Hi all,
During the lockdown, I realized we were one computer short in the household, and am looking to resurrect an old 17" MacBook Pro. It was last updated to 10.6. However, that leaves it incompatible with most current browsers and is unable to access many sites and services. That said, it also has expensive legacy software that will not run if I bring it up to date (Adobe CS, etc). Is it possible to take it from 10.6 to say, 10.12? If so, how?
Thanks in advance
The App Store Updates page only informs you of updates available for the OS you are currently running.
As you are running an older system then you are probably up to date on that system.
As you are on Mac OS X Snow Leopard you will need to make sure it is up to 10.6.8,
https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1399?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
If you want to install a newer OS that is called an Upgrade.
As you are on Snow Leopard you will need to upgrade to El Capitan first
before you can upgrade to High Sierra or Mojave, if your mac can upgrade further.
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.
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.
The App Store Updates page only informs you of updates available for the OS you are currently running.
As you are running an older system then you are probably up to date on that system.
As you are on Mac OS X Snow Leopard you will need to make sure it is up to 10.6.8,
https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1399?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
If you want to install a newer OS that is called an Upgrade.
As you are on Snow Leopard you will need to upgrade to El Capitan first
before you can upgrade to High Sierra or Mojave, if your mac can upgrade further.
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.
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.
Thanks so much. I managed to download thee .pkg and extract Intall El Capitan. However, I get a hang on restart at about 90%. I tried a hard restart but it boots directly to the same position. Any suggestions?
Thanks
How long did you leave it give it about 10-15 minutes.
If that doesn't work try booting into Safe Mode.
How to use safe mode on your Mac – Apple Support
Then try these if you are still stuck,
Reset NVRAM or PRAM on your Mac – Apple Support
How to reset the SMC of your Mac - Apple Support
If after that you are still having problems then restart your mac whilst pressing and holding down the
Command and R keys. This will boot to your macs Recovery HD which should have been installed
as part of El Capitan. When it boots to the Recovery HD you will see a Utilities panel
select Disk Utility and then Continue. When Disk Utility opens run First Aid on the disk
to check for errors.
Thank you all! Resetting the PRAM cleared the final hurdle
Upgrade from 10.6 to 10.12
