Can I upgrade my macbook 10.5.8 to a 10.6 or higher?

It can be upgraded to 10.6; phone the Apple Store and order it. Some MacBooks can also be upgraded to 10.7 or 10.8.

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Hey IM DERK,

I just went through this today, and posted how I resolved it - will paste below, hopefully you can get the same response as did I from the Apple Care rep. Good luck!

Disappointingly, the Apple Store (both online and brick and mortar locations) no longer carries v10.6 (Snow Leopard) or 10.7 (Lion) for sale or download, which is required before updating to Mountain Lion. So, it's almost as if a loyal Apple customer like myself has been abandoned to antiquity. However, after going into my local Apple Store today, I was told to check out Amazon.com or Best Buy to order the software.

BUT WAIT! On Amazon, it is being sold for an average of $80 - $90; also, if you buy an "open box" version, it has been reported in customer feedback on Amazon that instead of an original disk, sellers will send a memory stick without any guarantee or instructions. So, I don't think I'm willing to spend around 3x the amount of what Apple was likely to be selling it for, or risk some bizarre or problematic installation using a memory stick.

Here's how I resolved it today:

I called Apple Care at 1-800-275-2273.

I needed my Serial Number for my device/laptop.

I told them that I was stuck from upgrading to a more current OS as delivered straight from Apple, instead having to settle for a 3rd party who charges a lot, and if used, with no guarantee of receiving a valid disc or software.

The Rep was super helpful and friendly, and offered to send me (for FREE!!) the discs for Snow Leopard or Lion to my address next week! Yippee!! And, I didn't have to pay for the support call as my Apple Care coverage had run out. WIN!!

Hopefully, engineers will read this and realize that they're leaving Leopard folks in the dust and maybe with a bad taste in their mouth since there's no way to directly upgrade from Apple. It would be SUPER helpful if one or the other of 10.6 or 10.7 were still available online for download!!

Hope this helps!

Todd,

Thanks for your information, it was a lot of help. I wish I had checked this forum before wasting hours on the web trying to find an update download site for OS 10.5.8 to 10.6.

I have to say how disappointed I am at Apple for not having this upgrade available online. I just received my iphone5, was excited to tie in to my itunes only to find out that I needed to update my itunes to 10.7 and then only to find out the the itunes 10.7 only works on OS 10.6 or higher. Frustration after frustration. I looked everywhere for the OS upgrade to 10.6, it's not available as a download you can only purchase it and it only comes in a DVD. WOW! for the most savvy tech company in the world, they are treating thier loyal clients like we're living in 1990. Really! no download for such an important upgrade which I'm sure affects millions of people? Now I have to wait 9 to 12 days to receive this upgrade by mail. So I just purchased the most sophisticated phone in the world from the most innovative company and it's just sitting here because I have to wait for the same company to ship me a DVD. Did they all of a sudden forget about the internet?

I've been an a Apple lover forever and personally have 3 MacBook Pro in my household, 2 ipads and 4 iphones currently. I can't even count the many pervious Macs, Macbooks and iphones my family purchased in the past and I influenced many on my friends to get on the iphone bandwagon. This experience has put such a bad taste in my mouth that I am definitely defecting; next shopping spree, Android and Samsung it is. Too bad, Apple I like your products and it's balantly obvious to me that you guys DON"T GET IT!

CTigerX

Guys Look on the bright side, Atleast you guys have the option of calling apple and getting them to ship the disk across to you because you are in the U.S, Im in Dubai, and am not hoping for a lot of luck with the apple service centre here.

Why cant this download be made available online? even for a charge?Im sure your customers will be more than willing to pay for it!

I spent hours on the phone with apple techs tonight and they took my $ and got nowhere. Maybe someone can help me out on here please. I have a 2009 Macbook Pro and I am currently running 10.5.8 and want to upgrade to Mountain Lion. I attemped to install my friends disc which is version 10.6.8 of snow leopard and when it came up I got a message that now leopard cannot be installed on this computer. That is when I called apple tech support and he went into my computer and tried to install it for me and guide me through and in the end he said I have a power PC and it cannot be changed. My processor says Intel core 2 duo when I go into about this mac. He was no help and got no where and they took my $. Is is maybe because I tried to go from 10.5.8 to 10.6.8??? I should buy the 10.6 CD and try that??? Why wouldn't he tell me that on the phone? Can my MacBook Pro not be updated??? please someone help

Hi Ros,

Here are the system requirements for upgrading to Snow Leopard:

Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard - Technical Specifications

General requirements

• Mac computer with an Intel processor
• 1GB of memory
• 5GB of available disk space
• DVD drive for installation
• Some features require a compatible Internet service provider; fees may apply.

Feature-specific requirements

Time Machine

requires an additional hard drive or Time Capsule (sold separately).

Photo Booth

requires an iSight camera (built in or external), USB video class (UVC) camera, or FireWire DV camcorder. Backdrop effects when using a DV camcorder require fixed focus, exposure, and white balance.

Boot Camp

requires Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista (sold separately).

Screen sharing

in iChat and the Finder requires a 128-Kbps Internet connection (300 Kbps recommended).

DVD Player

requires a 1.6GHz processor or faster for improved deinterlacing.

iChat

• Audio chats require a microphone and a 56-Kbps Internet connection.
• Video chats require an iSight camera (built in or external), USB video class (UVC) camera, or FireWire DV camcorder; and a 128-Kbps upstream and downstream Internet connection.
• Backdrop effects when using a DV camcorder require fixed focus, exposure, and white balance.
• Some iChat features offer better performance and quality with higher system capabilities. More details

Exchange Support

requires Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 Update Rollup 4. Auto-setup requires enabling the Autodiscovery feature of Microsoft Exchange Server.

QuickTime X movie capture

requires iSight camera (built-in or external), USB video class (UVC) camera, or FireWire DV camcorder.

QuickTime H.264 hardware acceleration

requires a Mac with an NVIDIA 9400M graphics processor.

Developer tools

require 1GB of memory and an additional 3GB of available disk space.

OpenCL

requires one of the following graphics cards or graphics processors:

• NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, GeForce 9600M GT, GeForce 8600M GT, GeForce GT 120, GeForce GT 130, GeForce GTX 285, GeForce 8800 GT, GeForce 8800 GS, Quadro FX 4800, Quadro FX5600
• ATI Radeon 4850, Radeon 4870

64-bit support

requires a Mac with a 64-bit processor.

Grand Central Dispatch

requires a Mac with a multicore processor.

If you have an Intel processor, and enough free memory, then you should be able to install Snow Leopard. It's possible that the disks your friend gave you are machine-specific, and that is why they would not load on your Mac. If you purchase your own copies (and, again, have made sure that your computer meets all of the requirements), then you should have no issues loading the one you purchase. Once you have Snow Leopard installed, you can purchase Mountain Lion online and download it to do the upgrade.

Hope this helps!

Cheers,

GB