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My old Mac hard drive died, so I formatted and partitioned a hard drive. The only DVD I have is Snow Leopard. I've installed and upgraded Snow Leopard, but when I try to download El Capitan through the App store it says I need to update my OS. I can't reinstall El Capitan back on the Mac.
Where can I download El Capitan, so I can made a bootable USB?
MacBook Pro 17", OS X 10.11
Just to be 100% clear, I assume you are using the link from within that document, and I assume that if you hit "Cancel" you still cannot hit the "Get" button to download the El Capitan installer:
https://itunes.apple.com/app/os-x-el-capitan/id1147835434?ls=1&mt=12
If not, please try that. But assuming you will (or already have)...
I am suspecting the issue is that there's a problem with your iTunes account and poor old ancient Snow Leopard iTunes doesn't have the proper ability to show you a fully descriptive and useful/accurate error message in that regard.
So you need to make sure there is no issue with your iTunes (Apple ID) account in terms of billing as the message sort of (awkwardly) implies. Do you have an iPhone or another Apple device? If so, using the same Apple ID can you "purchase" any free apps from the App Store or iTunes on those other devices? This is the ultimate test to determine if there's any problem with your account.
For example, if there's any problem with your account then on any device you will not be able to purchase new paid apps, "purchase" new free apps, or update any current apps. Here, with iTunes in El Capitan you are trying to purchase the free El Capitan upgrade to get the download. This is why I suspect an account issue.
If you have an iPhone I would change or update your payment information and make sure you don't have any outstanding balance (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204088) and try to download a free app.
If all that checks out, make a new Admin account on your Snow Leopard, sign into iTunes from there, and try again to upgrade to El Capitan.
Just to be 100% clear, I assume you are using the link from within that document, and I assume that if you hit "Cancel" you still cannot hit the "Get" button to download the El Capitan installer:
https://itunes.apple.com/app/os-x-el-capitan/id1147835434?ls=1&mt=12
If not, please try that. But assuming you will (or already have)...
I am suspecting the issue is that there's a problem with your iTunes account and poor old ancient Snow Leopard iTunes doesn't have the proper ability to show you a fully descriptive and useful/accurate error message in that regard.
So you need to make sure there is no issue with your iTunes (Apple ID) account in terms of billing as the message sort of (awkwardly) implies. Do you have an iPhone or another Apple device? If so, using the same Apple ID can you "purchase" any free apps from the App Store or iTunes on those other devices? This is the ultimate test to determine if there's any problem with your account.
For example, if there's any problem with your account then on any device you will not be able to purchase new paid apps, "purchase" new free apps, or update any current apps. Here, with iTunes in El Capitan you are trying to purchase the free El Capitan upgrade to get the download. This is why I suspect an account issue.
If you have an iPhone I would change or update your payment information and make sure you don't have any outstanding balance (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204088) and try to download a free app.
If all that checks out, make a new Admin account on your Snow Leopard, sign into iTunes from there, and try again to upgrade to El Capitan.
Try installing the Snow Leopard 10.6.8 Combo Update first, then you should be able to download El Capitan through the link below.
There was a Jan 2016 Update for the Mac App Store in Snow Leopard 10.6.8. If you don't have this, you may encounter issues accessing the current Mac App Store from Snow Leopard. Check that there are no further software updates for your Snow Leopard installation, because this may be one of them.
Awesome. Thanks guys for the help. I logged into the App store on my new Mac, and since I haven't downloaded anything lately it wanted me to verify my credit card security code.
I am now downloading El Capitan from the App store.
I downloaded and installed the Snow Leopard update. Then restarted.
Same message.
Make bootable USB for El Capitan
