Check what version of OS X or macOS your Mac supports. The latest version of macOS, macOS Catalina, is supported on any Mac introduced in 2012 or newer. If your Mac doesn't support macOS Catalina, it might be supported by macOS High Sierra, which requires a Mac introduced in 2009 or 2010. If your Mac isn't supported still, you could still upgrade to OS X El Capitan. Download the update from the App Store. The Mac App Store is the best, and usually only, place to download macOS updates. Currently, four Mac OS X-related products are available: Mac OS X: This is the version most Macintosh owners should use. It is a consumer operating system designed for use on your personal computer. For more information, see Apple's Mac OS X page and Developer page for Mac OS X. Mac OS X Server: This is Apple's. What is a MAC Address? Whether you work in a wired network office or a wireless one, one thing is common for both environments: It takes both network software and hardware (cables, routers, etc.) to transfer data from your computer to another—or from a computer thousands of miles away to yours.
According to Apple, these older OS X operating systems can be upgraded to El Capitan.
If you’re running a version of Snow Leopard prior to version 10.6.8, you must upgrade to that version.
After you upgrade, you can then upgrade to El Capitan by using the App Store online.
Click About This Mac.
Here’s how you can upgrade to Yosemite from OS X Snow Leopard (10.6.8) or higher. In addition to a few minutes of your time, you will need 2GB of memory and 8GB of available disk space. 1. Check your system hardware and software by going to the apple menu, and choosing “About this Mac.”
Apple says you can upgrade to OS X Mavericks directly if you’re running Snow Leopard (version 10.6.8), Lion (10.7) or Mountain Lion (10.8). Or you can use an Apple feature called “Time Capsule.” To find it, go to “System Preferences” and then click on “Time Machine.”
Upgrading MacBook Air with OS X Snow Leopard to macOS Sierra
You can upgrade to El Capitan from Lion or directly from Snow Leopard. El Capitan can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for FREE. To upgrade to El Capitan you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or Lion installed. Download El Capitan from the App Store.
If you’re running Snow Leopard (10.6.8) or Lion (10.7) and your Mac supports macOS High Sierra, you will need to upgrade to El Capitan first. You will have to first upgrade to El Capitan, then to High Sierra. You can follow these instructions to get El Capitan.
Mac OS X Snow Leopard (version 10.6) is the seventh major release of Mac OS X (now named macOS), Apple’s desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. Snow Leopard was publicly unveiled on June 8, 2009 at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference.
Upgrading from OS X Snow Leopard or Lion. If you’re running Snow Leopard (10.6.8) or Lion (10.7) and your Mac supports macOS Mojave, you will need to upgrade to El Capitan (10.11) first.
You can upgrade to Yosemite from Lion or directly from Snow Leopard. Yosemite can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for FREE. To upgrade to Yosemite you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or Lion installed. The file is quite large, over 5 GBs, so allow some time to download.
The Steps for Upgrading to Mac OS X El 10.11 Capitan
If you have macOS Sierra (the current macOS version), you can upgrade straight to High Sierra without doing any other software installations. If you are running Lion (version 10.7.5), Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite, or El Capitan, you can upgrade directly from one of those versions to Sierra.
You can upgrade to Mountain Lion from Lion or directly from Snow Leopard. Mountain Lion can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $19.99. To access the App Store you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.6 or later installed.
Upgrade your Mac from OS X Yosemite to macOS Sierra. All University Mac users are strongly advised to upgrade from OS X Yosemite operating system to macOS Sierra (v10.12.6), as soon as possible, as Yosemite is no longer supported by Apple. Find out which operating system version you are currently using.
How to install a fresh copy of OS X on your Mac
If a version of macOS isn’t receiving new updates, it isn’t supported anymore. This release is supported with security updates, and the previous releases—macOS 10.12 Sierra and OS X 10.11 El Capitan—were also supported. When Apple releases macOS 10.14, OS X 10.11 El Capitan will very likely no longer be supported.
