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The Sierra update instruction states: "If you’re running Snow Leopard (10.6.8) and your Mac supports macOS Sierra, you will need to upgrade to El Capitan first. Click here for instructions." Nevertheless, there's no link to follow... How can I get a El Capitan installation if it's not available anymore in the AppStore for my 2011 MacBookPro.
Thanks.
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'Update' merely updates the existing system. You need to upgrade, and you do that from the Mac App Store. However, as you are on Snow Leopard you first need to upgrade to El Capitan before you can upgrade to High Sierra. You do that from this special link:
https://itunes.apple.com/app/os-x-el-capitan/id1147835434?mt=12
You can probably then ugrade to High Sierra but it depends on your exact Mac. The compatible ones are:
In theory 2GB of memory is adequate but in practice it may run very slowly and you would be better off with a higher amount if possible.
MacOS Sierra - Technical Specifications
But if you are at Snow Leopard 10.6.8, you will need to first upgrade to El Capitan, if your Mac supports El Capitan
<https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206886>
And you make sure you have the
App Store update
<https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1860?locale=en_US>
installed on your Snow Leopard 10.6.8 system
Check to make sure your applications are compatible. PowerPC applications are no longer supported after 10.6.
Applications Compatibility (2)
El Capitan 10.11 Compatibility information
macOS Sierra 10.12: Compatible Apps
Also check to make sure there is a compatible driver for your printer.
Do a backup before installing, preferable 2 backups on 2 different drives.
Runjackyrun wrote:
I tap on large X but nothing happens
I do not know what large X you are referring to. If you are referencing to my post about downloading the installer, and then quitting when it starts to install. "Quit" is Command-Q or the "Install macOS Sierra -> Quit"
That is my best guess about what your "I tap on large X but nothing happens" statement.
If you would care to elaborate, maybe we could offer more advice.
To update from Snow Leopard to Sierra here's what you have to do:
From your desktop click the apple logo then click software update.
If you are running snow leopard it should ask you to update to 10.7.5 aka lion.
Go ahead and update to lion.
Once you've done that open the app store once your in lion.
Then download the macOS Sierra installer on the app store.
Then follow the instructions to install.
If you are on good wifi it may take up to 2 hours to update from lion to Sierra.
Hope that helps...
And if your gonna claim you need el capitan this is not true because the macOS Sierra installer supports 10.7 and above... no payment needed
After over 24 hours of downloading El Capitan, I've hit a new snag. It doesn't like my password for continuing the install as administrator. It's the only Apple P/W I've ever had. I used it to sign up for this group.
Although it wasn't recognized in the app store so I created a new one for the app store. It doesn't recognize either one as valid for installing El Capital. What can I do now?
Thanks.
It's a good idea to have an aministrator password set on your Mac. You can set it so that you don't have to enter it when you boot up, but it will be required when installing applications - this means that anything trying to install something behind your back will run into the password request.
You need v10.7 or later installed in order to upgrade to Sierra > macOS - How to Upgrade - Apple
You can purchase Lion here.
Apple will send you an email with a redemption code you can use at the App Store.
Look for Redeem under Quick Links right side of the App Store window.
macOS Sierra is free.
Click here to download El Capitan. You don’t need to spend any money on Lion or other intermediate OS versions.
(144824)
I'm not sure you can "get there from here"
If you can get a qualified Mac do download Sierra using your Apple ID (using your Apple ID is very important as each download is signed the the user's Apple ID, and that ID will be needed for future updates).
Anyway, if you can use another Sierra qualified Mac (yours, or a friends), then you can create a bootable USB device (could be a regular USB disk, a USB flash thumb drive, an SD Card (assuming your Mac has an SD card slot).
<https://lifehacker.com/how-to-make-a-bootable-macos-sierra-usb-flash-drive-17868 53248>
<https://9to5mac.com/2016/07/03/how-to-create-macos-sierra-usb-install-drive/>
Then make a backup of your Snow Leopard system (make 2 using different devices and different backup utilities is even better/safer).
Do a clean install of Sierra using the USB installer you created, then use Applications -> Utilities -> Migration Assistant to restore you personal data.
Make sure your software is compatible (the following is thanks to Eric Root)
BobHarris wrote:
I'm not sure you can "get there from here"
If you can get a qualified Mac do download Sierra using your Apple ID (using your Apple ID is very important as each download is signed the the user's Apple ID, and that ID will be needed for future updates).
Apple say that Snow Leopard users have to upgrade to El Capitan first, before installing Sierra. The link for El Capitan was posted by Neil and Eric above.
Roger Wilmut1 wrote:
Apple say that Snow Leopard users have to upgrade to El Capitan first, before installing Sierra. The link for El Capitan was posted by Neil and Eric above.
I tried Niel's link before posting, and I got
So I posted my above reply. Maybe Niel's is for a store outside the U.S.
Eric's actually proved useful, but that was after my post. I'll cache Eric's link for future reference.
The URLs are the same but you need '?mt=12' on the end to make it work in the UK: I don't know about other countries. Possibly going through https://support.apple.com/HT206886 , which should redirect to the appropriate county version, will give you the correct link (in the 'How to get El Capitan' section).
Update to Sierra from 10.6.8
