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User profile for user: MVW Photo
MVW Photo Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Late 2014 iMac won't upgrade from El Capitan to Big Sur

I have a late 2014 iMac. Lots of memory, 3 TB Fusion Drive, etc.


I re-installed from scratch, and that got me El Capitan.


Now this Mac should be upgradeable to Big Sur. But try that I may, this fails every time. I update from the App Store.


The updater downloads fine. It runs fine too, until it doesn't. "Error updating" messages, after an hour or two - every time, and I have tried countless times. Also re-formatted the drive again and started over, but with the same result.


What am I missing?


Michael


Posted on Nov 7, 2024 8:13 AM

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6 replies
User profile for user: g_wolfman
g_wolfman
User level: Level 4
2,128 points

Nov 7, 2024 3:16 PM in response to MVW Photo

Assuming you don't have a fusion drive issue (but if oyu do, follow MrHoffman's provided instructions first)...


You might try upgrading to High Sierra first. El Capitan still uses HFS+ and High Sierra will specifically update the file system to APFS. It really shouldn't be an issue and Big Sur ought to be able to handle that too...but sometimes things work oddly.

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Late 2014 iMac won't upgrade from El Capitan to Big Sur

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