Can iPhoto slideshows be made functional again in Photos?

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Level 1

4 points

Can iPhoto slideshows be made functional again in Photos?

I just upgraded an 8GB Mac Mini from Mavericks to El Capitan. (Yep, I skipped Yosemite entirely.) No issues with the upgrade, everything went fine, and I like the new look.

In Mavericks, I used iPhoto to create a lot of slideshows from photo albums. The slideshows weren't terribly elaborate, but they contained resized images (to fit the 16:9 ratio of an HDTV at 1920 x 1080 pixels), as well as some transitions, varied lengths of image display and sometimes music. I've invested a lot of time into these, as there are about 30 slideshows in all, each with about 200 images.

Now, in Photos, under El Capitan, the slideshows appear, but all the stuff I added (or adjusted) is gone -- the frame-filling 16x9 crops are now just 4:3 with vertical black bars, transitions are gone, music is gone.

Is there a way to get these things back so that all my previous work in iPhoto wasn't for nothing? Surely, Apple couldn't have just erased all this, as if it never happened, right?

Mac mini (Late 2012), OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on Oct 12, 2015 10:34 AM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

194,723 points

Oct 12, 2015 12:21 PM in response to abillmann

The slideshows in Photos have less options, so there is no way to reproduce your iPhoto slideshows exactly as they have been in iPhoto.

Update iPhoto to version 9.6.1, and export your iPhoto slideshows as videos; then you can play them in El Capitan.

Updating to iPhoto 9.6.1 is not possible for all iPhoto versions, see:
Get iPhoto 9.6.1 if you didn't update before OS X 10.10.3

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Answer 2

abillmann Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 12, 2015 12:34 PM in response to léonie

Doesn't look like iPhoto 9.6.1 is available. The link you cited above, from Apple, says this:

This Tip no longer works. Apple removed the ability to install the old version of iPhoto, along with old versions of the OS.

So without some version of iPhoto running in El Capitan (which apparently isn't possible), it seems like my iPhoto slideshows are pretty much destroyed. So, in other words...

1. Apple automatically deletes the iPhoto app when you upgrade to Yosemite or El Capitan.

2. The slideshows you previously created in iPhoto are now nearly useless.

Is this really the case? It just doesn't seem very "Apple" to blow away a user's previous work--with no warning--particularly if it came from one of Apple's own products.

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Answer 3

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,308 points

Oct 12, 2015 12:39 PM in response to abillmann

iPhoto v9.6.1 is still available and the bit in red is incorrect.

1. Apple does not delete iPhoto at any time. You do that.

2. The slideshows you created in iPhoto remain exactly as they were in iPhoto.

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Answer 4

léonie

Level 10

194,723 points

Oct 12, 2015 12:44 PM in response to abillmann

Apple restored the older applications to the AppStore, see:

It was a temporary glitch at the AppStore that made updating impossible, or Apple reconsidered:

http://www.macrumors.com/2015/09/29/older-software-returns-mac-app-store/

Jus try the procedure outlined in the user tip. I just tested again, and updating by reinstalling works for me, and several forum members confirmed, that they could install iPhoto as described in Barney's user tip.

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Answer 5

abillmann Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 12, 2015 1:00 PM in response to léonie

Oh how I hope you and Terence are right! I'm not at my Mac at the moment, but I'll try this tonight and report back.

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Answer 6

abillmann Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 12, 2015 7:07 PM in response to abillmann

OK, yes, that worked! Wonderful! Thank you léonie and Terence! You freaking rock! (ROCK!)

So at this point, I have both iPhoto 9.6.1 as well as Photos 1.1 available to run in El Capitan. Previous slideshows work perfectly in iPhoto.

Can't thank you enough for the tip! It's definitely a hassle to make a backup of the disabled iPhoto app on a USB stick, dismounting it, then dragging the disabled app to the Trash, restarting, then going to the App Store to find previous purchases, redownloading and reinstalling. But it works!

(As for Apple, well, here's a suggestion: If you aren't going to support previous features and formats in new versions--understandable, I suppose--at least leave the old app in place--and enabled--as a legacy solution. Or at least put up a warning or something. For a little while there, without any warning whatsoever, it looked like hundreds of hours of work, invested over several years, was totally gone. At least now I can migrate to something else.)

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Answer 7

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Oct 12, 2015 8:57 PM in response to abillmann

Good suggestion but apple is not here so tell then where they are - http://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html

LN

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Answer 8

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,308 points

Oct 12, 2015 10:26 PM in response to abillmann

I suppose--at least leave the old app in place--and enabled--as a legacy solution.

They did. The 9.6.1 update pre-dates the release of Photos by about 3 weeks. It seems that you hadn't updated to that prior to updating to El Capitan.

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Answer 9

léonie

Level 10

194,723 points

Oct 12, 2015 10:56 PM in response to abillmann

I'm glad you got iPhoto back! 🙂I'd keep a separate back up of your system as it is now, so so you will be able to restore iPhoto again, if you ever need to reinstall or to replace your system drive.

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Answer 10

abillmann Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 13, 2015 5:51 AM in response to Yer_Man

They did. The 9.6.1 update pre-dates the release of Photos by about 3 weeks. It seems that you hadn't updated to that prior to updating to El Capitan.

In upgrading directly from Mavericks, I'm not sure if I could have updated my previous version.

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