BluePingu

Q: Imovie 09 with El Capitan will not access iphoto/photos or itunes - projects lost forever?

Simple (I hope) questions about imovie and iphoto/photos/itunes.. well fairly simple..

 

I'm using imovie 09 with El Capitan. As you know El Capitan does not include iphoto, so imovie 09 can no longer access iphoto.  Photos is the replacement for iphoto, but imovie 09 will not access that either. Finally imovie 09 will no longer access itunes.

 

I therefore have a lot of projects that are now useless, as any pictures and external soundtracks can no longer be accessed.

 

IF I upgrade to imovie version 10 (a snip at £10.99 apparently)..

 

(a) Will my imovie 09 projects become viable again, ie. will the links to (ex-iphoto, now photos) pictures and itunes sound files re-establish themselves so my old projects are not lost forever?

 

(b) Will the new imovie be able to to access photos and itunes like good old imovie 09 used to before el capitan burned its bridges for it?

 

This may be academic, because as things stand I can't access my old projects anyway. Which is both maddening and saddening.

 

But any help gratefully received. Thanks!

imovie 09, OS X El Capitan (10.11.5)

Posted on Jun 5, 2016 3:57 AM

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Q: Imovie 09 with El Capitan will not access iphoto/photos or itunes - projects lost forever?

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  • by léonie,Helpful

    léonie léonie Jun 5, 2016 4:28 AM in response to BluePingu
    Level 10 (106,848 points)
    iLife
    Jun 5, 2016 4:28 AM in response to BluePingu
    I'm using imovie 09 with El Capitan. As you know El Capitan does not include iphoto, so imovie 09 can no longer access iphoto.

     

    Have you tried to update iPhoto to version 9.6.1? This version is running well on El Capitan and iMovie 9.0.9 is showing the iPhoto Libraries in the Photo Browser. The screenshot below is from iMovie 9.0.9 on OS X 10.11.5: I don't know about earlier iMovie versions, if they are still able to see the iPhoto Library.

    Screen Shot 2016-06-05 at 13.00.42GMT.jpg

    You can update to iPhoto 9.6.1, if you own a version of iPhoto '11, that is showing in y your Purchases History at the App Store, see Barney'a user Tip:

      Can't Update iPhoto because it is not available in the App Store.

    To your question (a)

    I migrated the iMovie 9.0.9 Libraries to version 10 some time ago, and the conversion was lossless. But I cannot test what will happen now.

     

    To your question (b)

     

    iMovie 10.1.2 is showing me all my photo libraries in the Media tab - the iPhoto library, the Aperture Library, the Photos Library, as long as you have compatible applications installed.

     

    And the iTunes Library will be showing in the Audio tab.

  • by BluePingu,

    BluePingu BluePingu Jun 5, 2016 4:35 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (8 points)
    iLife
    Jun 5, 2016 4:35 AM in response to léonie

    Thanks for the response.  I should have mentioned that I was using an old iphoto, in fact I hadn't upgraded my OS from Snow Leopard until December 2015. So  I can't access any iphoto versions unfortunately as I have no purchase history. It looks like it's Photos or nothing.

     

    And thanks for the answer to (b), assumed this was the case.

     

    My worry is that with with pictures being forcibly moved to Photos, the links will be broken anyway, unless the new imovie is smart enough to remember something like an embedded ID within the file.

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Jun 5, 2016 4:45 AM in response to BluePingu
    Level 10 (106,848 points)
    iLife
    Jun 5, 2016 4:45 AM in response to BluePingu

    When Photos migrates an iPhoto Library to Photos it creates a completely new library with new database files.There here no links to the original  databases in the iPhoto Library, even if the photos themselves will be linked by hard links, to save storage. (Photos saves disk space by sharing images with your iPhoto or Aperture libraries - Apple Support)

  • by BluePingu,

    BluePingu BluePingu Jun 5, 2016 5:24 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (8 points)
    iLife
    Jun 5, 2016 5:24 AM in response to léonie

    That's interesting, encouraging but also scary.. I feel like it's a gamble then.

     

    I feel like the only way to test this is a time machine backup followed by imovie upgrade. Then I can always go back if imovie 10 does not remember my pics. It may still prove impossible but I'm more confident that there's some way of getting imovie 09 to 'remember' pre-El Capitan projects than imovie 10.

  • by léonie,Helpful

    léonie léonie Jun 5, 2016 8:26 AM in response to BluePingu
    Level 10 (106,848 points)
    iLife
    Jun 5, 2016 8:26 AM in response to BluePingu

    A full Time Machine backup or a bootable clone of your current system will keep the door open to go back after an upgrade to El Capitan - see:  OS X El Capitan: Revert to a previous OS X version

     

    I prefer bootable clone before a system upgrade. The advantage of a clone is that I can test if it is working by trying to boot the Mac from it before I take the plunge.