yes. Delete the app and the /Library/Application Support/GarageBand folder, and leave the Logic and Apple Loops folders in place, since Logic Pro uses them.

Can I delete just the lessons? Yes. They are inside /Library/Application Support/GarageBand, in the Learn to Play folder if you downloaded any. Removing that folder leaves the instruments alone.