I’m looking at deploying Logic Pro to shared/classroom Macs using Jamf Pro and I’m trying to work out the best way to manage the Logic Pro Sound Library for multiple users.
My understanding is that newer versions of Logic Pro use a single Logic Pro Library.bundle, which can be relocated to a shared location such as /Users/Shared/ and accessed by multiple macOS users.
What I’m trying to establish is:
Is the Sound Library installed on a per-user basis by default?
If the full Sound Library is downloaded by one user, can other local users access those sounds without downloading them again?
What is the recommended way to deploy/configure a shared Logic Pro Sound Library using Jamf Pro?
Can the Sound Library download/installation be automated through a Jamf policy or script?
Has anyone successfully deployed this configuration to shared Macs in an education environment?
If the Logic Pro Library.bundle is moved to /Users/Shared/ can I default Logic Pro to look at this directory for new users?
I’m planning to test this on a Jamf-managed MacBook Air M2 before attempting anything on our classroom Macs.
The aim is to have Logic Pro sounds installed for multiple users while avoiding each user downloading the same ~70 GB Sound Library separately. This would also mean once Sounds is downloaded once that it, nothing else needs to be downloaded.
Any advice, scripts, configuration profiles, or examples of how others have implemented this would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Best answer by PaulHazelden
Unless the User points their own instance of Logic to the Shared Library, they will have their own version in their own user space.
If you use /Users/Shared and inherit the permissions from the Shared folder, then yes, library files downloaded by User A will be available to User B.
I pulled all of the Sounds to one Mac and then I built multiple installer packages, aiming on keeping each package to 5Gb. You can go bigger, but I personally like to keep them under 5Gb, it depends on a bunch of factors as to the max size you can go to.
Not found a script that will do it. I simply download them and package them with composer. I have seen people try scripting but failing. Its down to the fact that Apple want the files in the User space, and scripting into there for this has not been made easy. There were scripted methods for the previous version of Logic, these do not work with the new version of Logic.
Yep, me. It does rely on one thing. I had to obtain permission from the staff teaching and management to script a delete of the version created in the Users own space. As detailed above, and if you head to this article in Jamf Nation I have a more detailed description…
Logic by default, and you cant script a change to this either, will point to the User own space. However if the library exists in the Shared folder, and the User then points their instance of Logic to use the Shared one, it will continue to use it, but this is a per User preference. I had to show the Staff how to do it, then they have to teach the students how to do it. It really does need that teaching element.
I go into more detail in the other thread, head over there and have a read.
The only script I use is the one to delete the Users local version, And that is run by policy from jamf and runs at login. I do not do any exceptions for administrator accounts, so for me the only version of the library is the shared one. It took a few weeks for the teaching to take effect, during which time we did have queries about the library dissappearing. Staff and students are happy now to work with the shared library. Its kind of helped for us by the fact we have Native Instruments Komplete and Ableton Live also with shared libraries in the same location. Hope this helps
Unless the User points their own instance of Logic to the Shared Library, they will have their own version in their own user space.
If you use /Users/Shared and inherit the permissions from the Shared folder, then yes, library files downloaded by User A will be available to User B.
I pulled all of the Sounds to one Mac and then I built multiple installer packages, aiming on keeping each package to 5Gb. You can go bigger, but I personally like to keep them under 5Gb, it depends on a bunch of factors as to the max size you can go to.
Not found a script that will do it. I simply download them and package them with composer. I have seen people try scripting but failing. Its down to the fact that Apple want the files in the User space, and scripting into there for this has not been made easy. There were scripted methods for the previous version of Logic, these do not work with the new version of Logic.
Yep, me. It does rely on one thing. I had to obtain permission from the staff teaching and management to script a delete of the version created in the Users own space. As detailed above, and if you head to this article in Jamf Nation I have a more detailed description…
Logic by default, and you cant script a change to this either, will point to the User own space. However if the library exists in the Shared folder, and the User then points their instance of Logic to use the Shared one, it will continue to use it, but this is a per User preference. I had to show the Staff how to do it, then they have to teach the students how to do it. It really does need that teaching element.
I go into more detail in the other thread, head over there and have a read.
The only script I use is the one to delete the Users local version, And that is run by policy from jamf and runs at login. I do not do any exceptions for administrator accounts, so for me the only version of the library is the shared one. It took a few weeks for the teaching to take effect, during which time we did have queries about the library dissappearing. Staff and students are happy now to work with the shared library. Its kind of helped for us by the fact we have Native Instruments Komplete and Ableton Live also with shared libraries in the same location. Hope this helps
Deploying Logic Pro in shared labs requires centralizing the ~70 GB Sound Library to /Users/Shared/ so multiple users can access it without duplicate downloads. You can achieve this by packaging the pre-downloaded sound bundle via Jamf Pro, deploying it to target Macs, and using a post-install script to create symbolic links pointing each user's local audio paths to the shared directory, saving both local storage and network bandwidth.
Because the files are over 70 GB, I prefer to take the approach of using an external SSD.
I download the required files on one Mac, then copy them to the external SSD and paste them into the Logic Pro directory. After that, I test by opening the app with a different user account.
If a download pop-up appears, just cancel it.
Copying the files to each Mac only takes about 2 minutes, which saves a significant amount of time compared to downloading the files or pushing them through Jamf.
At the moment I have made a shared folder within the Shared Directory and have moved the bundle from my home directory there and pointed Logic Pro to look there, I have shown one of the lectures what to do with students and have published a mini Knowledge Base guide for them to walk through.
Later I will deploy a script that deletes and sounds bundle that is within the users directory when logging in to free up space, for a more central management and storage.
I will also use Jamf Composer to package the sounds that are in the Shared Directory so that I can deploy these sounds to machines remotely. As these sounds are cached with our Mac Mini Caching Server.
Unless the User points their own instance of Logic to the Shared Library, they will have their own version in their own user space.
If you use /Users/Shared and inherit the permissions from the Shared folder, then yes, library files downloaded by User A will be available to User B.
I pulled all of the Sounds to one Mac and then I built multiple installer packages, aiming on keeping each package to 5Gb. You can go bigger, but I personally like to keep them under 5Gb, it depends on a bunch of factors as to the max size you can go to.
Not found a script that will do it. I simply download them and package them with composer. I have seen people try scripting but failing. Its down to the fact that Apple want the files in the User space, and scripting into there for this has not been made easy. There were scripted methods for the previous version of Logic, these do not work with the new version of Logic.
Yep, me. It does rely on one thing. I had to obtain permission from the staff teaching and management to script a delete of the version created in the Users own space. As detailed above, and if you head to this article in Jamf Nation I have a more detailed description…
Logic by default, and you cant script a change to this either, will point to the User own space. However if the library exists in the Shared folder, and the User then points their instance of Logic to use the Shared one, it will continue to use it, but this is a per User preference. I had to show the Staff how to do it, then they have to teach the students how to do it. It really does need that teaching element.
I go into more detail in the other thread, head over there and have a read.
The only script I use is the one to delete the Users local version, And that is run by policy from jamf and runs at login. I do not do any exceptions for administrator accounts, so for me the only version of the library is the shared one. It took a few weeks for the teaching to take effect, during which time we did have queries about the library dissappearing. Staff and students are happy now to work with the shared library. Its kind of helped for us by the fact we have Native Instruments Komplete and Ableton Live also with shared libraries in the same location. Hope this helps
Thanks for this,
Both this comment and the shared post has helped a lot! :)
