Buy A New Mac, Install iLife On Your Other Macs With This Simple Workaround

Good news! If you’re missing a little iLife in your life than have no fear, Apple’s got it figured out for you. iLife has been included on the new MacBook Air and Mac mini, in the form of GarageBand, iPhoto, and iMovie. As luck, and Apple, would have it, once you have a licensed copy of iLife ‘11 (like the one that comes with your new Mac) attached to your Mac App Store user account, it’s available for download on other Macs also linked to that account.

Once you’ve purchased iLife ‘11 (either in a box at the store, or as a part of your new MacBook Air/Mac mini purchase), it will show up under the Purchases tab of the Mac App Store. That is, as long as you’re running OS X 10.6.6 Snow Leopard or later, which gives you access to the Mac App Store in the first place. So you’re sitting at your new MacBook Air, looking at the Mac App Store under Purchases, and there sits iLife ‘11.

Still with me? You should be, that was the easiest part. (I kid, this is all really easy.)

Ok, so now we head over to your other Mac, likely older, and see that it needs a little shot of iLife ‘11, too. As long as you registered your new mac with the same Apple ID, iLife ‘11 will have suddenly appeared for download under the Purchases tab on that computer, too. All you have to do now is install it, and the latest version of iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand will be ready and waiting for you in a just a short while.