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Install El Capitan on an old macbook

My colleague has an older macbook with El Capitan on it. He wanted to restore it to the factory default, but couldn't do that, cause the installer said, El Capitan is not in the app store anymore. I have a 2020 MacBook Pro and want to help him. What are our options?

MacBook

Posted on Jan 7, 2021 4:27 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 7, 2021 5:30 AM

Does his mac still have an operating system on it, if so then he can do this.


Click on the link below,


How to get old versions of macOS – Apple Support


Go to Download OS and click on OS X El Capitan 10.11

this downloads InstallMacOSX.dmg to your Downloads folder.


The next section can only be done on a mac that is capable of running El Capitan,

a mac that came preinstalled with an OS later than El Capitan will refuse to do the next bit.


When downloaded open to InstallMacOSX.pkg, double-click on

that and an installation window will open, this does not install El Capitan

but converts the InstallMacOSX.pkg to the Install OS X El Capitan.app which 

you will find in your Applications folder, it should be 6.2GBs in size.


(If the installation window asks which disk you want to install to, you must pick 

the disk that you are booted to at the time. Not any internal or external disk that 

you want to eventually install El Capitan on, that is for later.)


To start the installation of El Capitan double click on the Install OS X El Capitan.app.


The copy of the install app self deletes after installing El Capitan, so make sure you keep a copy of the 

InstallMacOSX.dmg if you need it in future, or you could just make a copy of the Install OS X El Capitan.app 

prior to installing and moving it to an external drive for safe keeping. 

It is also possible to create a bootable USB installer disk using the Install OS X El Capitan.app in the Applications folder and the createinstallmedia command in the Terminal app. 


Read the instructions here,

How to create a bootable installer for macOS – Apple Support

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1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 7, 2021 5:30 AM in response to Zaturek

Does his mac still have an operating system on it, if so then he can do this.


Click on the link below,


How to get old versions of macOS – Apple Support


Go to Download OS and click on OS X El Capitan 10.11

this downloads InstallMacOSX.dmg to your Downloads folder.


The next section can only be done on a mac that is capable of running El Capitan,

a mac that came preinstalled with an OS later than El Capitan will refuse to do the next bit.


When downloaded open to InstallMacOSX.pkg, double-click on

that and an installation window will open, this does not install El Capitan

but converts the InstallMacOSX.pkg to the Install OS X El Capitan.app which 

you will find in your Applications folder, it should be 6.2GBs in size.


(If the installation window asks which disk you want to install to, you must pick 

the disk that you are booted to at the time. Not any internal or external disk that 

you want to eventually install El Capitan on, that is for later.)


To start the installation of El Capitan double click on the Install OS X El Capitan.app.


The copy of the install app self deletes after installing El Capitan, so make sure you keep a copy of the 

InstallMacOSX.dmg if you need it in future, or you could just make a copy of the Install OS X El Capitan.app 

prior to installing and moving it to an external drive for safe keeping. 

It is also possible to create a bootable USB installer disk using the Install OS X El Capitan.app in the Applications folder and the createinstallmedia command in the Terminal app. 


Read the instructions here,

How to create a bootable installer for macOS – Apple Support

Install El Capitan on an old macbook

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