GarageBand on macOS 11–13 Blocking Third-Party Plug-Ins - Explained

We’ve recently become aware of an issue affecting GarageBand on certain versions of macOS. If you’re using macOS 11 (Big Sur), macOS 12 (Monterey), or macOS 13 (Ventura), you may find that some third-party plug-ins are blocked and cannot be unblocked, even after following the usual security prompts.

What’s Happening?

• This issue appears to be an incompatibility between GarageBand and macOS security functions.

• It most commonly affects iLok-licensed plug-ins, but it is not limited to iLok—other plug-ins can also be blocked.

• The problem is exclusive to GarageBand. Other DAWs (like Logic Pro, Pro Tools, or Ableton Live) handle plug-ins differently and are not affected.

GarageBand seemingly relies more heavily on macOS system-level security checks when loading third-party plug-ins. On macOS 11–13, these checks can incorrectly prevent some plug-ins from being “trusted,” leaving them stuck in a blocked state.

Is there a fix? 

Unfortunately, there is currently no reliable workaround for the mentioned macOS versions.

The only confirmed solution is to upgrade your operating system, as there have been no reports of this issue on macOS 14 Sonoma onwards.

Upgrading macOS will also give you the latest version of GarageBand, which may include fixes that address this problem.