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Is iLife '11 really that bad?

R

redvettez06

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 17, 2011
55
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I was just reading the reviews on Apple.com as I am considering buying a Mac soon for a bunch of miscellaneous media projects (art, home movies, basic photo manipulation, web page development) and I was shocked at all of the terrible reviews on the site. If you haven't seen them check them out for yourself:

http://store.apple.com/us/reviews/MC623Z/A?fnode=NDQ5MDg0MA&mco=MTk0ODc1NjQ&rp=1

Not only does it seem buggy on many systems (including new iMac i7s!) but apparently it is very stripped down than previous versions. I am wondering what you guys think about it. Are these people just disgruntled or is iLife '11 more or less a subpar product?
 
I have iLife '09, and think it's descent. I was in an Apple store, playing with iPhoto '11 on a MacBook Air, and was like "This interface looks kinda cool". I started playing around with it, before realizing that, while it looks nice, it was missing some stuff. Then, it stopped working. About 30 seconds later, it started responding again, went to the albums I had wanted to see, and then quit (basically, when it stopped responding I started button mashing, and it did all that)

iLife '09 Doesn't do that to me. The mac's at the Apple store are wiped and re-imaged every day. If a very old install of '09 beats a "fresh" install of '11, yes, there are problems.

iLife '11 Is really that bad.
 
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I've got an i7 iMac and have been happily using iLife 11 without incident since about 2 weeks after it came out. Not saying there may not be an issue, but i certainly haven't seen it. Perhaps the store version that the other comment discussed didn't have updates installed or something.
 
I think iLife '11 is great. Don't listen to people who don't use it regularly. (Playing with it for a few minutes at the Apple Store doesn't count.)

Remember that when reading forums, all you'll hear is from the minority that have problems or unrealistic expectations. You won't read about the overwhelming majority who are satisfied.

iLife '11 is a solid upgrade from '09.
 
I'm new to Macs and have been using iLife 11 since I recieved my i7 iMac in November. I've had no performance issues and coming from windows, the interface is elligant and it does everything I need it to. Granted I've really only used iPhoto so far, so I can't speak for iMovie or Garageband. But I've been very happy. I have heard that there were a LOT of issues with people migrating from iPhoto 09 to iPhoto 11 with many people loosing pictures or their whole libraries. But for me, since I've started from scratch with '11... I've had NO issues whatsoever.
 
Well it's comforting to see a lot of good reviews as well because I'm pretty sure I'm buying one here in the next 6 months. Thanks for the input guys! :)
 
redvettez06 said:
Well it's comforting to see a lot of good reviews as well because I'm pretty sure I'm buying one here in the next 6 months. Thanks for the input guys! :)
Click to expand...

If you are buying new one, you will get iLife 11 free with the computer. Which includes iPhoto 11.

Hugh
 
I'll say this:

I work for an Apple Specialist; we have nine machines in the store running iLife '11 at all times; customers filter in and out all day, playing with them; we demo the apps (particularly iPhoto) frequently. I train people in iLife, day in & day out, on their machines, and on our training computer.

I have run into one serious bug, and it was re: the iPhoto install.

That's it.

I've heard plenty about the bad reviews, and I don't doubt that some users are experiencing problems, but you do have to keep in mind that negative voices are much, much louder than positive ones.
 
Definitely that bad. I've never downgraded a piece of software, but I went back to 09 and I am much happier. The app could not get out of its own way and let me view the photos.

There are very few things I want out of iPhoto:
• scroll through photos quickly
• option to scroll full-screen
• export photos to an email program

Done. Don't F these things up.
 
iMovie '11 is OK.
Garageband '11 is OK, but some functions are harder to find.
iWeb '09 wasn't updated.
iDVD '08 wasn't updated.

iPhoto '11 is a PITA and has serious bugs. It's slow. The calendar creator can't even import iCal events correctly since it only supports one event per day (good luck if two of your family members have the same birthday or their birthday falls on a holiday!). The "project shelf" eye candy is just that and actually makes creating projects harder. The Places feature is clunky and it's hard to specify an exact location for photos that weren't tagged automatically. It's a little ridiculous that "full screen mode" doesn't include a full screen mode for photos. Did I mention it's slow?

There's no doubt iPhoto '11 was rushed. It's the buggiest version of iPhoto I've ever used and I've been using iPhoto as my primary photo organizer since it was released in 2002.
 
I heard about some bugs, but never see one. But just one thing I would say is that if you already own ilife'09, it does not worth the money you give to upgrade. Otherwise, I don't think you will be disappointed.
 
I process about 3 hours of video a week through iMovie '11 with no problems. I bought it separately (from the Mac App Store). I use the other parts of iLife infrequently.
 
iLife 11 as a whole seems fine. The big problem seems to be the iPhoto part, which unfortunately is the part of the suite that is used most often.

If you have no experience with iPhoto 09, I think you will do fine and be happy. Those who used to work with iPhoto 09 seem to have some complaints about lost functionality and a slowdown in speed.

I belong to the former group (new Mac user) and feel quite OK about iPhoto so far (though having back the missing features from 09 would not hurt...).
 
I have no idea why other people say it is bad. I used iLife 09 for more than a year and I really like iLife 11. I would recommend it to anyone. Everything works well and looks beautiful.
 
Ive had no problems with 11, but I kind of liked the previous version more. I don't really like what they did with iPhoto, for one.
 
Morod said:
I'm planning to upgrade from iPhoto 09 to iPhoto 11 tomorrow via the App Store. It looks like it's worth the $15.
Click to expand...

So I purchased iPhoto 11 from the App Store. It downloaded fine. I open it and it says the photo library need to be upgraded for this version of iPhoto. I click the box to upgrade the photos and another box pops up saying "iPhoto is unable to open this library". Quit is the only option.
I have a Time Machine backup so I went back to get my old iPhoto. I have it and open it up. My pictures are there, but it also opens a Terminal window. I close Terminal and iPhoto 09 closes as well.
I dunno about this.
 
iLife '11 is great. I don't think iLife '09 is as good. I've got it installed on my MacBook Air. It comes with every single app there ever was in iLife. I think that iLife '11 is great
 
Hopefully much have passed in the 10 years of the last post. Please! 🤝
 
Last edited:
BornAgainMac said:
iWeb, iDVD, and iPhoto RIP.
Click to expand...
Those were the days when Apple knew that in order to sell their hardware they'd need to have quality software and they'd have to do it themselves. It was that comprehensive approach that first attracted me to the platform back then.
Between iWork and iLife, I was able to get everything done straight out-of-the-box. Everything had a consistent look and feel, and worked well... at least for me. :)
 
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