Just pulled the trigger on a new MacMini (m2Pro 12/19 32Gb 4tb) off the Apple refurb store. Saved a few $$ over buying new.
Should arrive within a week.

I've seen a few threads on installing BIAB.
My plan is to download fresh from the PG Site.
Really don't want to involve my old mac at all, if I don't have to

Wondering how to make sure all my purchases (add ons, styles, tracks) over a decade all end up on the new machine

It would be great if PG had a restore purchases option that would do it all auto-magically.

If there exists a thread/link someone could point me to covering this subject, I would appreciate it.

I will mention this even though you said you don't want to involve your old mac: Often, a great way to move an UltraPAK to a new computer, is to simply copy the entire Band-in-a-Box folder to your new computer via an external USB drive. Once you've done that, an important step is to then run the latest full Band-in-a-Box program installer package. Also, install other "non-BiaB" installers (i.e. files that install things to locations other than the Band-in-a-Box folder - HiQ Instruments and Playable RealTracks in particular).

If you don't want to do that, I would use the Install Manager, along with your My Products page:

(1) Run the Install Manager, update to the latest build if necessary.
(2) Find the "Download URL" for the Band-in-a-Box 2023 UltraPAK - click Copy to clipboard. Paste that into the Install Manager. If you have the 2023 Ultra, you do not need to do anything with the 2022 or earlier BiaB packages, just the latest one.
(3) You do however need to install any Xtra styles. For each Xtra styles package listed on your My Products page, Copy the download URL to the Install Manager as above.
(4) From this point it is relatively painless to download and install the items using the Install Manager - however before you 'download and install' the UltraPAK you will want to think of the the best location for your 'download folder', since you need to have a couple hundred GB of free space for the downloaded packages, and then a couple hundred for the install. That's mainly for the benefit of others reading this, as I see your new computer has a large hard drive. But FYI you can download the files to an external drive, delete them when finished downloading, and/or move them later to free space - there are several options.

Thanks for the quick response.

Your first approach definitely sounds easier.
If I opted for your first approach would it matter if I located the copied dir from the first machine to a different path on the new machine.

on my existing machine its \Applications\Band-in-a-Box

I thinking the new one will be \Music\Band-in-a-Box

Assume I would copy the whole \Band-in-a-Box directory(s) from old, stick it under \Music on the new and install the latest biab over top of it?

Perhaps it will prompt me for a path on the install?

Yes, it matters - the Band-in-a-Box folder should always be /Applications/Band-in-a-Box. If you are using a separate location for the RealTracks folder, that folder path can be anything (as long as it's not the root of the hard drive), but for the Band-in-a-Box folder itself, that should be a subfolder in Applications.

so let it be written.

thanks.


looks like my existing \apps\band in a box directory is 220GB in size.

To expand on what Andrew says, streaming libraries can be on external drives with no performance hit. With BIAB, these are your Real Tracks and Drums folder. It’s very easy to point to them from within BIAB after installation.

You have 4TB storage onboard. Put your Applications and support files where the developers and Apple wants to install them. Same with your work files (Documents, Music etc.). Don’t second guess Apple on this.

If later, you find yourself needing room, there are files that can be moved to an external. Besides VIs, your Apple Music and Movies can be moved seamlessly. Apple has support docs on this—do it their way for best results.

Thank you Mike.
Appreciate the input.

Follow up.
My new (refurbed) Mac arrived saturday.

So far everything has gone as one would like.
Scares the living.... well, you know.

Followed Simon's advice for building biab on the new machine.
Appears to have worked without a hitch.

I loaded an sgu of mine with a lot of real tracks and quite a few bars.
The rebuild was smoking fast.

Don't need a time trial to compare old vs new. Quite nice.

So far a very positive upgrade.