Why can’t I update my iMac past Catalina 10.15.7?

A 2013 iMac is quite old and simply dos not have the hardware requirements to go past Catalina. If you have a need to run more current versions of MacOS then it is time to replace your Mac. MY RECOMMENDATION is to consider a Mac Mini and an external display of your choice. Please get one with at least 16gb of RAM and a 1TB drive.

We'll need to know the exact model of iMac you have before we can answer definitively. But to run anything newer than Catalina, you need to have one of the following Mac models:

• MacBook models from early 2015 or later
• MacBook Air models from 2013 or later
• MacBook Pro models from 2013 or later
• Mac mini models from 2014 or later
• iMac from 2014 or later
• iMac Pro (all models)
• Mac Pro models from 2013 and 2019

Anything older and Catalina is the last version of macOS you can run.

Regards.

Back up your data, check the application compatibility table, click here, and if your iMac is a 2014 or newer model, then on the download link for a higher OS. Otherwise, the only option is to buy an unit capable of the desired version.

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Catalina is not enough to run current applications from the likes of Adobe and Microsoft.

It is enough to run the current versions of

• The Firefox web browser
• The LibreOffice office suite
• The GNU Image Manipulation Program (a.k.a. GIMP)
• The commercial Affinity V2 applications (Photo, Designer, Publisher)
• The Carbon Copy Cloner 6 and SuperDuper! backup utilities. CCC 6 is not the current version of CCC, but for now, it appears to be a supported one.

These might let you extend the useful life of the machine, by substituting for current versions of Safari, Microsoft Office / 365, Adobe Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, etc. that your machine cannot run.

Then Catalina is the latest version of macOS it can run.