iPad mini Backup Garageband Projects

Hello All, I recently bought an iPad mini to use for recording my music whilst on the road in India, but I need to backup my work. I'd like to backup entire Garageband projects, not just exported audio files. Trying to do this via iCloud or email isn't an option, given the files sizes and poor connection speeds. I thought using an external WIFI disk would be the best option but after doing a little research it looks like this isn't as straight forward as I'd hoped. If anyone can provide a solution I'd be forever grateful. Hoping someone can help.

Hi Night Spring, many thanks for the reply, I really appreciate it, but sadly this isn't going to work for me. I'll be working on my projects daily so I need to do regular backups. Also I can't carry another computer around with me just for backups, so I'd have to rely on whatever machines are available to me in internet cafes. Just not practical. I fear my brand new shiny iPad Mini Retina 128GB is completely useless. Thanks to Apple's continued and unfathomable policy of not providing any expandable storage options for the iPad, what could be an incredibly versatile and powerful tool is nothing more than an expensive gimmick.

I'll have to start researching Jailbreak options :-/

But thanks again for the reply

Thanks for the suggestion Sydde, but again this isn't gonna work for me. I'll be recording lots of large multi-track audio projects and the WIFI connections in India just aren't reliable enough to support this kind of online backup. That's why I can't use iCloud.

Matraco, you may have just saved my sanity Perhaps my original post wasn't very clear, I DO want to use an external WIFI hard drive. That's exactly what I had in mind when I purchased the iPad. I couldn't find an app that would let me do it. I'll seek out iTools right away. So with this I can copy my projects to my external device...and in the event of a system failure, just copy them back to the original source folder and everything will work OK?

As for using Airdrop, I don't have any other Apple devices, but I appreciate the advice.

Oh dear. My celebrations might have been a bit premature. I think I misunderstood. I thought iTools was an app I could load on to my iPad and then use it to copy my Garageband projects over to an external WIFI device, but I see it's Windows software. Still, it could be an option - just not ideal.

I'm travelling light so ideally I was looking for a way to back up my projects using just my iPad and an external WIFI drive. I'm beginning to realize the sad and frustrating truth about all this.

...but a big thanks for all your suggestions. I'm still holding on to a thread of hope ;-)

Thank you once again Sydde I did look at FileBrowser but I don't think Garageband projects were mentioned in it's list of accessible files. I'll definitely check again though. Fingers crossed. I can't try it out because I'm in India and my new iPad is waiting for me back home. I fly home in February. Plan was to go home, pick up my iPad and hit the road again to record my demo. At this rate it'll never leave the box. I'll just sell it factory sealed :-/ so sad. I was so looking forward to getting creative with my new bit of tech. Good job India teaches you to laugh in exasperating situations.

Once again, a huge thank you for your suggestions. Jessica/Night Spring I think you're right - perhaps using a different DAW is the only way to go. It's still a terrible shame because Garagaband is the only reason I bought the iPad. I only travel with a very small guitar so the Smart Instruments in Garageband were a huge draw for putting together a demo. I can see I'll be working with Garageband to take advantage of the Smart Instruments...then exporting those tracks as audio files, then importing those audio files in to another DAW...and from there exporting....oh god. I'm tired already. What a ridiculous situation :-D

Also, Jessica, perhaps you can clarify something for me. I'm not sure I understand what you're getting at when you say you can't use "open in" with Cubasis. Do you mean if I store a project on external drive, I won't be able to open it on the iPad with Cubasis? Sorry if this is a naive question. Despite being an IT professional in a previous life, I'm pretty new to Apple products and it seems like there's a whole new set of rules to learn.

And yes Night Spring, you're absolutely right, the issue is with Garageband not the iPad, but I still blame Apple. Well no, I blame myself for crediting Apple with anything but greed and devisive marketing tactics.

Thanks for the clarification Jessica. Much appreciated. And thanks for the Audiobus tip ;-) very useful.

I've emailed the FileBrowser people to ask if their app will grant me access to GB project files. If this is possible it'll be the neatest solution for me. I'll post their reply when I receive it.

Thanks again

Well, here it is :

"Each app on the iPad is sandboxed within its own folder and apps are not permitted to directly access the contents of other apps. Apple provide the Open In mechanism to pass a file from one app to another, but this will only allow a single file to be passed to another app, such as FileBrowser, at a time. I’m afraid that FileBrowser will not be able to browse into the Garageband app and copy multiple files at a time."

Oh well :-(

Any other suggestions will be gratefully received.