Howto: Install iLife 06 on Leopard
Posted by benrobb on December 1st, 2007
It came as a bit of a surprise to me that after doing a clean install of Leopard that there was no more iPhoto. I suppose if I had looked around at all, I would have known, but I obviously hadn’t. Not to worry, after digging out the disks that came with my Macbook Pro, I decided to put together this install guide for others that ended up in my boat.
1. Pop in the Tiger Install Disk 1.
2. Double-click “Install Bundled Software Only”
3. Agree to everything, and then click the Customize button when you get to the Installation Type screen.
4. Select the parts of iLife you want to install. I wanted iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, and GarageBand.
5. Put in Disk 2.
6. Since it’s snowing, go grab a cup of hot chocolate while you wait for the install to finish.
7. Now run three rounds of Software Update, and you’re ready to go.
December 5th, 2007 at 8:17 pm
Hey, thanks for posting this. I just ran in to this problem. Your guide told me exactly how to solve it.
December 15th, 2007 at 11:27 am
[...] II: Okay, I found a dummy-proof tutorial here. Digg it | reddit | del.icio.us | [...]
December 28th, 2007 at 9:26 am
Hey, I just discovered the same thing! I’m so used to having iLife bundled with the install discs that come with the computer, that it didn’t even occur to me that iLife 06 would be gone after my clean install of Leopard. Anyways, I’ll have some hot cocoa while I’m waiting….
Happy New Year!
December 28th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
Yeah, I tried to just find the iPhoto package on disk 2 and install that but oooh no, that is not the right version of OS X you are running there!
This seemes to work for me though. Thanks alot
January 13th, 2008 at 3:33 am
I lost my installer CD for my powerbook G$ when I moved out to my new house
, is there anyway that I can Install garage band? maybe a downloadable link? or maybe I can borrow my friends Installer CD and install it unto my Powerbook? Need help plz…..THX A LOT! 
January 13th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
@Haniel
Not being a fan or advocate of piracy, I’d say your best bet would be to borrow your friend’s installer CD. Even that might not work though unless your friend has the same model computer that you’ve got. I’d be very surprised if Apple had a download link, but if you find one, be sure to let me know.
January 16th, 2008 at 3:50 am
I’m on a MBP running OSX 1.5.1 (clean install) and I get the message “This software cannot be installed on this computer”.
January 22nd, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Thank you, thank you, thank you. That was soooooo helpful. Made my day.
January 25th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
@George
Are you using the original CDs that came with your mbp? If not, the CDs might be only useable with the exact same mac they were bundled with.
February 19th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
thanks alot for this i accidently deleted imovie and sometimes i cant capture in final cut so this will help alot!
THANKS
March 21st, 2008 at 10:50 am
ran into the same problem today—-this is GREAT!!!!
THANK YOU!
April 4th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
How do I install it if I don’t have the tiger cd? I just have the leopard ones. I downloaded iMovie 6 off the internet, but I can’t open it to install it. Any ideas?
April 5th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
If you downloaded iMovie 6 off the internet, then my official answer is that you’re probably not supposed to install it anyway =)
I actually have no idea anyway. It would depend on the format that you downloaded it in. Any pirate worth his salt would provide some sort of disk image that you could mount, but again, my official answer is that you should probably buy the software.
April 7th, 2008 at 3:30 am
Thanks for the info.
It was quite useful for me to install garageband.
April 16th, 2008 at 12:45 am
For the person that is getting the “can not be installed on this computer” message. I have an old powerbook that I put 10.5 on (clean install) and only had the install disks that came with my mini. I just put it back on the mini then copied it over in target disk to the powerbook, updated, and things seem to be going great. Currently putting the old library back on the book.
May 7th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
thank you sooooo mcuh! im at work right now, and am going to definetly try this when i get home. i just assumed that iLife would be on there when i did the cean instal, it always is… but not this time. ahah. thank you soooo much!
May 9th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Thanks!
August 7th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Thank you for posting this. I just ran in to this problem. I appreciate you putting this together.
September 18th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
i wanted to say thanks. you’ve saved me
November 11th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Hey guys. I was wondering, if I did a completely clean install of iLife, which serial number would I need?
November 12th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
With this method installing off a Tiger disk, there aren’t any serial numbers to play with. Perhaps a stand-alone purchase of iLife is different?
December 25th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
thanks for the help! i’ve been trying to figure this out for months…
January 19th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
thanks alot! for some reason, i tried this on my own and it didn’t work but your help has saved my day!! after all, what is a mac without iLife?
April 6th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
[...] you do have the install discs, Ben Robison has a posted a nice walk-through for installing iLife from your Tiger install discs without overwriting [...]
May 19th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
Cheers saved a heap of time
Apple do some silly things some of the time. But I am still a massive fan.
Thanks
October 13th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
I was wondering whether this could be done and a mere 2 minutes into my search I bumped into your article. Problem solved. Thanks!
October 16th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
I upgraded to iLife 08 awhile back, so I don’t know if this strategy works for Snow Leopard. Anybody had success?
October 17th, 2009 at 7:59 am
That’s too cool. Thanks a LOT – it really did the job
December 2nd, 2009 at 7:12 am
Thank you! You were right on the money. This is the exact info I was looking for, which I couldn’t find on the Apple site.
February 28th, 2010 at 5:31 pm
whats the tiger disk?
does it come with ilife 06 or the mac?
March 5th, 2010 at 9:36 pm
It’s the one you received with your Mac. Mine is actually spread over two DVDs. If you purchased iLife separate from your Mac, then you can just install it straight, but these instructions are for those of us who received iLife on our Macs, and then bought Leopard separately. This also works for Snow Leopard, I’ve done it.
May 26th, 2010 at 1:11 pm
Doesn’t work. Says something along the lines “This software can not be installed on this machine”. Is there a way to get around that?
May 28th, 2010 at 6:06 am
I’ve never received that error. Are you installing on Snow Leopard? And what version of iLife are you running? Perhaps your copy of iLife is the PPC version?
October 1st, 2010 at 1:33 pm
Hi Ben,
My iMac came with iLife06 when I bought it that year. When I try this re-install trick on a newer iMac with Snow Leopard, I’m blocked by this pop-up:
“Bundled software can’t be installed on this computer. Make sure your system meets the requirements.”
Is there a move I’m missing?