You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Updating my MAC OS 10.9.5

Can I update my Mac OS 10.9.5 to a Sierra or High Sierra? Or would it be to risky, and run slower? Would it be safer to update to a El Captain?

Mac Pro

Posted on Mar 30, 2020 2:07 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 30, 2020 2:44 PM

The model and year of your Mac will determine which macOS you can upgrade to,


read the following links.




How to upgrade to macOS Mojave - Apple Support


How to upgrade to macOS High Sierra - Apple Support


How to upgrade to OS X El Capitan - Apple Support




Before upgrading make a full back up of your Mac.




Check that third party apps you use have updates available for the new OS.


https://roaringapps.com


Check that your printers/ scanners etc have updated drivers and software available for the new OS.




If you are considering upgrading to Catalina be warned that it does not support 32bit apps.


Your Mac is probably running 32bit apps and these will need to be updated to 64bit apps,


some updates may be free, some may be paid. Use this app to discover which apps you have


are 32bit, https://www.stclairsoft.com/Go64/. Once the list has been created you can then


contact the developers of the apps to see if they provide 64bit updates. 




How to upgrade to macOS Catalina – Apple Support

4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 30, 2020 2:44 PM in response to ColetteAbbink

The model and year of your Mac will determine which macOS you can upgrade to,


read the following links.




How to upgrade to macOS Mojave - Apple Support


How to upgrade to macOS High Sierra - Apple Support


How to upgrade to OS X El Capitan - Apple Support




Before upgrading make a full back up of your Mac.




Check that third party apps you use have updates available for the new OS.


https://roaringapps.com


Check that your printers/ scanners etc have updated drivers and software available for the new OS.




If you are considering upgrading to Catalina be warned that it does not support 32bit apps.


Your Mac is probably running 32bit apps and these will need to be updated to 64bit apps,


some updates may be free, some may be paid. Use this app to discover which apps you have


are 32bit, https://www.stclairsoft.com/Go64/. Once the list has been created you can then


contact the developers of the apps to see if they provide 64bit updates. 




How to upgrade to macOS Catalina – Apple Support

Apr 1, 2020 2:04 PM in response to Eau Rouge

Hi Eau. Thank you for your help, it was helpful. Yet I ran into another challenge will trying to wipe my computer clean and update to the Sierra OS.


I backed up all my files with a external hard drive, it took 6 hours.


I then downloaded the Sierra OS system.


Ive been watching tutorials and the next step is to create a bootable installer, the tutorials I was watching/reading says to have a clean external hard drive for that?? To add the installer on it?!


do I need another external hard drive to complete this?


I feel like I’m almost there yet so confused in how to move forward!

Apr 1, 2020 9:41 PM in response to ColetteAbbink

What made you decide to wipe your mac, you do not need to do that when upgrading.

None of the links I gave you said to wipe your mac. Those are official Apple links

not some juvenile posting on You Tube.


More and more I see in these forums people wiping their macs for no good reason

it seems to be a behaviour as stupid as buying enormous amounts

of lavatory paper to combat an illness that has nothing to do with your digestive system.

Apr 1, 2020 10:31 PM in response to Eau Rouge

Great joke at the end about the toilet paper.


The reason why I want to wipe my Mac clean is because it is an older Mac it’s a macOS maverick. It’s running really really slow, so I want to wipe it clean so it runs properly gets all the bugs out.


so if I don’t wipe it clean and simply update to High Sierra then all I need to do is make sure all the apps are then updated to format to high Sierra?


[Edited by Moderator]



Updating my MAC OS 10.9.5

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.