Does iPhoto work on older iMac with El Capitan?

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Level 1

19 points

Does iPhoto work on older iMac with El Capitan?

Asking if anyone has experience yet with this: I have an older iMac (21.5 " mid 2011 2.7 ghz core i5, 16 gb memory). Currently using OS X 10.10.5 Yosemite; iPhoto 9.6.1; iMovie 10.0.9, and (new) Photos 1.0.1 (which I don't like much). I want to upgrade to new El Capitan but wonder if iPhoto will not function, or disappear. I want to continue using iPhoto for as long as I can, although I realize it will die off at some point.

I spoke to an AppleCare agent this morning, as I also have a MacBook air 11" mid 2012 still under warranty, to see what info I could get. She said her understanding is that iPhoto would not work with El Capitan, and that it was not supposed to work with Yosemite either, although I explained iPhoto works fine on this older iMac with Yosemite (she was surprised). And Photos works on both too.

I decided to do the normal download and install of El Capitan to the Macbook air through the App Store. It installed fine, and (old) iPhoto STILL works! So does Photos.

So has anyone with an older iMac, who still uses iPhoto, tried to install El Capitan and found that iPhoto works?

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Oct 2, 2015 12:30 PM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

195,113 points

Oct 2, 2015 12:44 PM in response to new-to-apple

iPhoto 9.6.1 is working for me on three Macs with El Capitan - an MacBook Pro 17" (late 2011), am iMac 27",(late 2013), a brand-new MacBook Pro retina.

If your Mac can support ElCapitan, iphoto will probably work. But to be on the safe side, make a full backup of your (Time Machine or a bootable clone) before you upgrade to El Capitan. This way you will be able to revert to your current system should you encounter problems. A bootable clone on an external drive will allow you to boot your Mac from you current system after the upgrade.

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Answer 2

new-to-apple Author

Level 1

19 points

Oct 2, 2015 3:05 PM in response to léonie

Thanks. May I ask more..

"If your Mac can support ElCapitan, iphoto will probably work. But to be on the safe side, make a full backup of your (Time Machine or a bootable clone) before you upgrade to El Capitan. This way you will be able to revert to your current system should you encounter problems. A bootable clone on an external drive will allow you to boot your Mac from you current system after the upgrade."

I use Time Machine and Crashplan. By making a "bootable clone" on a external drive, do you mean a clone of Yosemite, so that I could revert to Yosemite after installing El Capitan if I wanted to go back to Yosemite? Could you tell me how to make that clone?

Also, would you know: I use the old iDVD on my iMac - still works fine on Yosemite. Assuming that, after El Capitan is installed on this iMac, iPhoto is still there and it works, but iDVD disappears, if I have the iDVD app on my backup, am I able to "re-install" iDVD from the backup? (I know iDVD is no longer available on the App Store) (and I suppose that even if I can re-install iDVD, no guaranty it will work under El Capitan

Thanks for any additional advice.

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

195,113 points

Oct 2, 2015 4:00 PM in response to new-to-apple

To make a clone of your system drive as an additional backup you would need third-party software, for example Crabon Copy Cloner or Super Duper. Both apps are worth the investment. Whichever you chose, follow the user Guide that comes with them.

But you can also use Time Machine to downgrade, if need be: http://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac-software/delete-el-capitan-go-back-to-yosem ite-3581872/

Also, would you know: I use the old iDVD on my iMac - still works fine on Yosemite. Assuming that, after El Capitan is installed on this iMac, iPhoto is still there and it works, but iDVD disappears, if I have the iDVD app on my backup, am I able to "re-install" iDVD from the backup?

Migration Assistant should restore iDVD from your Time Machine backup.

But iDVD did not vanish, when I migrated to EL Capitan, and I can still launch it. Only my current MAc has no optical drive, so I cannot test, it would still work-

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