Where can I find compatible versions of iMovie and Photos app for macOS Catalina?

If you’re on macOS Catalina, you’ll need the older versions of iMovie and iPhoto that work with it. You can try searching for them in the Mac App Store, but you might have to find the specific older versions. You could also check the Apple support website for download links or look in the "Purchased" section of the App Store if you’ve downloaded them before.

Hi,

Catalina has the Photos app built into it, so your computer already has the Photos v.5 app. Catalina does not have iPhoto (the older app), as that app is no longer supported on Mac OS Catalina and later due to iPhoto's reliance on old 32 bit iLife system components that are no longer available on the newer operating systems. iPhoto itself is 64 bit, as is Catalina, but the components that it relies upon are not.

If you ever had iMovie 10 on your computer before, you can obtain the highest version of iMovie 10 that Catalina will run, that I believe is iMovie 10.2.5, by using the following procedure:

To update/redownload iMovie 10, drag your iMovie 10 app from the Applications folder into the trash, but do not empty the trash. (You can skip that step if you had iMovie 10 on your computer before, but deleted it.) Sign in to the app store and open your Account folder by clicking on your name at the bottom of the app store side bar. You will see your purchases displayed, including iMovie 10. Redownload/update iMovie from there. If not successful, drag your present iMovie app out of the trash (if you moved it there) and return it to the Applications folder.

iMovie 9 and older would not be available for Catalina, and cannot be updated.

-- Rich

There is no iPhoto version that works with Catalina. iPhoto was replaced with the Photos app in Yosemite and it stopped being supported after that so no version will run on Catalina.

On Catalina, you use the Photos App, and it can import any older iPhoto Library to itself.

Hold down the option key when opening photos, and it will ask you to select a photo library, navigate to where the iPhoto Library is kept and select it.

Adding to my previous post, if you have iMovie 9 and iMovie 10 on your Mac, you may be able to open iMovie 10 and click on Edit/Update Projects and Events. That would update your iMovie 9 projects to iMovie10 projects. Updating would not affect your iMovie 9 projects and they would still remain intact in iMovie 9 unless you decide to delete them. The update procedure should also work to update iMovie 7 and 8 projects, but would not work for iMovie 6 and earlier.

-- Rich