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Sync your projects

Sign in to the same Apple Account on each Mac. Save with ⌘S: it saves into iCloud Drive’s Gridshift/Projects folder, and the project appears on your other Macs once it has synced.

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Sync sample audio

Open Gridshift → Settings → Library and switch on Sync samples in the iCloud section. Every sample in the library uploads in the background, and the line beneath the switch says how far it has got.

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Free disk space on this Mac

With Sync samples on, switch on Optimize Mac storage in the same section. Rarely used originals give way to their small copy, and come back the moment you use them.
Optimize Mac storage deletes local sample files. It only removes a file that is already in iCloud and not in use, and never while the transport is playing. Switching it back off does not bring them back. They return one at a time, as you use them, or ahead of time: select samples in the library, right-click, and choose Download from iCloud.

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Good to know

  • Sample audio stays on this Mac until you switch on Sync samples. A project is a few megabytes, a sample library is routinely hundreds of gigabytes, so sample audio has its own switch and it starts off.
  • Project sync is on by default. Its switch, Sync projects, is in the same section.
  • Sync samples uploads two files per sample: the original and a small copy, the whole sample as mono AAC at 64 kbps, roughly 1.5 % of a stereo CD-rate original. Your other Macs and the iPhone app browse and audition with the small copy.
  • Optimize Mac storage starts below 40 GB free on the library’s volume. It replaces the originals you have reached for least, and fetches the full file back when you place, slice, edit or bounce it.
  • A project not yet on this Mac downloads on open. Gridshift shows Downloading from iCloud… with progress, then loads straight into the project.
  • A sampler instrument preset keeps its own copy of its sample, so that sample syncs with the preset even with Sync samples off.
  • An instrument preset carries its own state: its tags, favorite and Trash state are inside its file, and its collection is the folder it sits in, so they sync with it.
  • MIDI patterns go up without a small copy and are never offloaded; they are already smaller than a copy would be.
  • A full iCloud plan is not an error: Sync samples reports it plainly. Both switches show their status on the line beneath them.
  • Save and Open start in the Projects folder: both ⌘S and the Open Project… picker default to it. Organize it any way you like; Gridshift watches the folder and updates the project browser when files arrive from another Mac.
  • Large projects with embedded audio may take a few seconds on their first open.
  • For the iPhone app, Gridshift publishes small CloudKit records for every project in your iCloud library, open or not: its name, description, tempo, track list, artwork thumbnail, a record per saved version and its comment list. The app browses and plays from these instead of downloading the bundle.
  • The sample library is a second zone of those records: one per sample and one per collection, with a waveform drawing on each sample. The iPhone writes favorites, tags, collection changes and deletions back.
  • Browsing never pulls audio. Bounce audio and sample previews are their own records, fetched only when someone presses play.
  • Without CloudKit records, for a Mac where that sync never ran, the iPhone app reads manifest.json out of the bundles in iCloud Drive; older bundles without one fall back to project.json.
With iCloud on, these follow a sample to your other Macs and the iPhone app:
Under Gridshift → Settings → Library, in the iCloud section.The same switches are Command Palette commands: Sync Projects On/Off, Sync Samples On/Off, Optimize Mac Storage On/Off.
In Finder, open iCloud Drive → Gridshift.
Last modified on October 22, 2026