Model name missing in "About This Mac" after formatting and reverting to original OS

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Level 1

64 points

Model name missing in "About This Mac" after formatting and reverting to original OS

I have a 2012 Mac mini Server that was on it's last leg running the latest version of macOS that it would allow, so I decided to replace it with an M2 Mac Mini.

Then I went to restore the the 2012 Mac mini. I reinstalled Mountain Lion (10.8), which it shipped with. Then upgraded to Yosemite (10.10) and for testing, also installed El Capitan (10.11) on a second partition.

For both OS's, it's not showing the model name when I look at "About This Mac", and it's just bugging in.

The machine is pretty much the same as when I bought it in 2013, but I've swapped out the 5400rpm internal drive with a Crucial SSD.

Any idea why the model name (2012 Mac mini Server) won't show?

Earlier Mac models

Posted on Feb 24, 2025 3:27 PM

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Answer 1

Brian Covalt Author

Level 1

64 points

Feb 26, 2025 7:52 AM in response to Brian Covalt

Interesting. I installed macOS Sierra on a new partition and after that process completed and I logged in, when I checked About This Mac, it finally showed the sub-model name!

Meanwhile, if I boot from my other partition that's running Yosemite, it still is missing the sub-model name. Oh well. At least I was able to get it to show with the newer OS.

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Answer 2

a brody

Level 10

84,461 points

Feb 24, 2025 4:37 PM in response to Brian Covalt

The Server model is a very unusual beast. For awhile Apple released Minis that also doubled Mac OS X server platforms. About This Mac indicates you installed the client version of the software. So naturally it is a bit confused.

Since I'm not entirely certain how Server models are supposed to manage internet restore, I will defer to the Mac OS X Server forum, by asking the moderators to move this post.

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Answer 3

Brian Covalt Author

Level 1

64 points

Feb 24, 2025 8:45 PM in response to a brody

I'm pretty sure by the time I bought the Mac mini Server in 2013, Apple was no longer releasing a "server" version of Mac OS X.

Looked around to be sure, and found this:

Beginning with the release of OS X Mountain Lion (version 10.8), there is only one Administrative tool, an app called "Server", which can be bought and downloaded from the Mac App Store, and is updated independently of OS X.

Mind you, I do have the Server.app installed on the machine. But yeah, I don't think there was a Server OS by the time I was getting this Mac mini Server.

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Answer 4

HWTech

Level 9

63,044 points

Feb 25, 2025 8:11 AM in response to Brian Covalt

I've seen this occur on some of my organization's Macs from time to time. I have no idea why, although our Macs are being managed by an MDM these days, but I think I saw it happen with some Macs before they were managed.

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Answer 5

Feb 26, 2025 8:01 AM in response to Brian Covalt

Brian Covalt wrote:

Mind you, I do have the Server.app installed on the machine. But yeah, I don't think there was a Server OS by the time I was getting this Mac mini Server.

You're absolutely correct. The final separate Server OS was Snow Leopard - since Lion, you use a separate app within OS X to enable the server functions. (Before Lion, you could only run Mac OS in a VM with Parallels via the server OS, but from 2011 you only needed the standard OS).

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Model name missing in "About This Mac" after formatting and reverting to original OS