Taking The Upgrade Plunge

You would have been far better off, if you had done the other OS X and iPhoto updates as they were rolled out.

Plus 4GB of RAM is not much and your Late 2009 iMac could really benefit from another 2 2GB or 2 4GB modules.

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/iMac/DDR3_21.5_27

It is almost impossible to fully answer all of your iPhoto' questions.

1. There are more reported problems trying to move from earlier iPhoto versions to Photos.

2. I'm not exactly sure, but I think that only iPhoto 9.6.1 will run in OS X 10.11 and OS 10.12.

3. Sadly the older incremental OS X and iPhoto updates are no longer available in the App Store.

On that alone, I think that I would take care of any unfinished projects and have several backups before taking the plunge. Another alternative, would be to CCC or SuperDuper your Macintosh HD onto a FireWire or USB External Hard Drive, upgrade it to Sierra and do some testing of your own.

I have a late 2009 iMac that I have kept current with updates. I transitioned to Photos but have maintained iPhoto Events to catalogue my pictures by year/month. In yesterday's update to Sierra, it appears that I have lost the capability to continue doing this.....my iPhoto Events "Album" no longer appears in the sidebar. Also, when I go into the iPhoto app, I have over a year of catalogued events that are no longer there. Any help in 1) returning iPhoto events to album status in Photos, and 2) finding the missing folders would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Did you keep the old iPhotos Library...?

check out > Updating from iPhoto to Photos for OS X - Apple Support

Are you wanting to upgrade, or update? As in: updating the software and/or OS, or upgrade your hardware? Updating the software and/or OS doesn't always mean an upgrade, depending on your particular situation.

You should be able to upgrade some of the hardware, if you are just wanting to get better performance. You should be able to add up to 16GB of RAM, and upgrade your HD to an SSD without making any software updates. This will give you a big performance boost without updating all the software. Just make sure you have a good backup beforehand.

Yes, I have the old iPhotos Library. Surprisingly, over a years worth of carefully catalogued events that I saved to iPhoto after the Photo upgrade back in May of 2015 have disappeared from that iPhoto library (about 3,000 pictures) but everything else is there and in tact. I just can't reach it from Photo as an album anymore.

Yes, I have the old iPhotos Library. Surprisingly, over a years worth of carefully catalogued events that I saved to iPhoto after the Photo upgrade back in May of 2015 have disappeared from that iPhoto library (about 3,000 pictures) but everything else is there and in tact. I just can't reach it from Photo as an album anymore.

iPhoto updates found here.

Apple - Support - Downloads

Depending on the CPU in your late 2009 iMac, you can install up to, at least, 16 GBs of RAM.

Correct and reliable Mac RAM can ONLY be purchased from online Mac RAM sources Crucial memory (crucial.com) or OWC (macsales.com).

If you want to continue using iPhoto, you might be able to get your "local” Apple store to, either install OS X 10.9 Mavericks, OS X 10.10 Yosemite or OS X 10.11 El Cap instead of macOS Sierra.

You would need to call your "local" Apple store or Apple authorised dealer/service center to see if they can do this for you.

You still need to backup the entire computer or its data before upgrading your iMac's OS.

Good Luck!

This is simply not true. While both Crucial and OWC guarantee their memory to work in your iMac, and are highly recommended, any memory that meets your iMac's specs will work.

Macs are very, VERY picky about RAM.

You cannot use common "off-the-shelf" from local computer stores or the more well-know big name electronics stores in Macs.

Most times, RAM from these locations will fail in Macs

That is a very old and very well known fact!

And online RAM, from other locations and manufacturers, may, also, not be compatible.

Why risk it when you have two guaranteed source of 100% Mac compatible RAM?

I beg to differ! I used PNY RAM in a late 2013 iMac that "supposedly"

met all specs and even were stamped on the package as Mac compatible

and had nothing but issues (app crashes, kernel panics, and just unstable

behavior). Returned and got replacements and still had issues. Finally gave

up and got OWC RAM and had not had a single problem in 2+ years.

I agree that buying RAM from Crucial or OWC is less risky and they both guarantee it will work. But that's different from saying "Correct and reliable Mac RAM can ONLY be purchased from online Mac RAM sources Crucial memory (crucial.com) or OWC (macsales.com)". I actually have 2 8GB SO-DIMM modules in my iMac from a friend of mine's laptop that he gave me for helping him upgrade his memory and HD. I'm not recommending anybody else do that, but they do work, and they are both larger and faster (1600 MHz) than what Apple says will work.

But regardless, to answer mattfromcanada42's original post, if his budget doesn't allow for a new computer, investing a fraction of that to max out his RAM and swap a SSD for his HD will breathe new life into his old iMac without updating all of his software.