My 2014 Mac Mini was running slowly and the hard drive was making noise, so I took it to my guy who replaced it with a SSD, and updated the OS to Mojave. Logic Pro and Quicktime stopped working. Guy tried to revert to the old OS but there was some issue with the disk image and so it couldn't revert. So I said fuck it, I'll buy the new version of Logic Pro. Well that has to run on a newer OS, so I updated to Monterey, which made some other programs stop working. Then I tried to buy the new version of Logic, and now it's telling me I need OS 13.5, and Monterey is only 12.7.1. I can't even figure out how to get 13.5 on this thing.
I have what feels like a lifetime of music saved in Logic projects and it's starting to look like I can't access them any more, and I feel fucking sick. Please tell me I'm wrong! I can't find any old versions of Logic to download. I can't revert this computer to make my copy off Logic work. WTF do I do?
Re: Logic Pro WTF
2Similar stuff happened to me a few years ago with my 2011 Mac Mini, which capped out at 10.xx High Sierra and was preventing software updates. I think it was Garage Band that I couldn’t update.
If I’m understanding your situation, it seems that you still have your Logic projects on the new SSD, so it’s unlikely you lost the work itself, just the ability to open then on your Mini.
If I were you, I’d copy your project files to a cloud or external drive backup, and just for sanity’s sake, find someone with a current version of Logic who can open the projects. Again, I’m assuming here the bigger issue for you is the saving and opening the work you’ve done, and the state of the computer itself is secondary?
If I’m understanding your situation, it seems that you still have your Logic projects on the new SSD, so it’s unlikely you lost the work itself, just the ability to open then on your Mini.
If I were you, I’d copy your project files to a cloud or external drive backup, and just for sanity’s sake, find someone with a current version of Logic who can open the projects. Again, I’m assuming here the bigger issue for you is the saving and opening the work you’ve done, and the state of the computer itself is secondary?
Re: Logic Pro WTF
3Everything I'm about to say, please be aware I've haven't paid any bills by doing IT maintenance in about fifteen years, but I have done some of what's described below, on a non-professional basis, in sort-of similar scenarios.
If you are keen to avoid buying a new computer, and want to get your 2014 Mac Mini back to active service (where that means "capable of Logic project work, if increasingly unable to install or run new releases of applications or plugins"), then the key challenges are:
On the assumption that Disk A, the SSD currently installed in your Mac, is the only copy of your original system and your Logic project data, you should back up Disk A in its entirety, and then have your guy remove Disk A from the Mini to a safe place, before you do anything else. The free trial of SuperDuper will let you clone the entire contents of Disk A to a USB disk.
If you already have a USB backup of your Logic project data that you're absolutely certain has all your stuff in it, you can skip cloning Disk A. But I would do it anyway.
The way I would then attempt to get your Mini back to active service involves installing Disk B, an empty SSD, into the Mac mini, and then installing an older release of macOS as if I were setting up a fresh system from scratch. I am reasonably confident that if you are able to re-install the macOS release you were originally using on the Mini, and then sign in to your Apple ID, the App Store will then allow you to download the most recent release of Logic that is compatible with that macOS release. At that point, you should be able to import the Logic project data from your USB backup.
Because project work is precious and storage is cheap, I recommend a short-term shopping list of
If you are keen to avoid buying a new computer, and want to get your 2014 Mac Mini back to active service (where that means "capable of Logic project work, if increasingly unable to install or run new releases of applications or plugins"), then the key challenges are:
- how to find and install an older release of macOS ? while obscure, this is possible - I've done it within the last two years on my mid-2012 MBP
- how to find and install an older release of Logic ? also obscure, this is (probably) possible
On the assumption that Disk A, the SSD currently installed in your Mac, is the only copy of your original system and your Logic project data, you should back up Disk A in its entirety, and then have your guy remove Disk A from the Mini to a safe place, before you do anything else. The free trial of SuperDuper will let you clone the entire contents of Disk A to a USB disk.
If you already have a USB backup of your Logic project data that you're absolutely certain has all your stuff in it, you can skip cloning Disk A. But I would do it anyway.
The way I would then attempt to get your Mini back to active service involves installing Disk B, an empty SSD, into the Mac mini, and then installing an older release of macOS as if I were setting up a fresh system from scratch. I am reasonably confident that if you are able to re-install the macOS release you were originally using on the Mini, and then sign in to your Apple ID, the App Store will then allow you to download the most recent release of Logic that is compatible with that macOS release. At that point, you should be able to import the Logic project data from your USB backup.
Because project work is precious and storage is cheap, I recommend a short-term shopping list of
- USB Disk 1, an external USB disk that's big enough to copy the entirety of Disk A (e.g. the one with the attempted upgrade, that's in the Mini right now)
- Disk B, a new internal SSD, which will let you try the routine below on a disk without anything precious on it; if the routine succeeds, you can then import the precious stuff from USB Disk 1
- USB Pendrive 1, a decent, new, 16GB or larger USB Flash pendrive -- this is to create a bootable USB installer disk for the old macOS release
- preserve the original Logic project data - create a clone of Disk A's data on USB Disk 1
- have your guy remove Disk A to a safe place, and install Disk B into the Mini
- you can download installation images of older macOS releases from this support page (although you may need to use Safari to get the downloads). That linked page also has instructions (at the bottom) for creating a bootable installation USB disk, which is what USB Pendrive 1 is for. Follow those instructions carefully. Plug USB Pendrive 1, which now holds a bootable installer for macOS, into the Mini once Disk B has been installed in it. The Mini should then be able to boot off USB Pendrive 1, and this should enable you to install macOS onto Disk B.
- Once that's done, remove USB Pendrive 1, boot the Mini off Disk B, do all the "Hello!" shit and be sure to sign in with your Apple ID.
- Once you're signed in, the App Store should allow you to download an older (i.e., compatible) release of Logic (open the App Store, go to Account and then Purchased)
- At that point, you should be in with a pretty good chance of being able to import your project data from USB Disk 1. But I haven't used Logic since it was available for Windows, so I can't offer any advice here, I'm afraid.