Manatee

An audio file that GarageBand will not import on a Mac

· 6 min read

GarageBand on a Mac imports AIFF, WAV, CAF, AAC (.m4a), Apple Lossless and MP3. A file in any other format, such as FLAC, OGG, Opus or WMA, is ignored when you drag it in, usually with no message, and so is a copy-protected song. Convert the file to WAV or M4A first and it will drop straight into a track.

What GarageBand accepts, and what it ignores

Apple’s documentation for GarageBand lists these audio formats: AIFF, CAF, WAV, AAC (except protected AAC files), Apple Lossless and MP3. Everything else is left out, and the app rarely explains why a drop did nothing.

The formats people most often try that GarageBand does not take:

  • FLAC. This is the confusing one. QuickTime Player and Quick Look play FLAC on a current Mac, so the file seems fine, and it is still missing from GarageBand’s list.
  • OGG and Opus, common for game audio, voice messages and downloads from the web.
  • WMA, from older Windows music libraries and some voice recorders.
  • APE and WavPack, used for lossless music collections.
  • AMR and similar phone recording formats.

Sample rate is rarely the reason. A GarageBand project runs at 44.1 kHz, and a supported file at another rate is converted as it is imported.

Check these before converting

  1. Is the file protected? Songs downloaded from a music subscription, and older store purchases with the .m4p extension, are copy protected. GarageBand cannot import them, and no converter can legitimately unlock them. An M4P song that will not play or convert explains what your options are.
  2. Is the file on the Mac? A file in iCloud Drive with a cloud icon beside its name has not been downloaded. Click the icon and wait for it to finish. A file that will not open because iCloud kept a placeholder covers the stubborn cases.
  3. Is it the format it claims to be? In Terminal, type afinfo and a space, drag the file into the window, and press Return. For a format macOS can read, it prints the data format, the sample rate and the number of channels. An error means macOS itself cannot read the file, and GarageBand has no chance.
  4. Does it play at all? Select it in Finder and press Space. A file in a supported format that will not play in Quick Look is probably damaged. Corrupted MP3 or M4A won’t play on Mac is the place to start.
  5. Are you dropping it in the right place? Drag the file from Finder into the Tracks area: onto an existing audio track, or into the empty space below the tracks, where GarageBand makes a new one.

Which format to convert to

  • WAV is the safe choice for editing. It is uncompressed, so nothing more is lost, and GarageBand reads it directly. The cost is size: stereo audio at CD quality takes about 10 MB per minute.
  • M4A (AAC) is far smaller, and fine for a backing track, a reference song or a voice recording you will not process heavily.
  • MP3 also works, with no advantage over M4A inside GarageBand.

If the source is lossless, such as FLAC, converting to WAV keeps every sample. If the source is already lossy, such as OGG or WMA, converting to WAV does not restore what the original compression removed, but it avoids compressing the audio a second time. Lossless vs lossy explains why that matters.

Converting with what macOS includes

For a FLAC file, Terminal can do the job with a command that ships with macOS:

afconvert -f WAVE -d LEI16 ~/Music/song.flac ~/Music/song.wav

-f WAVE asks for a WAV file and -d LEI16 for standard 16-bit audio. For a 24-bit source, use LEI24 to keep the extra resolution.

This works only for formats macOS can already read. The command does not open OGG, WMA, APE or WavPack files, and it handles one file at a time unless you write a loop around it.

Converting with Manatee

Manatee takes all of the formats above as input, including FLAC, OGG, Opus, WMA, APE, WavPack and AMR, and writes WAV, M4A, MP3 or FLAC.

  1. Open Manatee and choose Convert.
  2. Drop the files, or a whole folder of them, onto the window. You can also drag them onto the menu bar icon.
  3. Pick WAV or M4A.
  4. Drag the converted files from Finder into GarageBand.

Each result is a new file beside its original, and the original is never modified. The conversion runs on the Mac, with no upload and no account. Manatee is free for 24 hours with every feature, then $9 once.

The limits, plainly. Manatee does not remove copy protection. It is not an audio editor: it does not trim, split, change tempo or clean up noise, which is GarageBand’s job once the file is in. And it cannot improve a recording by changing its format.

When the audio is inside a video

GarageBand can open one movie per project with File, Movie, Open Movie. That adds the movie and its soundtrack so you can score it. If all you want is the sound as an ordinary audio region, convert the video to WAV or M4A first. Manatee does that the same way as above, and how to convert an MP4 to WAV has the details.

Video in a format the Mac does not play, such as MKV or AVI, will not open as a movie in GarageBand at all. Pulling the audio out as a WAV is the practical route for those.

Questions

Will converting FLAC to WAV change how it sounds? No. Both are lossless, so the WAV holds the same audio as the FLAC. The file is larger because WAV is not compressed.

Should I convert to AIFF instead of WAV? There is no need. AIFF and WAV hold the same uncompressed audio, and GarageBand treats them alike. Manatee writes WAV, so use that.

Will a WAV made from an OGG or a WMA sound better than the original? No. The detail removed when the file was first compressed stays removed. The WAV is simply a format GarageBand accepts.

GarageBand ignores an MP3. Is MP3 not supported? It is supported, so something is wrong with that file. Run afinfo on it. A file that is mislabeled or cut short fails there too, and fetching a fresh copy is usually quicker than fixing it.