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Mistertoad17

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 31, 2011
9
0
Derby, UK
Hi all

Some time ago I paid for a bunch of "Artist Lessons" in Garageband (Desktop). Until now they had been kept with all other software downloads purchased prior to AppStore, but if you search for the link where they say it is it no longer seems to exist.

Over the last week or two I have been having a very frustrating time asking a chap at iTunes help how to get to re-download them.

Why iTunes help? Because when you follow the appropriate pages for raising a case, that is where they tell you to go for any software purchases prior to AppStore.

The chap at iTunes support, suggested I purchase Garageband in iTunes and re-download it to my iPad. I have no idea why that was supposed to help and I am sure I hadn't mentioned the iPad. I expected him to be aware that "Artist lessons" were in the desktop version only, but then again he suggested lots of very unhelpful random stuff before I finally got him to understand... Suggesting I include Tim Cook in my reply appeared to do the trick in the end. He admitted he didn't know the answer, said he only worked on iTunes problems (then again this is an iTunes issue according to the support pages) and that I should phone Apple Technical Support and join their care plan.

As the conversation has become so frustrating with him (actually it could have been a her come to think of it) I haven't replied for fear of being so rude that I might be extradited :eek:

Knowing now that at Apple the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is up to, that has left me pondering how to move on. Has anyone found the link recently to re-download artist lessons?

I did spot that in the new Garageband there is a greyed out item in the Garageband menu to "Restore Purchase", but as yet I can't find a way of making it active. I am signed in, there is nothing in my account screen and anyway if you go to the Garageband Learn To Play page, it clearly tells you that you retrieve your artist lessons by going to the "Downloadable Software" section of "Your Account" and that doesn't exist.

One more useful point, if I go to buy any of the titles I already purchased I get a message written in white on a bright yellow background (they really don't want to help do they ;) )that reads something like "You have already purchased this title. Are you sure you want to buy it again?" So Garageband clearly knows I own the lessons.

Anybody done this lately, got the link,know where who to speak to about this? I am pretty sure I shouldn't have to pay Apple to find out a result of their mistake.

I am running Mavericks and have updated to the latest version of Garageband on a mid 2011 27" iMac i5.

Would really appreciate any help.

Ade
 
I had the same thing happen.

In '09 when I bought my first Mac, an iMac, I bought a Sting Artist Lesson.

Earlier this year I bought a new 27" iMac and after I wiped out the old one I realized I never saved the Artist Lesson to bring over to the new one.

I called iTunes support who then transferred me to Garage Band support. None of my purchases from '09 showed as being able to download it again and I noticed that no purchases after 6 months showed up. I had the proof of purchase emails so they were going to have me purchase the lesson again and then refund the purchase. I said I would do some digging around and would call them back if I wanted to go that route.

Since I had a backup disk for that machine I did some searching on the net and found the location of where they should be stored, and viola there they were!

Do you have a Time Machine backup from then? If so, it should be in Library > Application Support > Garage Band > Learn to Play > Artist Lessons.
 
Thanks for the reply, but I am in a similar boat to you in that I replaced an old iMac Core Duo with the 27" and yes most of my purchases were Sting too (wait, you aren't actually me writing to me from the future are you? :) )

Alas when I replaced the Core Duo I thought of everything other than the lessons and though I left it many months, I eventually wiped the Time Capsule and moved it to the new iMac. The TC is only a 500g and the 27" iMac is a 1 TB but with some exclusions in place I have still been able to use it effectively enough as a Time Machine. Needless to say it has been filled several times now so I don't believe that even data recovery were an option and anyway it would be cheaper to buy everything again.

One good thing, I do have backups of most, if not all purchase receipts as PDF files somewhere so I will trawl those tomorrow.

I will follow your advice though and get hold of GarageBand support and see what they can do. Thanks for giving me a new route to follow. Your help is really appreciated.

One last thing... Do I get married again and do I win the PostCode lottery? ... on second thoughts don't answer that. Knowing my luck it would cause some paradox and I will end up with an old hag and bigger bills than a flock of pelicans :D

Thanks

Ade
 
Hi guy!

I would like to contribute my experience... I've spend 1h21 Minutes for this problem with the Apple service about this excate problem. ShockedMonster was right, the apple support give me the exacte link. https://support.apple.com/HT202446

What i suggest you to do : Open a new project in GarageBand, go to the GarageBand menu and select : Provide GarageBand Feedback. or click on the link : https://apple.com/feedback/garageband.html

From there you will be able to ask a feature request like enable to purchased download...

Please... It's important that you leave a feedback on this page so they could understand the gravity of the flaw.

Thank you!
 
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