Why can't I upgrade my MacBook Air M1 from macOS Monterey 12.2.1 to Sonoma or Sequoia?

At this point in time, the Software Update app will preferentially only offer to upgrade to Tahoe on your M1. It will not offer upgrades to Sonoma or Sequoia. It may or may not offer updates to Monterey (the latest version of Monterey is 12.7.6.

If you specifically want to upgrade to Sonoma or Sequoia you will need to download the installer from the App Store. Go to the App Store and enter a search for "macos". You will get an item for macos that looks like this:

Click the item and you will get a list of macos versions that you can download & install. Choose the one you want and download it. After the download finishes you can run the installer to upgrade your M1. IMPORTANT NOTE: Do this ONLY in your primary admin account (the one you created first when you initially set up the Macbook Air).

If for some reason that doesn't work for you, there are other ways to download the installers. Let us know if you need further help.

MrPoopyman wrote:

i have 32gigs of space, do you think this is the reason? Should I clear up more?

yes, that could be part of the reason. and depending on the capacity of your local drive, with that little free space it is basically full.

you want to have ~50GB free to attempt an upgrade

if you are running low on space, you can purchase an external HDD or SSD of sufficient capacity and move your larger files (videos, pictures, documents, etc...) to it. once they are on the EHD, you can simply erase the same files from your internal drive. and, if it's just going to be used for storage, you can use an HDD and save a few bucks over the cost of an SSD. FWIW, i personally keep very little on my internal drive.

additionally, you want to keep ~ 20% of your local drive as free space for proper operation of macOS.

EDITED

MrPoopyman wrote:

there is no error code!

it just says -

"Scanning for 14.8.3 installer"

exactly like that and does nothing

but thank you

There are factors:

Some which are beyond your control and those which are totally under your control

Like poor Wifi connection

Slow wifi connection

Too many other people downloading at the same time and Apple  Servers are overloaded

Software on the computer interfering with the download process including AntiVirus Software

Notation: Disabling the AV Software may or may not solve the issue.

Removal of the AV Software may increase the chances of the download to perform as expected.

Running behind a VPN which may increase Packet losses or corruption of the download 

Turn off any Third Party Two Way Firewall and try again 

If via wifi  & too many Other devices using the wifi at the same time reducing the Bandwidth to your computer. 

Best Results are via Ethernet Cable to Router

Restart in Safe Mode. This will perform a Disk Repair, clear cache files and only load Apple Software, extensions and fonts. The boot up will be slow and can take some time - Normal 

Try Again using the Software Update Applet in System Preferences / Setting 

Worst case - Restart in Recovery Mode and choose Reinstall macOS. 

This in theory will pull the latest version of macOS this computer qualifies to run 

aleksap wrote:

If that still fails, just open Terminal and run softwareupdate -i -a -R. It forces the download and bypasses the buggy settings menu.

That command will only update the current OS, in this case Monterey. It doesn't upgrade to a new version of macOS. I also consider it a risky and potentially dangerous command.

IMHO the preferable option is to download macOS via the App Store as I described earlier.

However, to use softwareupdate commands to download an installer, use this first to get a list of available installers:

softwareupdate --list-full-installers

Then use one of the following commands to download a specific installer:

softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 12.7.6 (For Monterey)

softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 14.8.3 (for Sonoma)

softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 15.7.3 (for Sequoia)

From Monterey to Sequoia, these are the installers currently available via softwareupdate:

* Title: macOS Sequoia, Version: 15.7.3, Size: 15286709KiB, Build: 24G419

* Title: macOS Sequoia, Version: 15.7.2, Size: 15285166KiB, Build: 24G325

* Title: macOS Sonoma, Version: 14.8.3, Size: 13338019KiB, Build: 23J220

* Title: macOS Sonoma, Version: 14.8.2, Size: 13337816KiB, Build: 23J126

* Title: macOS Ventura, Version: 13.7.8, Size: 11919053KiB, Build: 22H730

* Title: macOS Monterey, Version: 12.7.6, Size: 12118346KiB, Build: 21H1320

* Title: macOS Monterey, Version: 12.7.4, Size: 12117810KiB, Build: 21H1123

MrPoopyman wrote:

i have 32gigs of space, do you think this is the reason? Should I clear up more?

