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How to upgrade to Lion without Snow Leopard

At WWDC, it was just announced that OSX 10.7 Lion will ONLY be available via the App Store. Good idea EXCEPT that App Store isn't available unless you have OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard already. Surely Apple don't expect Leopard users to upgrade to Snow Leopard first before they can upgrade to Lion?

iMac 20" & 24", MBpro, iPad, iPhone-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on Jun 6, 2011 12:59 PM

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61 replies

Jul 21, 2011 3:40 AM in response to Robert Longhurst

I went to an Apple Store before Lion was officially launched and theytold me that if you bought SnowLeopard, you might get Lion for free.

Now I’ve read that you can download Lion from an AppleStore but I don’tunderstand whether it’s only through MacAppStore and SnowLeopard or you can getit from Leopard too.


Doesanybody know if this last option is available?

Jul 21, 2011 4:28 AM in response to wmelon84

As far as I know, you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 to download the lion OS. The 10.6..8 update was mostly to prepare the app store system on the Macs for Lion. And yesterday there was an update to prepare the migration assistant, for migrating data into Lion.


Unless Apple make install DVDs available, which they have said they will not, the only legal option is then to upgrade to Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and then upgrade to Lion.


A 60$ upgrade is really cheap compared to earlier 129$ upgrades. And just think what Windows 7 people have to pay for Windows 7 Ultimate (without any comparison). OSX has only the top version, but Windows has as I understand 7 different versions, each with their own price tags. Compared to that, we gets away cheap.


And, my Blackbook from 2006, I have upgraded first from Tiger to Leopard, then to Snow Leopard and now to Lion. Finally the "very expensive" Mac, as Windows people proclaim, shows it's value. It can still keep up.

My brother are these days buying a Macbook Pro, after having bought two Windows machines since 2005, to keep the pace up. In a way he is lucky, he gets the Macbook Pro. I am still stuck with my Blackbook, as I cannot justify changing it as long as it servers me trustworthy day after day without problems.


Best regards, Jan

Jul 21, 2011 10:16 AM in response to Robert Longhurst

Apple will be delivering the Lion install on USB for around $79 in early August. So your upgrade options would be:

  • Spend $30 to upgrade to Snow then another $30 to upgrade to Lion
  • Wait until August and buy the USB install for $79
  • Find someone with Snow and use their computer to buy Lion for $30 and copy it to USB then create an install disc off of that.

Jul 21, 2011 2:34 PM in response to Velkey-Solvberg

You might find useful information in this Macworld article: How to install Lion over Leopard. It specifically mentions that the Lion installer (a) won't run under Leopard and (b) won't install Lion on a disk that has on it a version of OS X older than OS X 10.6.6. You have to erase the contents of a disk that has an older OS X on it.

How to upgrade to Lion without Snow Leopard

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