Www adobe reader for mac. Apple’s macOS High Sierra update is free to all users and there is no expiration on the free upgrade, so you don’t need to be in a rush to install it. Most apps and services will work on macOS Sierra for at least another year. While some are already updated for macOS High Sierra, others are still not quite ready.
The first thing to do is check to see if your Mac can run macOS High Sierra. This year’s version of the operating system offers compatibility with all Macs that can run macOS Sierra. Mac mini (Mid 2010 or newer) iMac (Late 2009 or newer)
If you’re using Leopard, upgrade to Snow Leopard to get the App Store. You can then use El Capitan to upgrade to a later macOS. OS X El Capitan won’t install on top of a later version of macOS, but you can erase your disk first or install on another disk.
Wondering what the latest version of MacOS is? It is currently macOS 10.14 Mojave, although verison 10.14.1 arrived on 30 October and on 22 January 2019 version 10.14.3 bought some necessary security updates. Prior the launch of Mojave the most recent version of macOS was the macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 update.
macOS and OS X version code-names
Even if you’re still running OS X El Capitan, you can upgrade to macOS Mojave with just a click. Apple has made it easier than ever to update to the latest operating system, even if you are running an older operating system on your Mac.
Choose System Preferences from the Apple () menu, then click Software Update to check for updates. If any updates are available, click the Update Now button to install them. When Software Update says that your Mac is up to date, macOS and all of its apps are also up to date.
Many users will want to install the free update today, but some Mac owners are better off waiting a few days before installing the latest macOS Mojave update. macOS Mojave is available on Macs as old as 2012, but it’s not available to all Macs that could run macOS High Sierra.
Photo in the article by “Flickr” https://www.flickr.com/photos/berniedup/36316477160
So, you’ve decided to download an older version of Mac OS X. There are many reasons that could point you to this radical decision. To begin with, some of your apps may not be working properly (or simply crash) on newer operating systems. Also, you may have noticed your Mac’s performance went down right after the last update. Finally, if you want to run a parallel copy of Mac OS X on a virtual machine, you too will need a working installation file of an older Mac OS X. Further down we’ll explain where to get one and what problems you may face down the road.
We’ll be repeatedly referring to these Apple OS versions below, so it’s good to know the basic macOS timeline.
Cheetah 10.0 | Puma 10.1 | Jaguar 10.2 |
Panther 10.3 | Tiger 10.4 | Leopard 10.5 |
Snow Leopard 10.6 | Lion 10.7 | Mountain Lion 10.8 |
Mavericks 10.9 | Yosemite 10.10 | El Capitan 10.11 |
Sierra 10.12 | High Sierra 10.13 | Mojave 10.14 |
Catalina 10.15 |
Given your Mac isn’t new and is filled with data, you will probably need enough free space on your Mac. This includes not just space for the OS itself but also space for other applications and your user data. One more argument is that the free space on your disk translates into virtual memory so your apps have “fuel” to operate on. The chart below tells you how much free space is needed.
Note, that it is recommended that you install OS on a clean drive. Next, you will need enough disk space available, for example, to create Recovery Partition. Here are some ideas to free up space on your drive:
Go to Finder > All My Files > Arrange by size
Then you can move your space hoggers onto an external drive or a cloud storage.
If you aren’t comfortable with cleaning the Mac manually, there are some nice automatic “room cleaners”. Our favorite is CleanMyMac as it’s most simple to use of all. It deletes system junk, old broken apps, and the rest of hidden junk on your drive.
Download CleanMyMac for OS 10.4 - 10.8 (free version)
Download CleanMyMac for OS 10.9 (free version)
Download CleanMyMac for OS 10.10 - 10.14 (free version)
Normally, it is assumed that updating OS is a one-way road. That’s why going back to a past Apple OS version is problematic. The main challenge is to download the OS installation file itself, because your Mac may already be running a newer version. If you succeed in downloading the OS installation, your next step is to create a bootable USB or DVD and then reinstall the OS on your computer.