If you you mean you have only 32GB free space on the SSD in your MBAir, that is not enough. While the installer itself is only about 12-16 GB, the system needs much more available disk space in order to do the upgrade, typically 40-50GB.

In any event you need to free up quite a bit more space just to keep your MBAir running smoothly. Once the system drive is more than about 80% full you can run into all sorts of inexplicable system problems. If your MBAir has a 256GB SSD with only 32GB free space, you have only about 12.5% free, which is dangerously close to freezing the system.

Hey, don't worry, your Mac isn't obsolete. The M1 runs Sequoia just fine...

The problem is jumping from Monterey straight to Sequoia often glitches out the System Settings.

First, check if you have enough space (you need about 40GB free just to be safe).

If space is fine, try booting into Safe Mode (Hold power button on startup -> Hold Shift -> Continue in Safe Mode). This clears out the system caches that usually block the update.

If that still fails, just open Terminal and run softwareupdate -i -a -R. It forces the download and bypasses the buggy settings menu.

Good luck)

Software Update may only be offering the latest version of macOS – Tahoe. But you can get to the others.

How to download and install macOS - Apple Support

These days, you can also search the App Store for "macOS Sonoma" or "macOS Sequoa", and somewhere in there is an App Store "story", similar to the above Web article, that tells how to get several old versions.

MrPoopyman wrote:

why can't I download and update my MacBook Air M1 2020 from Monterey 12.2.1 to sonama or sequoia?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: OS upgrade

IPs question does beg the question " Why can't I upgrade my MacBook Air M1 from macOS Monterey 12.2.1 "

That specific version macOS 12.2.1 Monterey was released by Apple on February 10, 2022.

That would make it 3 years ago

Is the user sating, there have been no other updates for macOS 12 Monterey offered by Apple ?

There have been numerous updates for Monterey and the latest update was version 12.7.4 released 07 Mar 2024

The point being, if the computer can not or will not update Monterey to current version

Something is serious amiss here and may explain why upGrading to newer version of macOS Sonoma or Sequoia

is not happening

Can to shed so light on this

MrPoopyman wrote:

I’ve tried the terminal method and nada.

Predicated on you having copied and pasted this command and then pressed the Return key on the keyboard

softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 15.7.3

Exactly, word for word exactly, what does the Error Message say ?

If an error occurred while updating or installing macOS - Apple Support

The message might say that an error occurred while downloading, preparing, or installing, or that the software is damaged, could not be verified, failed to personalize, or needs to be reinstalled. The cause of such messages can vary, and sometimes they're only temporary. Try these solutions.

OP wrote " MacBook Air M1 2020 from Monterey 12.2.1"

Using the Terminal commands below

For macOS 14 Sonoma ?

Copy and paste

Then press the Return key on the keyboard

softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 14.8.3

For macOS 15 Sequoia ?

Copy and paste

Then press the Return key on the keyboard

softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 15.7.3

Be away this will manually download the Full Version which is about 12 GB to 14 GB in size

The computer should already have at least 50 GB Of Free Space

If it does not have that Free Space, the Full Version may still download but you may not be able to Install the Upgrade

If successful a New Application should appear in the Applications folder of this computer

You just need to launch the application like another application and follow the prompts

MrPoopyman wrote:

when I try to download any OS from the Mac store, it just keeps "finding update"

anyone know why and how to force a update?

Technically this is a upGrade

Updates are when the computer would move from Monterey 12.2.1 to Monterey 12.7.4

An upGrade is moving from Monterey 12.2.1 to say macOS 14 Sonoma or macOS 15 Sequoia

The two are not one and the same thing

How about some hints? What happens when you try?