Apple appears to have changed how the content for Logic Pro 12+ is installed for that app; the "traditional" method of downloading a .pkg file and installing it seems to have been replaced by a patching mechanism that downloads specific content files and stores it into the ~/Music/Logic Pro Content.bundle directory (amongst others).

Given this significant change to the way content is installed, and that Apple is making the content only available to valid app store purchases, I will not be pursuing any changes to loopdown as it does not appear to be feasible to build any tooling to automate the deployment of content.

If you're responsible for deploying Mac's and want to learn more, join the MacAdmin's Slack and the musicsupport channel for ongoing discussion.

Test release for the first Swift version; functionality at this stage is generally close to the Python version.

This should build on macOS 14+ and produce a Universal 2 binary in dist/swift. This has been built on macOS 14.8.2 using Xcode 15.2.

To build, find the build.sh file and run it (it should be in the loopdown folder).

I'm generally fairly wary of projects that rely on AI to create code, however this project does heavily utilize Claude to convert the concepts in the Python version of this project to Swift. While I've made the best effort I can to not introduce slop or directly copied code, I can't guarantee this hasn't happened. If code is found to be direct copies of code in other projects, please raise an issue with references so I can follow up.

This is provided 'as is'. Any bugs must be reported as an issue. No technical support is provided on how to use this in your environment other than what is provided in this read-me or in the help messages in the utility itself. Issues raised without any debug logging data will be closed without further follow up.

./build.sh              # universal (default)
./build.sh universal    # same
./build.sh arm64        # Apple Silicon only
./build.sh x86_64       # Intel only

../dist/swift/universal/loopdown   # ./build.sh or ./build.sh universal
../dist/swift/arm64/loopdown       # ./build.sh arm64
../dist/swift/x86_64/loopdown      # ./build.sh x86_64

[foo@bar]:loopdown/dist/swift/universal # ./loopdown -h 
OVERVIEW: Manage additional content for Apple's audio applications, GarageBand, Logic Pro, and/or MainStage.

These arguments are supported in both 'deploy' and 'download' commands:
  -n, --dry-run     Perform a dry run.
  -a, --app <app>   Install content for an app (default: all supported apps).
  -r, --required    Select required content.
  -o, --optional    Select optional content.

COMMENTS:
  -r, --required / -o, --optional one or both are required.
  -a, --app is not required; omitting this will trigger content processing for all applicable apps installed.

USAGE: loopdown <subcommand>

OPTIONS:
  --version               Show the version.
  -h, --help              Show help information.

SUBCOMMANDS:
  deploy                  Install content for selected apps; requires root level privilege.
  download                Download content for selected apps.

  See 'loopdown help <subcommand>' for detailed help.

The basic deployment process is:

1. Install respective audio apps (i.e. GarageBand, Logic Pro, and/or MainStage)
2. Use the deploy mode of loopdown with applicable arguments
3. If audio content is being installed for the modern versions of Logic Pro (v12+) and/or MainStage (v4+), then ensure the user and group ownership of the deployment target (default /Users/Shared/Logic Pro Library.bundle are set appropriately as some directories/files may have user and group ownership incorrectly set - this is an Apple issue); for example sudo chown -R user:staff /Users/Shared/Logic\ Pro\ Library.bundle.

If you have already deployed some content for Logic Pro v12+ and/or MainStage 4+ and you're deploying additional content, when a user next launches either of these applications, the newly deployed content may not appear as installed (even though the files do exist); this is because there is a database maintained in ~/Music/Audio Music Apps - this directory may need to be deleted to ensure the application re-creates it on the next launch to ensure the Sound Library in each app correctly indicates/detects which content packs are installed.

This could be achieved through a post-install script (presuming appropriate access to delete these folders from user accounts exists), or can be achieved by instructing the user to delete that directory.

It is beyond the scope of loopdown to manage this process, especially as it is a per user database.

This is an experimental implementation of use managed preferences (or even using defaults to provide local preferences) for deployment modes.

Preferences can be set with a local defaults write com.github.carlashley.loopdown command (or plistlib for more complex settings like appPolicies) or configuration delivered by MDM or DDM (as long as com.github.carlashley.loopdown.plist lands in /Library/Managed Preferences).

When using managed preferences to control how loopdown runs for deploying content, the following default options are used (but can be overridden):

• deploy mode (not a dry run and output is still sent to console+log)
• cache server auto detected
• install required packages (presumes disk space check passes)

Either a dry-run or deploy run can be called manually from the command line using loopdown deploy --managed -n or loopdown deploy --managed.

This documents the accepted keys and values for the managed deployment.

It is possible to configure per-app installation of required and/or optional packages using an app policy by using appPolicies. This is useful when you might deploy more than one of the audio applications, but only want required content installed for one, but required and optional for another (for example, install required and optional content for GarageBand, but only the required content for Logic Pro).

# Preferences for loopdown (domain: 'com.github.carlashley.loopdown').
apps:
  type: [String]
  default: []        # empty or not present = all installed apps
  values: garageband, logicpro, mainstage

essential:
  type: Bool
  default: true      # inferred true when essential, core, and optional are all absent
  # Selects essential content packages (ecp* — Logic Pro 12+ / MainStage 4+ only).

core:
  type: Bool
  default: true      # inferred true when essential, core, and optional are all absent
  # Selects core content packages (ccp*; equivalent to required for legacy apps).

optional:
  type: Bool
  default: false

appPolicies:
  type: [{app: String, essential: Bool, core: Bool, optional: Bool}]
  default: []        # empty = use top-level flags for all apps
  # Per-app overrides. Apps not listed fall back to the top-level flags.
  # Example:
  #   - app: logicpro
  #     essential: true
  #     core: true
  #     optional: false
  #   - app: garageband
  #     essential: false
  #     core: true
  #     optional: true

forceDeploy:
  type: Bool
  default: false

skipSignatureCheck:
  type: Bool
  default: false

logLevel:
  type: String
  default: info
  values: debug, info, notice, warning, error, critical

cacheServer:
  type: String
  default: auto      # inferred when both cacheServer and mirrorServer are absent
  values: auto, http://host:port

mirrorServer:
  type: String
  default: ~         # absent; overrides cacheServer when present
  values: https://host

dryRun:
  type: Bool
  default: false     # also overridable by --dry-run CLI flag

quietRun:
  type: Bool
  default: false

libraryDest:
  type: String
  default: /Users/Shared
  # Parent directory under which Logic Pro Library.bundle is created.

maxRetries:
  type: Int
  default: 3
  range: 1-10
  # Maximum download retry attempts on transient network errors.

retryDelay:
  type: Int
  default: 2
  range: 1-5
  # Initial backoff delay in seconds between download retry attempts.

minimumBandwidth:
  type: String
  default: ~        # absent = no threshold enforced
  values: e.g. 300KB, 2MB
  range: 300KB-5MB/s
  # Abort a download if rolling average speed stays below this threshold.

bandwidthWindow:
  type: Int
  default: 60
  range: 30-120
  # Rolling average window in seconds for bandwidth measurement.

abortAfter:
  type: Int
  default: 3
  range: 2-5
  # Abort the run after this many consecutive bandwidth-threshold failures.
  # Only meaningful when minimumBandwidth is set.

Licensed under the Apache License Version 2.0. See LICENSE for more information.