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User profile for user: judyfromaccra
judyfromaccra Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Upgrade from OS X Lion to Catalina

Hi Apple Community,


I have a 2013 version MacBook Air. I was using OS Mojave before resetting my hard disk. After a successful reset, the battery died and the power went off but after powering the computer back on, I got the question mark folder on the screen against a black background. Upon reviving the computer with Command+R+Power, the system took me all the way back to OS X Lion. At this point, the pc is performing great except some apps are not. I have been trying to upgrade to Catalina or Mohave but I keep getting a feedback saying, the system is currently running on 10.8.5 and it requires 10.9 to upgrade.

I need urgent assistance please.


Thanks a lot.

MacBook

Posted on Oct 29, 2019 8:27 AM

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User profile for user: Eau Rouge
Eau Rouge
User level: Level 8
42,602 points

Posted on Oct 30, 2019 2:19 AM

In order to upgrade to the dizzying heights of Catalina your Mac must have Mac OS X Mavericks as its minimum OS

requirement. As you are on Lion you will need to do an intermediate OS install. Mavericks is no longer available.

You can still get El Capitan (10.11.6) from here, How to upgrade to OS X El Capitan - Apple Support

go to Section 4 and click on Get Mac OS X El Capitan, this will download a .dmg file which you then

double-click to start the installation.

After El Capitan is installed then you can upgrade to Catalina, but if you are not aware yet Catalina does not run 32bit apps.

So I would suggest you install Mojave again and all the apps you would use, Upgrade to macOS Mojave - Official Apple Support

Once you have determined what apps you had previously on Mojave that were 32bit and whether or not the developers of those apps are updating them to 64bit then you can consider Catalina. Use this app, https://www.stclairsoft.com/Go64/ to check for 32bit apps.

How to upgrade to macOS Catalina - Apple Support

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User profile for user: Eau Rouge
Eau Rouge
User level: Level 8
42,602 points

Oct 30, 2019 2:19 AM in response to judyfromaccra

In order to upgrade to the dizzying heights of Catalina your Mac must have Mac OS X Mavericks as its minimum OS

requirement. As you are on Lion you will need to do an intermediate OS install. Mavericks is no longer available.

You can still get El Capitan (10.11.6) from here, How to upgrade to OS X El Capitan - Apple Support

go to Section 4 and click on Get Mac OS X El Capitan, this will download a .dmg file which you then

double-click to start the installation.

After El Capitan is installed then you can upgrade to Catalina, but if you are not aware yet Catalina does not run 32bit apps.

So I would suggest you install Mojave again and all the apps you would use, Upgrade to macOS Mojave - Official Apple Support

Once you have determined what apps you had previously on Mojave that were 32bit and whether or not the developers of those apps are updating them to 64bit then you can consider Catalina. Use this app, https://www.stclairsoft.com/Go64/ to check for 32bit apps.

How to upgrade to macOS Catalina - Apple Support

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Upgrade from OS X Lion to Catalina

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