I have a Macbook purchased Summer or Fall 2008, currently running OS X 10.6.8, the App store wouldn't let me update to El Capitan, but I'm unsure based on previous questions whether I need to order a disk/update to Snow Leopard, Mountain Lion, or both. Any suggestions?
El Capitan MacBook minimum requirement is (Late 2008 Aluminum, Early 2009, or newer).
If your Mac is running v10.6.8 currently, that is Snow Leopard.
Unfortunatley, your Mac can't upgrade to v10.9 Mavericks either > OS X Mavericks - Technical Specifications
Or Mountain Lion > OS X Mountain Lion system requirements - Apple Support
At this point, if you want to run the latest OS X meaning El Capitan, you will have to purchase a new Mac.
Would I be able to update to Lion? It doesn't matter a ton to me if I have El Capitan, I just want to update to something
Hi, looks like you're stuck where you are at. I was in the same position, I had the white 13.3" macbook; 2.4Ghz 4gig ram, I had plenty of power but locked to snow leopard. I ended up buying a new MacBook Pro, this is what Apple wants you to do; "Buy another Apple" Your snow leopard is at it's limit, everything is outdated, I had to use Firefox for a while then I went to BestBuys trade-in site and they gave me 128$ for it, I thought that was great but wished I traded it a year prior, Good Luck
Make an appointment at any Apple Store. When I was forced to upgrade from 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard no longer supported iTunes), the genius said that they have access to any version of OS X I wanted to run, and it was free. I'd ask them to help you upgrade because the late 2008 MacBook Pro has only one of the two models that can run 10.11.5... the white one is only able to run 10.7.5 (Lion)... hopefully this helps
The OP said it was a MacBook, not a MacBook Pro. As already mentioned, only the late 2008 Unibody Al MacBook can run a newer OS.
I am not sure I am Lion is even still available. Links on Apple's site all say the item is no longer available (as of yesterday). In that case you truly are stuck with Snow Leopard (which is also no longer for sale so guard your installer discs).
What should I update to now?
