How to upgrade Mac Pro Early 2008

Eau,

Unfortunately I'm in the middle of an SSD install on the MBP, so it's out of play right now. In fact I was planning to use the MP to create a bootable USB, which is apparently the repair for formatting a new SSD. So I had plans stacked in the other direction.

Grant suggested that I call iTunes to get our device associated with my Apple ID. It sounds plausible. Hopefully they will help.

I appreciate your support.

Thanks,

Ron

Eau and Grant,

I ordered a USB drive with the El Capitan installer, which was Apple Support's recommendation. It's on the way...

If this thread is still open after I try the El Capitan install, I'll enter an update.

Thank you both for your help.

Ron

Hi Eau,

Thank you for the moral support and your idea was definitely worth a try.

We tried a new apple ID, and got the exact same results. In fact the response does change in the App Store login even if we type the wrong password. We are being Nacked because our Mac Pro is too old. We apparently need to buy a new computer from Apple every 5 years or so. (So much for being green!)

I'm not giving up yet, but I did a little searching and found every solution has a step like "Download the installer from the App Store". Hmm... They clearly haven't tried this recently on their unsupported Mac.

Cheers,

Ron

Hi Grant,

We are on 10.6.8 because we only had the 1GB of RAM that came with the system. I recently upgraded to 33GB from Newegg. They had an awesome deal for about $100!

Trying to use the App Store to download El Capitan. Apple has us locked out when you attempt to "sign in". When we attempt to sign in at the App Store we get an error that says the device could not be verified... call Apple Support. I called Apple Support and was told our device is not supported. The support rep sent me an article on how to download El Capitan (which of course fails at the sign in), and how to boot in safe mode (which is not helpful if you can't get your Apple ID verified.

I searched online this evening. I don't see anyone complaining about my issue yet, but I'm sure others will fall into this sign in trap.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Ron

Hi Grant,

I hope you're right about the Support Rep being wrong. I'll give it another try (maybe this evening).

Yes, we are completely up to date on all updates available for our version of OS. I'm not following what you're saying about the App Store version.

It seems like I need to sign in with my Apple ID to download anything from the App Store.

The error is: "Your device or computer could not be verified. Contact support for assistance."

The App Store seems to need an association with the device your running the App Store on. Somewhere in the Apple.com backend, it seems to be failing to make that association. That failing association seems to precede authentication because I get the same error even if I enter the wrong password.

You know what happened when I called Support.

My Apple ID works fine on their web sites... just not from the App Store.

Just to reiterate... My issue is that I cannot download El Capitan.

Thank you for all the suggestions/insights.

Ron

Hi Grant,

Thank you for the note.

Yes, I think the article you referenced is cogent. It's sort of a sneaky way for Apple to make people go away. Once your Apple ID can't be used on the App Store or iTunes (my status), you can't buy stuff. That's an awesome way to fire your customers for not buying more hardware... don't let them buy more stuff to go with their old hardware. They'll show us who's boss! Right?

We haven't bought a Mac computer in a few years (2012 MacBook Pro). Apple noticed.

I personally think it would be more green if Apple would sell us a new processor, or mother board, etc. I bought 32GB of Ram from Newegg for $100!!! The weird thing is that I'm open to buying Sierra Mist or whatever they call it. I don't need it to be free. I'm not refusing to buy something. I'm just not done with this system yet. It's too cool!

Thanks,

Ron

Grant,

I've already updated my payment method. So that's not the issue.

The error claims to be related to device verification, which gives contacting Apple Support as the remedy. Apple Support is awesome at calling people back, but the guy told me he couldn't help because my device is not supported. He knew I had no way forward. The implication was that only newer devices can be expected to work.

It gets worse than running an outdated OS. The OS is actually working fine. Other products stop working. For example I use a cloud backup service. I chose the vendor because they support Windows and Mac. However, they refuse to support their sync client on our version of Mac OS. Their explanation as I recall was that Apple provided the API their client SW is written against. The API lacks backward compatibility that would be required to run on older versions of Mac OS.

I'm familiar with recent changes to SSL/TLS. Software is modular. TLS version is not typically a reason to upgrade an operating system outside. It would be Apple's choice to make it so.

I don't believe it's a conspiracy. It's just shrewd/inconsiderate marketing decisions. Apple cuts their costs by dropping support for older stuff. They increase their revenues by selling new stuff. Every company does those two things to some degree. I'd be totally happy to BUY the upgrade.

I appreciate your help. Thanks for listening. I'll call iTunes.

Thanks,

Ron