Cannot upgrade from Mountain Lion to Mojave

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Level 1

8 points

Cannot upgrade from Mountain Lion to Mojave

When I try to install Mojave on my mid 2012 MacBook Pro Retina I get the following message "The target volume could not be inspected for conversion to APFS", and the installation fails.

MacBook Pro Retina

Posted on Mar 9, 2019 10:15 AM

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Answer 1

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leroydouglas

Community+ 2024

Level 10

183,810 points

Mar 9, 2019 11:34 AM in response to sinead208

You need to step up another macOS first. Try High Sierra or El Capitan.

The tech specs are clear you need at least 10.8.5 and all updates or greater, however it is resisting your attempt stair step up.

macOS 10.14 Mojave - Technical Specifications:

https://support.apple.com/kb/SP777

Upgrade to macOS Mojave - Official Apple Support

https://support.apple.com/macos/mojave

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/macos-mojave/id1398502828?mt=12

MacBook (Early 2015 or newer)

MacBook Air (Mid 2012 or newer)

MacBook Pro (Mid 2012 or newer)

Mac mini (Late 2012 or newer)

iMac (Late 2012 or newer)

iMac Pro (2017)

Mac Pro (Late 2013; Mid 2010 and Mid 2012 models with recommended Metal-capable graphics cards)

---------------------------------------------------------

macOS 10.13 High Sierra - Technical Specifications:

https://support.apple.com/kb/SP765?locale=en_US

How to upgrade to macOS High Sierra

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208969

MacBook (Late 2009 or newer)

MacBook Pro (Mid 2010 or newer)

MacBook Air (Late 2010 or newer)

Mac mini (Mid 2010 or newer)

iMac (Late 2009 or newer)

Mac Pro (Mid 2010 or newer)

---------------------------------------------------------

If you can run macOS 10.12 Sierra, you can run macOS 10.13 High Sierra

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/macos-sierra/id1127487414?ls=1&mt=12

---------------------------------------------------------

OS X 10.11 El Capitan - Technical Specifications:

https://support.apple.com/kb/SP728

How to upgrade to OS X El Capitan - Apple Support

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206886

MacBook (Early 2015)

MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)

MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)

MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)

Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)

iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)

Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)

Xserve (Early 2009)

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Answer 2

sinead208 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 12, 2019 2:44 PM in response to sinead208

Hi,

Just an update in case it helps anyone else. I was unable to boot into safe mode as there was a legacy Symantec Endpoint Protection product on the machine, which required a passphrase before any other actions were taken. In hindsight this would probably be the reason for the messages I was seeing about the target volume being unable to be inspected.... it was probably under encryption! So i decided to remove the SEP, but the uninstaller was missing from the application. Symantec provide a tool which removes all its products, which I ran, but apparently it doesnt remove the Passphrase requirement which was running on Boot. However I managed to boot into recovery mode, wiped my ssd, and installed a fresh copy of Mountain Lion.

I then decided to start my upgrade path with macOS Sierra, as this was a full download of the 6 Gb installer. Mojave and High Sierra were only available as a mini installer of about 22mb, which wasn't working for me, and I couldn't find the full installer. Long story short.... Sierra worked for me. So I am at least some of the way down the road now. I am going to set up Mojave tonight for a dowload and install and see how we go. Thanks again for your help and suggestions.

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Answer 3

sinead208 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 9, 2019 11:38 AM in response to leroydouglas

Hi leroydouglas,

Thanks for your reply. I am currently on 10.8.5 ie Mountain Lion, but i had that thought myself anyway when Mojave didn't intitally work for me, so i attempted 10.11 El Capitan but I got the exact same result... looking at the log in console I think there may be an issue with Gatekeeper as well, even though i have it configured for Apple downloads allowed, as i can see a coreservicesd log that says that the application app "install macOS Mojave"... tried to be brought forward but isnt in fPermittedFrontASNs. I have checked my ssd and repaired permissions and the disk seems fine. Any other thoughts? Thanks again for any assistance.

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Answer 4

Mar 9, 2019 12:03 PM in response to sinead208

Reboot into Safe Boot mode (holding shift key) and run the installer from this environment

If you down loaded the macOS it is sitting in your Applications folder "Install macOS....."

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Answer 5

sinead208 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 9, 2019 12:06 PM in response to leroydouglas

ok i'll try that... thanks... might have to park this for a few hours as I have to go to work. Here's hoping...

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Answer 6

sinead208 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 13, 2019 6:55 PM in response to sinead208

Ran the Mojave installer last night and it all worked without a hitch. Thanks for the help leroydouglas.!! Much appreciated.

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Answer 7

Mar 13, 2019 7:55 PM in response to sinead208

Ran the Mojave installer last night and it all worked without a hitch. Thanks for the help leroydouglas.!! Much appreciated.

Good computing sinead208 !

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Cannot upgrade from Mountain Lion to Mojave

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