Several users who are dissatisfied with new iPhoto ’11 feature changes, or who are experiencing problems with third-party add-ons or other issues may seek to downgrade to iPhoto ’09. There are two methods for doing so:
If you have a Time Machine or other backup of your old iPhoto installation
Restore the following files from your backup:
/Applications/iPhoto.app
/Library/Application Support/iPhoto
/Library/Documentation/Applications/iPhoto
~/Pictures/(name of your iPhoto Library) — the tilde (~) represents your home user folder
Now launch iPhoto ’09 and select your restored iPhoto library if prompted.
If you don’t have a Time Machine or other backup
Backup your current iPhoto ’11 installation, including the library
Reinstall iPhoto ’09 from the original installation disc
Launch iPhoto ’09
Locate your current iPhoto ’11 library in the ~/Pictures/ folder
Right-click or control-click the iPhoto ’11 library and select “Show Package Contents”
Drag the “Masters” folder into the iPhoto ’09 window to restore your photos. This will allow you to retain events, but will delete keepsakes, albums and other metadata.
Obsessed with tech since the early arrival of A/UX on Apple, Sudz (SK) is responsible for the original editorial direction of AppleToolBox. He is based out of Los Angeles, CA.
Sudz specializes in covering all things macOS, having reviewed dozens of OS X and macOS developments over the years.
In a former life, Sudz worked helping Fortune 100 companies with their technology and business transformation aspirations.
Apple locks family out of 65gb iphoto file as APPLE refuse to update Snow Leopard iPhoto to 9.3.
I have Lion on my mac but the rest of the house including my wife that runs an older version of MYOB is still on Snow Leopard. I opened our iPhoto library that is on a networked Mac Mini with a Raid drive attached and clicked upgrade as there is always iphoto updates not understanding that Apple were not going to release a version 9.3 for 10.6 because the have their head so far up the backsides and don’t really give a toss about anyone. Sorry this is not a full rollback solution I am going to have to upgrade all the other machines including my Mac Mini and put back Front Row… Thanks for nothing Apple nIn
– Right click on iphoto library folder
– Click on ‘show package contents’
– Use the search box at the top right of finder and type .mov (make sure results are for this folder only!)
– Highlight all and move to another temporary folder, Desktop etc
– Now open iphoto and it should update ok!!!
– Use another program for the movie files 🙁
I’m disgusted with iPhoto 11 as a whole. Losing the Keyword Manager program that I loved was annoying enough, but the way that iPhoto 11 handles keywords makes it completely painful.
I’m glad I found this blog. Only problem is that I have been using iPhoto 11 for a month now so I needed to pull my photos out of iPhoto 11, restore my backup, and then import the pictures from the past month. Hoping it works.
For those who made the switch down from iPhoto 11 to ’09 did it work well? Anything lost??
I am hating iPhoto ’11 and can not get out of it fast enough.
i used you info for using time machine! thanks heaps, i found that ’11 i photo was slow, and kept getting the coloured spinning wheel whenever i tried using places. I thought 2MB of RAM would have been plenty as 1MB is requirements! thanks
Apple locks family out of 65gb iphoto file as APPLE refuse to update Snow Leopard iPhoto to 9.3.
I have Lion on my mac but the rest of the house including my wife that runs an older version of MYOB is still on Snow Leopard. I opened our iPhoto library that is on a networked Mac Mini with a Raid drive attached and clicked upgrade as there is always iphoto updates not understanding that Apple were not going to release a version 9.3 for 10.6 because the have their head so far up the backsides and don’t really give a toss about anyone. Sorry this is not a full rollback solution I am going to have to upgrade all the other machines including my Mac Mini and put back Front Row… Thanks for nothing Apple nIn
Lion does still not support Pacifist. Or the other way around. How can I install iphoto’09 on Lion on my new macbook air?
My solution was:
– Right click on iphoto library folder
– Click on ‘show package contents’
– Use the search box at the top right of finder and type .mov (make sure results are for this folder only!)
– Highlight all and move to another temporary folder, Desktop etc
– Now open iphoto and it should update ok!!!
– Use another program for the movie files 🙁
Thanks for this – It does work well.
My only advice was that I had to reboot my machine to get Bullstorm’s keyword manager to work properly after doing this.
Very disgusted with Apple over this. I’ll upgrade back to ’11 when I know they’ve fixed the BUG.
I’m disgusted with iPhoto 11 as a whole. Losing the Keyword Manager program that I loved was annoying enough, but the way that iPhoto 11 handles keywords makes it completely painful.
I’m glad I found this blog. Only problem is that I have been using iPhoto 11 for a month now so I needed to pull my photos out of iPhoto 11, restore my backup, and then import the pictures from the past month. Hoping it works.
For those who made the switch down from iPhoto 11 to ’09 did it work well? Anything lost??
I am hating iPhoto ’11 and can not get out of it fast enough.
i used you info for using time machine! thanks heaps, i found that ’11 i photo was slow, and kept getting the coloured spinning wheel whenever i tried using places. I thought 2MB of RAM would have been plenty as 1MB is requirements! thanks
I want to roll back my installation of iphoto 11 down to iphoto 9. I have a time machine back up.
Before I follow the relevant instructions above, do I need to uninstall iphoto 11? If so, how can i do so cleanly?
Thanks!