Running iLife '09 or Version 9?

Since the introduction of iLife ’11, I have spoken to a few customers who were confused about which version of iLife they are running. The version of iLife has typically been defined by the year associated with the install.

For instance, you may be running iLife ’09 and refer to the version of iPhoto that comes with it as “iPhoto ’09.” In most cases, this is all you need to determine what version you may be running to allow a technician to narrow down what problems you may be having and how to resolve them.

The trouble with version vs. year is that there is a small discrepancy from Apple’s standpoint. The version is referring to how many renditions of the application existed before it; the year is obviously referring to the year of release. These numbers may match if Apple released a new iLife suite every year, but they do not always need to release a new update every year. (For instance, they did not release iLife in 2010.)

Normally, it would not matter what version you had, and most people would not know that there is even a separate version number associated with their iLife applications. The only time you might notice the difference is when attempting to update.

Most recently, I have noticed an influx of calls from people attempting to update iPhoto from iLife ’09. If you are looking on Apple’s website they have updates for several versions of iPhoto including iPhoto version 9. On a quick glance, one might think that the update for iPhoto version 9 is for the iPhoto application that came with iLife ’09—this is incorrect. iLife ’09 came with iPhoto version 8. It is actually iLife ’11 that comes with iPhoto version 9.

As you can see, this can be very confusing, and subsequently you should always check for updates through the built in Software Update application that comes with all versions of OS X. This will ensure that you always keep your software up-to-date and that you are updating to the correct version.

Please refer to the following for a complete list of the applications and version numbers that are included with each distribution of iLife: