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iMovie incompatible with OS

Old Ndungu

Old Ndungu

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 12, 2020
1
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I'm running an early 2015 MacBook Air with Sierra 10.12.6
I have recently started editing video. I have iMovie 9.0.9 installed.
There appears to be an incompatibility between these, such that my shared/saved videos are colour washed-out.

I'm caught in a situation where my computer cannot run Mojave in order for me to use iMovie 10.1.14, but I can also not download an older version of iMovie that works satisfactorily in tandem with my current OS (Sierra 10.12.6)

I have been advised to downgrade to Yosemite and continue using iMovie 9.0.9.

Any suggestions?
 
So the problem is you need a slightly older version of iMovie 10, right?

I assume you never purchased it previously? If you had, you should be able to install it from your purchase history—it will ask if you're okay using an older compatible version, and you can say yes.

But if it's not in your purchase history, there may be a little trick you can use, if you can just get temporary access to a newer Mac. Log into the App Store on a Mac with Mojave, and purchase iMovie there. Now it will be in your purchase history, and you can download the older version on your Sierra Mac.

This even works within Virtual Machines if that's a possibility. IE, you can install a copy of Mojave within VMWare Fusion to buy the app, then download the older version from the App Store on Sierra.
 
ugh, stuck in a similar bind.

Want to install iMovie on a freshly installed secondhand mac for my partner (she's new to mac)

I need it to run Mohave due to its better compatibility with DJ and music apps (she's learning to DJ)

Apple updated iMovie on the Mac App Store a few weeks ago to version 10.1.15 and it now requires Catalina or higher.
There's no way to download the installer for an older version!

If I find an installer for 10.1.14 from another computer, would it even work?
This is very frustrating!
 
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Reactions: lackey
4ndrw said:
ugh, stuck in a similar bind.

Want to install iMovie on a freshly installed secondhand mac for my partner (she's new to mac)

I need it to run Mohave due to its better compatibility with DJ and music apps (she's learning to DJ)

Apple updated iMovie on the Mac App Store a few weeks ago to version 10.1.15 and it now requires Catalina or higher.
There's no way to download the installer for an older version!

If I find an installer for 10.1.14 from another computer, would it even work?
This is very frustrating!
Click to expand...

Same advice I gave earlier in this thread. You need to use a newer OS to add iMovie to your Apple ID account. Once done, you can download it from your purchase history on the older Mac, and it will offer to install the last compatible version.

If you can't briefly use a friend's computer, use VMWare Fusion to set up a Catalina Virtual Machine.

I'm all the way back on Mavericks so I do this all the time.
 
Wowfunhappy said:
Same advice I gave earlier in this thread. You need to use a newer OS to add iMovie to your Apple ID account. Once done, you can download it from your purchase history on the older Mac, and it will offer to install the last compatible version.

If you can't briefly use a friend's computer, use VMWare Fusion to set up a Catalina Virtual Machine.

I'm all the way back on Mavericks so I do this all the time.
Click to expand...

Ah nice!
 
McScooby said:
Have you a time machine copy? or get an older copy, I use iMovie 6 HD that I got from Fleabay on Mojave, but this
should also prob work.
Click to expand...
How are you running iMovie 6 HD on Mojave? I need to access some old iMovie 6 HD sessions on either Mojave or High Sierra, but it always crashes (I have iMovie 6.0.3 and the hacked 6.5.1 versions)
 
4ndrw said:
ugh, stuck in a similar bind.

Want to install iMovie on a freshly installed secondhand mac for my partner (she's new to mac)

I need it to run Mohave due to its better compatibility with DJ and music apps (she's learning to DJ)

Apple updated iMovie on the Mac App Store a few weeks ago to version 10.1.15 and it now requires Catalina or higher.
There's no way to download the installer for an older version!

If I find an installer for 10.1.14 from another computer, would it even work?
This is very frustrating!
Click to expand...
I was stuck in a similar situation, but then I decided to sign into the app store. I'm not sure about other apps, but for iMovie, when I clicked "install", it said something like you need to update to get the latest version of iMovie, but you can install an older version. So then I clicked "install" and I got it onto my machine (iMac 27" 2013 running macOS Mojave 10.14.6). It installed the latest version for Mojave available which was 10.1.14.
 
Old Ndungu said:
I'm running an early 2015 MacBook Air with Sierra 10.12.6
I have recently started editing video. I have iMovie 9.0.9 installed.
There appears to be an incompatibility between these, such that my shared/saved videos are colour washed-out.

I'm caught in a situation where my computer cannot run Mojave in order for me to use iMovie 10.1.14, but I can also not download an older version of iMovie that works satisfactorily in tandem with my current OS (Sierra 10.12.6)

I have been advised to downgrade to Yosemite and continue using iMovie 9.0.9.

Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
I know for one thing that a 2015 MacBook Air should be able to run macOS Mojave just fine. I recently had to use a mid 2012 MacBook air on catalina and it worked flawlessly. If you don't want to upgrade, you could make a split partition and have one partition on mojave, specifically for iMovie or other apps that needs Mojave, while keeping your current os.
 
quadra605 said:
How are you running iMovie 6 HD on Mojave? I need to access some old iMovie 6 HD sessions on either Mojave or High Sierra, but it always crashes (I have iMovie 6.0.3 and the hacked 6.5.1 versions)
Click to expand...
Not quite sure what you mean by your question? I followed the instructions on the linked video, iMovie 6.0.3 running on Mojave. When you say it crashes, just to check you are right clicking the icon to show package contents & opening that way? You get the deprecated message in terminal you can't close as the same time it's running, but certainly no biggie as doesn't interfere in its use.
 
4ndrw said:
ugh, stuck in a similar bind.

Want to install iMovie on a freshly installed secondhand mac for my partner (she's new to mac)

I need it to run Mohave due to its better compatibility with DJ and music apps (she's learning to DJ)

Apple updated iMovie on the Mac App Store a few weeks ago to version 10.1.15 and it now requires Catalina or higher.
There's no way to download the installer for an older version!

If I find an installer for 10.1.14 from another computer, would it even work?
This is very frustrating!
Click to expand...
im in the exact same predicament !! ugh
 
lackey said:
im in the exact same predicament !! ugh
Click to expand...
If you're signed into the Mac app store with an account that already has purchased iMovie for Mac in the past, you can go to your account view, and then "purchased" - click the cloud download next to iCloud and it should prompt you with "The current version requires OS X 10.15.6 or later, but you can download the last compatible version." instead of "iMovie can’t be installed on “Startup Disk” because macOS version 10.15.6 or later is required." which you would see if you're searching for imovie in the app store itself.

Surprisingly unintuitive, but I hope this helps.
 
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