I'm running 10.8.5 on a mid-2011 iMac. I really don't want to upgrade to Sierra on an older machine and risk having a lot of problems on a first release, so I was looking to upgrade to El Capitan. Why has Apple removed that option?
iMac (21.5-inch Mid 2011), iOS 10
Apple removes the previous versions from the Mac App Store once a new one has been released.
If you did not at any point download El Capitan then there's no way to get it now.
If you did download it at any point, it can be obtained from the Purchased section of the Mac App Store.
At this point, no major issues have been reported with Sierra though.
Try If your Mac is not Compatible with Sierra but you Have Not Upgraded to El Capitan.
Now, your Mac IS compatible with Sierra, but I would be curious to know whether or not the procedure still works.
Tried that earlier, but nope. Only works if you're running Snow Leopard and I'm running Mountain Lion.
I really don't understand why Apple feels they have to remove a previous OS.
Thanks for the reply, Phil, but this is for my wife's computer and i don't want her to be the guinea pig if problems do pop up -- which they often do on a first version of a new release.
poiuyt1 wrote:
but this is for my wife's computer and i don't want her to be the guinea pig if problems do pop up -- which they often do on a first version of a new release.
A small number of users are affected by problems after a first release; the vast majority are not.
What you can do is partition the hard drive, and then on a secondary, small partition, install Sierra and see how it works. Be sure to make a Time Machine backup before partitioning. If you are not sure how to partition, see: Disk Utility (El Capitan): Partition a physical disk.
I really don't want to upgrade to Sierra on an older machine and risk having a lot of problems on a first release,
Please read Upgrading to macOS "Sierra" without fear.
So I started installing Sierra last night -- went to bed at 1:30 (ET) after the install had been running for about 20 minutes. Seven hours later, the install is still not finished. Incredibly frustrating.
THANK YOU for clueing me in to the fact that I could get Yosemite from the "Purchased" part of the Mac App Store. I have an old early 2008 iMac that is seldom used and is still running 10.7 Lion. To use a newer version of an app I needed to upgrade the iMac to a newer version of Mac OS X... and was frustrated when the only option on Apple's site was for Sierra, which will not install.
Thanks to your tip I'm downloading Yosemite right now. (I'm also downloading El Capitan courtesy of the next message below from stevejobsfan0123.)
Glad I could help.
Why can't I install El Capitan now that Sierra has been released?
