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I Got a Mac last year, it’s a 10.6.8 Snow Leopard. I read that it has to be updated in the last 7 years but it’s 2024 and it’s been 16 years since 2008, am I able to update my snow Leopard to latest version?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Earlier Mac models
Death_lite wrote:
I Got a Mac last year, it’s a 10.6.8 Snow Leopard. I read that it has to be updated in the last 7 years but it’s 2024 and it’s been 16 years since 2008, am I able to update my snow Leopard to latest version?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
No Mac that can run Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6.*) can run Sonoma (macOS 14.*), or anything close.
If this Mac has a model year ( > About This Mac) from Mid 2007 through Mid 2009, you can only upgrade it as far as OS X 10.11.* (El Capitan). El Capitan itself is extremely outdated. El Captain is just new enough that its version of Safari may be able to access https Web sites. But Apple has not updated El Capitan for years, and Mozilla stopped providing Firefox security updates for El Capitan in 2021. El Capitan is also not new enough to manage iPhone 15s, or any other iPhone that's been upgraded to iOS 17.
A model year between Late 2009 and Late 2011 would indicate that it is eligible for macOS 10.13.* (High Sierra) – an operating system that is also outdated, and for which applications are hard to find, even compared to this time, last year.
Snow Leopard is interesting historically because it is the last version of Mac OS X to include Rosetta 1. You can use an Intel-based Mac running Snow Leopard to run some Mac OS X / PowerPC applications. When Apple released the next version of Mac OS X, Lion, Lion feasted on the remains of poor Rosetta …
Death_lite wrote:
I Got a Mac last year, it’s a 10.6.8 Snow Leopard. I read that it has to be updated in the last 7 years but it’s 2024 and it’s been 16 years since 2008, am I able to update my snow Leopard to latest version?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
No Mac that can run Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6.*) can run Sonoma (macOS 14.*), or anything close.
If this Mac has a model year ( > About This Mac) from Mid 2007 through Mid 2009, you can only upgrade it as far as OS X 10.11.* (El Capitan). El Capitan itself is extremely outdated. El Captain is just new enough that its version of Safari may be able to access https Web sites. But Apple has not updated El Capitan for years, and Mozilla stopped providing Firefox security updates for El Capitan in 2021. El Capitan is also not new enough to manage iPhone 15s, or any other iPhone that's been upgraded to iOS 17.
A model year between Late 2009 and Late 2011 would indicate that it is eligible for macOS 10.13.* (High Sierra) – an operating system that is also outdated, and for which applications are hard to find, even compared to this time, last year.
Snow Leopard is interesting historically because it is the last version of Mac OS X to include Rosetta 1. You can use an Intel-based Mac running Snow Leopard to run some Mac OS X / PowerPC applications. When Apple released the next version of Mac OS X, Lion, Lion feasted on the remains of poor Rosetta …
"About" in 10.6.8 does not show the model year:
The model description in "About" started with 10.7 Lion.
The OP will need to open System Profiler (in the Utilites folder) to find the MODEL IDENTIFIER, then post that for us to translate.
Death_lite wrote:
I Got a Mac last year, it’s a 10.6.8 Snow Leopard. I read that it has to be updated in the last 7 years but it’s 2024 and it’s been 16 years since 2008, am I able to update my snow Leopard to latest version?
If by latest version, you mean macOS Sonoma, then the answer is no.
Do you know the exact version of this iMac? You may find it by selecting the Apple icon on the upper left-hand side of the OS X menu bar, and then selecting "About this Mac."
The short answer is NO it will not update to current versions of Mac OS. Without knowledge of the model year of the iMac we cannot tell you how far it will go, but I can tell that because it is running 10.6.8 there is NO way it will run current versions of Mac OS. Why, simple it simply does not have the hardware requirements needed and no the hardware cannot be upgraded to make it compatible.
Death_lite wrote:
How would I be able to update to El Cap, I’ve been told it’s through the App Store but not even that is working right now
I'm not sure if you even can get to the App Store from Snow Leopard. You would need to download update kits from the old Apple download site to update Snow Leopard to 10.6.8 (the first version with an App Store) and to apply an App Store patch intended to ensure compatibility with future versions of the App Store.
Even if that worked, El Capitan isn't available in the App Store any more. The App Store would show you Sonoma, but then not allow you to download or install it.
El Captain is available as a .DMG (disk image), for use with a Mac that Is already running some version of the operating system. This is not an image of a bootable disk - just an image containing an ordinary application that happens to be a Mac OS X installer.
I think you're going to need to do something like this:
This hopefully will get around the problem of Snow Leopard being too old for its web browser (Safari) to handle the implementation of https security on modern Web pages like the Support article page and like this page. Once you are on El Capitain, you're still going to be looking at using terribly outdated Web browsers, but they may be new enough to let you view some https sites.
den.thed wrote:
Allan Jones wrote:
The model description in "About" started with 10.7 Lion.
Your memory is better than mine.
Plus the oldest Mac that I have in service these days, is a 2012 running Catalina.
Not memory, my friend, but rather "pack-ratting." I'd saved screenshots of old "About" windows from now-dead Macs we had. That's the only reason I know! 😉
Tesserax is asking for the year model of the iMac.
see > Identify your iMac model - Apple Support
It is the year model that determines the highest possible OS version.
10.6.8 that’s what it says
Allan Jones wrote:
The model description in "About" started with 10.7 Lion.
Your memory is better than mine.
Plus the oldest Mac that I have in service these days, is a 2012 running Catalina.
How would I be able to update to El Cap, I’ve been told it’s through the App Store but not even that is working right now
👍
I have a few hundred saved screenshots, but nothing that far back.
Can I update my 10.6.8 Snow Leopard Mac to the latest version
