macbook air 2013 issues

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Grim1968 Author

Level 1

4 points

macbook air 2013 issues

Just reset my old Macbook air and everything went without an issue. All basic apps like Reminders, Calendar, Photo Booth etc work fine

It will not however work with anything that requires my AppleID to launch or access. Examples Below

Update OS
Connect to App Store
Run Gmail on Mac Mail or direct via Google
Connect to imessage
Connect to ITunes - i get the (-50) error and (-9836) error

Everything seems to fail and i am wondering if any of these services will work with a MacBook of this age. I am running OS Ver 10.8.5 and i am unable to upgrade to a newer version as the AppStore does not work. Internet is working fine as is my browser. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Earlier Mac models

Posted on Jan 6, 2025 7:30 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

HWTech

Community+ 2026

Level 9

73,312 points

Jan 6, 2025 8:53 AM in response to Grim1968

Your 2013 laptop can run up to macOS 11.x Big Sur.

You will first need to upgrade to macOS 10.11 El Capitan since that installer is available from outside of the App Store. After upgrading to macOS El Capitan, then you can upgrade to macOS Big Sur which is only available from the App Store unless you are running macOS 10.15+.

Here is an Apple article with instructions & links for downloading various macOS installers....read the instructions carefully since there are multiple required steps to access the real full macOS 10.11 El Capitan installer:

How to download and install macOS - Apple Support

I highly recommend you create a bootable macOS USB installer as well so that you may have more options if something goes wrong....it will prevent you from having to start over with Mountain Lion.

You can also try to access the online Big Sur installer by booting into Internet Recovery Mode using Command + Option + R. Unfortunately some Macs may still only boot into the online installer for the version of macOS which originally shipped with the computer from the factory regardless of the keys used for booting.

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