Possible to upgrade OS in 2015 iMac?

Question

DanRoy Author

Level 1

6 points

Possible to upgrade OS in 2015 iMac?

Hi Friends

My old iMac works great and I want to give it to a friend.

I deleted my data, but I think I deleted too much.

Now the iMac won’t upgrade anything.

When I try to go to the Apple upgrade page, the page won’t show properly. (Please see image.)

Maybe I deleted the Safari version that works today.

Is there a workaround so that I can get this iMac up to its latest compatible OS?

It was running Sonoma before I deleted data.

Now it won’t upgrade past Mavericks.

Thank you!

iMac 21.5″

Posted on Nov 10, 2024 9:30 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

varjak paw

Level 10

177,244 points

Nov 10, 2024 4:04 PM in response to DanRoy

No 2015 iMac can run anything later than Monterey. So either you actually have a more recent iMac - Sonoma requires either a 2017 iMac Pro or a 2019 iMac or newer - or you were using OpenCore to patch the newer OS to run on that older hardware. If the latter is what you were doing, I'd strongly recommend that you not inflict that on your friend unless he/she is prepared to deal with the many likely issues.

Regards.

Reply

Answer 2

Nov 11, 2024 6:55 PM in response to DanRoy

DanRoy wrote:

UPDATE!

I searched with this iMac's specs, and the results show I have a late 2013 iMac. Ouch.

Catalina is the end of the line for the Late 2013 iMacs.

How to download and install macOS - Apple Support

If you're running Mavericks now, you may need to do a two-stage upgrade:

Use a modern Mac or PC to download the El Capitan or Sierra installer and put it onto a USB flash drive. This will not create a bootable installer, just a flash drive with a .DMG data file on it.
Transfer the flash drive to the old Mac, and copy the .DMG to the old Mac.
Mount / open / double-click on the .DMG, and run the installer you will find inside.

That will hopefully get you to the point where your versions of Safari and the App Store are new enough that you (or the next owner) can use the App Store links in that article to install High Sierra, Mojave, or Catalina.

Note:

Catalina is too old to get any love from the likes of Adobe and Microsoft, and it breaks 32-bit applications. It is enough to run current versions of Firefox, LibreOffice, GIMP, and the commercial Affinity V2 applications (Photo, Designer, Publisher). If you update to Catalina, iTunes will go away, replaced by separate applications (Music, TV, Podcasts, Books) and the Finder.

Reply

Answer 3

Rudegar

Level 10

173,814 points

Nov 10, 2024 10:10 AM in response to DanRoy

strange, because according to apple then that imac can't run higher than

12.7.6

macOS Monterey is compatible with these computers - Apple Support

where Sonoma is 14.7.1

Reply

Answer 4

Nov 13, 2024 4:32 PM in response to DanRoy

DanRoy wrote:

I feel like this should be the solution.

But when I typed what Apple's website told me, I got "command not found".

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/922a9d04-dd9e-4352-9136-34ddd917d039

Did you download the Catalina installer to your Mac from the App Store?

If you did, why are you messing around with the commands to create a bootable installer using a USB flash drive? Wouldn't it be easier just to run the installer?

If you did not, there will be no Install macOS Catalina application in your Applications folder – so the command that you typed would have been referencing a file that does not exist, explaining the "command not found."

Reply

Answer 5

DanRoy Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 10, 2024 12:13 PM in response to Rudegar

Now I can't see the year of production.

I tried to include a photo of the iMac specs here, but this webpage tells me the image is too large. It's just an iPhone picture of the screen. But…)

I'll type it:

iMac

2.7 GHz Intel Core i5

Memory 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Graphics Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

Serial Number XXX

Software OS X 110.9.5 (13F1911)

Safari won't open most webpages, or they open with errors. Prob because it's an outdated copy of Safari?

(Again, this webpage won't let me show you the image of the Safari fail)

So because Safari is not working, I cannot open the old OS download pages on the Apple website. And I think that the reason Safari is not working, is because it needs to be updated with the more recent version of software, that I cannot access.

Before I did all the deleting, this iMac was working great, with iMovie on it, and a fully-functioning Safari, and other newer software. Now I cannot even download iMovie. I can't follow the directions on the Apple website to create a thumb drive boot disc, because I cannot access those webpages on the Apple website.

Reply

Answer 6

g_wolfman

Level 4

2,056 points

Nov 10, 2024 2:36 PM in response to DanRoy

You could try Firefox's Extended Support Release: https://www.mozilla.org/en-CA/firefox/enterprise/

The ESR version for Mavericks is Firefox 78. It ought to be automatically delivered by that link with the right localization, but if not, get the en-US version here directly: https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/78.15.0esr/mac/en-US/Firefox%2078.15.0esr.dmg

It is also out of date but ought to be good enough to get you a Big Sur or Monterey installer.

Reply

Answer 7

DanRoy Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 10, 2024 5:11 PM in response to g_wolfman

I was very hopeful for this one, g_wolfman, but it didn't work.

Safari won't open the page. Just like most webpages, the error message says "Safari cannot open a secure connection…"

I think that if I could get a working browser, I'd be in the clear. But I only have Safari and this version of Safari is not letting me get to another browser. That seems to be my big obstacle right now.

Reply

Answer 8

g_wolfman

Level 4

2,056 points

Nov 10, 2024 5:22 PM in response to DanRoy

You might also need to update the ISRG X1 root certificate, as per here: https://docs.certifytheweb.com/docs/kb/kb-202109-letsencrypt/#macos-ios-etc.

Older versions of Safari, etc, inevitably become a giant pain in the posterior because of TLS compatibility and certificate trust chains. But better that than the alternative.

Reply

Answer 9

DanRoy Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 10, 2024 8:26 PM in response to g_wolfman

I was so hopeful! The ISRG Root certificate worked at every step. The whole column of permissions changed to trust all.

I closed everything and rebooted twice.

But safari is still acting the same way and not opening webpages, with the message,

“… because safari can’t establish a secure connection to the server…”

I hand-typed the Firefox addresses into the url field, but Safari just keeps giving me the exact same error message.

Reply

Answer 10

Nov 11, 2024 6:57 PM in response to DanRoy

Also see: What to do before you sell, give away, trade in, or recycle your Mac - Apple Support

Reply

Answer 11

DanRoy Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 12, 2024 8:03 PM in response to Servant of Cats

I feel like this should be the solution.

But when I typed what Apple's website told me, I got "command not found".

Reply

Answer 12

DanRoy Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 10, 2024 4:47 PM in response to DanRoy

UPDATE!

I searched with this iMac's specs, and the results show I have a late 2013 iMac. Ouch.

Reply

Answer 13

DanRoy Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 10, 2024 4:47 PM in response to varjak paw

You are correct!

I searched with this iMac's specs, and the results show I have a late 2013 iMac.

Reply

Answer 14

DanRoy Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 10, 2024 4:50 PM in response to Rudegar

You are correct!

I searched with this iMac's specs, and the results show I have a late 2013 iMac.

Reply

Answer 15

g_wolfman

Level 4

2,056 points

Nov 11, 2024 3:22 PM in response to DanRoy

OK, well...there's always the command line in Terminal, that might work to avoid the issues with the App Store by dodging https:

softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 12.7.6

Reply