MacOS Monterey upgrade prompt at iMac Late 2014

EDITED Tues @ 07: 45 EST

Do not attempt the Monterey upgrade as it will not allow this if the computer Does not Qualify and you have very correctly referenced qualifying computers.

Sometimes, the Apple Servers have hiccups and mis-identify Big Sur as Monterey when issuing an upGrade Notification.

Was working with another person who was attempting to download the Big Sur upgrade, went to Apple Store and found Big Sur and was offered Monterey instead.

In their case, the hiccup was eventually corrected.

What maybe being offered is an update to Big Sur as the latest version is 11.6.2 released Dec 13, 2021.

If I were you - would double check if computer is needing a Big Sur update before moving forwards.

I have the same iMac 27 5k Late 2014 model, and have gotten at least 3 notifications to upgrade to Monterey over the past 2 months (and got another today). Our machines don't qualify, but with each notification, I had hoped Apple changed their policy. No such luck; they were likely hiccup notifications (or a sadistic tease). The frustrating thing is that the Mac mini Late 2014 (which has similar specs to our Macs) does qualify.

This popped up for me today at 2/7 and it did it previously about a week ago. This is frustrating because this Mac runs great and Apple should have supported it. My 2014 5K iMac is faster than my 2021 MacBook Air.