If you once had purchased an old version of Mac OS X from the App Store, open it and go to the Purchased tab. There you’ll find all the installers you can download. However, it doesn’t always work that way. The purchased section lists only those operating systems that you had downloaded in the past. But here is the path to check it:
This method allows you to download Mavericks and Yosemite by logging with your Apple ID — only if you previously downloaded them from the Mac App Store.
If you are signed with an Apple Developer account, you can get access to products that are no longer listed on the App Store. If you desperately need a lower OS X version build, consider creating a new Developer account among other options. The membership cost is $99/year and provides a bunch of perks unavailable to ordinary users.
Nevertheless, keep in mind that if you visit developer.apple.com/downloads, you can only find 10.3-10.6 OS X operating systems there. Newer versions are not available because starting Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.7, the App Store has become the only source of updating Apple OS versions.
You can purchase a boxed or email version of past Mac OS X directly from Apple. Both will cost you around $20. For the reason of being rather antiquated, Snow Leopard and earlier Apple versions can only be installed from DVD.
Buy a boxed edition of Snow Leopard 10.6
Get an email copy of Lion 10.7
Get an email copy of Mountain Lion 10.8
The email edition comes with a special download code you can use for the Mac App Store. Note, that to install the Lion or Mountain Lion, your Mac needs to be running Snow Leopard so you can install the newer OS on top of it. True piano vst keygen for mac.
If you are wondering if you can run El Capitan on an older Mac, rejoice as it’s possible too. But before your Mac can run El Capitan it has to be updated to OS X 10.6.8. So, here are main steps you should take:
1. Install Snow Leopard from install DVD.
2. Update to 10.6.8 using Software Update.
3. Download El Capitan here.
If you have a newer Mac, there is no physical option to install Mac OS versions older than your current Mac model. For instance, if your MacBook was released in 2014, don’t expect it to run any OS released prior of that time, because older Apple OS versions simply do not include hardware drivers for your Mac.
But as it often happens, workarounds are possible. There is still a chance to download the installation file if you have an access to a Mac (or virtual machine) running that operating system. For example, to get an installer for Lion, you may ask a friend who has Lion-operated Mac or, once again, set up a virtual machine running Lion. Then you will need to prepare an external drive to download the installation file using OS X Utilities.
After you’ve completed the download, the installer should launch automatically, but you can click Cancel and copy the file you need. Below is the detailed instruction how to do it.
The following method allows you to download Mac OS X Lion, Mountain Lion, and Mavericks.
Now the OS should start downloading automatically onto the external drive. After the download is complete, your Mac will prompt you to do a restart, but at this point, you should completely shut it down. Now that the installation file is “captured” onto your external drive, you can reinstall the OS, this time running the file on your Mac.
Locate InstallESD.dmg disk image file — this is the file you need to reinstall Lion OS X. The same steps are valid for Mountain Lion and Mavericks.
If your Mac runs macOS Sierra 10.12 or macOS High Sierra 10.13, it is possible to revert it to the previous system if you are not satisfied with the experience. You can do it either with Time Machine or by creating a bootable USB or external drive.
Instruction to downgrade from macOS Sierra
Instruction to downgrade from macOS High Sierra
Instruction to downgrade from macOS Mojave
Instruction to downgrade from macOS Catalina
Before you do it, the best advice is to back your Mac up so your most important files stay intact. New mac keyboard 2019. In addition to that, it makes sense to clean up your Mac from old system junk files and application leftovers. The easiest way to do it is to run CleanMyMac X on your machine (download it for free here).
If none of the options to get older OS X worked, pay a visit to nearest local Apple Store. They should have image installations going back to OS Leopard and earlier. You can also ask their assistance to create a bootable USB drive with the installation file. So here you are. We hope this article has helped you to download an old version of Mac OS X. Below are a few more links you may find interesting.