iPhoto update is temporarily unavailable

Is there any reason to not delete iPhoto?

If you're sure you have no further use for it, no.

This doesn't work for me. When I try to update the Application, I get the temporary unavailable message. I have iPhoto version 9.6.1

When i try to drag and drop from applications to my trash, this is the error message I get. I have been having trouble for weeks.

“Photos” can’t be modified or deleted because it’s required by OS X.

It is getting frustrating!

I even downloaded the software again today.

The alert plainly states that you aren't dragging iPhoto to the Trash. You are dragging Photos to the Trash. Two different apps. Photos is the new Apple replacement app for iPhoto and is a core app of OS X, and so can't be deleted.

Late 2012 Mac mini, OS X El Capitan 10.11; Apple Watch, 38 mm silver AL, Watch OS 2; iPad Air 2 & iPhone 6+, iOS 9.0.2

Terence, you seem quite knowledgable and so I'm hoping you can help. I have a relatively new Macbook Pro and ever since downloading El Capitan, have had the "unavailable in the US" notice whenever I try to update iPhoto. I've never used iPhoto, but have wanted to, and now it seems I won't ever get to. ?? I have moved it to the Trash (from the Applications Folder, that was the only option for me....as was the only place it was located on my computer) and two things now:

1) There's now nothing in my trash can. ?? (If this is normal, then fine.)

2) Now, there is no iPhoto at all in the App Store when I go look for it to redownload. Is there something else I should do? Did I mess it up?

And, one last thing I wanted to mention...I downloaded El Capitan, but in my Purchased area of the App Store, it is still showing El Capitan with a "download" button.... When I go to my Apple icon and look at "about this Mac" it says I'm running OS X El Capitan Version 10.11. So I'm not sure why it still shows a download button.... Thanks.

The only place anyone would find iPhoto today is in the Purchased pane of the Mac App Store among their previous purchases.

The reason that you see download for El Capitan is because what the Mac App Store offers is an installer app. Once the installer app has been run and it has successfully installed El Cap, it self-deletes. The Mac App Store is just making the installer app available should you need it again. When I look in the Purchased pane for my account I see OS X installers available for download all the way back to OS X Lion, 5 versions of OS X.

Late 2012 Mac mini, OS X El Capitan 10.11; Apple Watch, 38 mm silver AL, Watch OS 2; iPad Air 2 & iPhone 6+, iOS 9.0.2

This problem was deeply frustrating for me.

I'd tried the solution outlined in this thread to no avail.

What worked for me was going to another machine on which I had updated iPhoto to 9.6.1 and copying 6 items from that machine to the machine that could not update.

1. /Applications/iPhoto.app
2. The "dict" stanza in /Library/Receipts/InstallHistory.plist which references iPhoto.
3. The items in /Library/Receipts with "iPhoto" in their names (i.e. "com.apple.pkg.iPhoto_AppStore.bom" and "com.apple.pkg.iPhoto_AppStore.plist")
4. The items in /var/db/Receipts with "iPhoto" in their names (i.e. "com.apple.pkg.iPhoto_AppStore.bom" and "com.apple.pkg.iPhoto_AppStore.plist")

After I was done I launched iPhoto (it worked) and the badge disappeared from "App Store.app".

This was driving me crazy because badges are very strong calls to action, and not being able to act on it or dismiss it is really pretty unacceptable. The "App Store.app" and all other badgeable apps should provide means for users to either arbitrarily dismiss the alerts and/or shut them off.

I deleted iPhoto and emptied the trash.

I then tried to download iPhoto from the Purchases tab of the app store, and STILL get the unavailable message.

Holding down option key while opening Photos allowed me to manually choose my iPhoto image library, which Photos then opened.

Still doesn't work now I have no iPhoto at all.

Is there an iPhoto on your Purchases List?

Hi,

Yes but that didn't work work initially, giving the same error. I have rebooted and have now successfully re-installed iPhoto. Thanks for your help.

PS I should add I uninstalled rather then trashed iPhoto before reinstalling.

I am having the same issue. Though it's been like this for a few weeks. Tried the instructions from Terence Devlin and got a new message, "The item you've requested is not currently available in the U.S. store."

Read the first part of my instructions again.

Go to the App Store and check out the Purchases List. If iPhoto is there then it will be v9.6.1

There is no way that doing this gets you any message at all, So, you're not following the instructions.

Hi Terence,

I went to the Purchased list and found iPhoto on the list. Unfortunately the only option it allows me to do is Update and when I click Update, I get the attached error message below. Within the Applications folder, the iPhoto.app has a circle backslash on it and will not uninstall when I drag it to the trashcan. Since I can't uninstall it, I can't reinstall it either.