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AppleID and old software

W

Wingsley

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 20, 2014
300
39
This thread is about how to run software that I own and a newer computer, and the software is associated with an old AppleID but the new computer I have uses a new AppleID. This is not about the merits of the software.

I was a die-hard longtime user of iPhoto since its first version, so you could call me an early adopter. I still posses the last version of iPhoto ever made. (v. 9.6.1)

I bought a refurbished M1 Mac Mini, loaded, from Apple last spring. I proceeded to download Retroactive 1.9, to make iPhoto capable of running on Apple Silicon. I ran Retroactive on iPhoto. I tried to launch iPhoto, but it would not launch. The error message said that this software was associated with my old AppleID. So I set this project aside.

A thought recently occurred to me: Could I create a separate user account on my Mac Mini and have that user account connect to my old AppleID (the one that works with iPhoto)? Would that work?

Apple Photos and Google Photos suck, and I do not want to rely (and have to pay for) Lightroom just to manage digital photos. I used to take digital photos all the time with my Canon Digital Rebel, and I would like to do so again. I also enjoyed taking photos and video with the iPad Mini and my iPhone SE more recently.

MY HARDWARE:
Apple iMac (late 2013; Core i5 @ 2.9 GHz, 8 GB RAM, 1.0 TB HDD, runs MacOS 1014.6 Mojave, unwilling to upgrade MacOS further; iPhoto 9 runs but slowly)
Apple Mac Mini (2021; M1, 16 GB RAM, 2.0 TB SSD, Runs MacOS Ventura)
Canon Digital Rebel
iPhoto SE (2022; A15 processor, Lightning)
iPad Mini 2

My iPhone library stretches back 20 years and contains over 60,000 photos.
 
BTW: I also have access to at least one other digital camera. I don't have the nomenclature right now, but it also uses an SD card.
 
Last edited:
Wingsley said:
A thought recently occurred to me: Could I create a separate user account on my Mac Mini and have that user account connect to my old AppleID (the one that works with iPhoto)? Would that work?
Click to expand...

What happened when you tried it?
 
galad said:
The question is, why do you use two different Apple IDs?
Click to expand...
The first AppleID was created accidentally when I created the user account for the old iMac. The second AppleID was a new one that was created intentionally when I set up the M1 Mac Mini because I wanted an AppleID with an iCloud e-mail address for my iPhone and Mac Mini. (You get the chance to do that when you buy new Apple hardware, so why not?) The first AppleID is attached to an old Gmail address, so no iCloud address there.
 
Wingsley said:
How do I do that? If I look it up on Apple's site or on Apple's YouTube account for a how-to, what search criteria should I use?
Click to expand...
arw has you covered with the support article. The only caveat to this approach is that it doesn’t work if your AppleIDs use different store regions. Like you can’t have people who use the US store in the same family as people who use the Japanese store.

Other than that it’s a great way to share software and media between accounts.
 
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If you have an Apple ID without an @iCloud.com account, you can create a new @iCloud.com email address for it on appleid.apple.com. There is no need to create a new Apple ID account.
 
galad said:
If you have an Apple ID without an @iCloud.com account, you can create a new @iCloud.com email address for it on appleid.apple.com. There is no need to create a new Apple ID account.
Click to expand...
It was already done months ago, so now I have to figure out how to get this ball of yarn to work now.
 
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