Any Mac Gurus here ?

[SideShow Bob]

I have an older Mac running Yosemite [10.10.4] and I need to update the OS as far as I can without turning it into a snail, but the latest version [Mojave] is not compatible with my Mac. I need at least 10.11 [ El Capitan ] or if it is compatible, 10.12 [Sierra], can anyone help me out ?

[CS1983]

El Capitan:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206886


Sierra:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208202

Follow those directions. Ask us questions if you are unsure.

For the love of aunt Mable, back up anything you cannot lose BEFORE you do anything.

[SideShow Bob]

Guess I need to get an external drive to use Time machine to back up my Mac before i try to upgrade,there are some things that I don’t want to lose on it.
Do you have a recommendation for a cheap one that is compatible ?

[CS1983]

Just back up files to a cloud service. Dropbox, Google drive, etc.

Or use a USB. You can get a 64GB usb for cheap.

How large are the needed files total?

[SideShow Bob]

I’ll have to check, but I know that I will have to pay for cloud service, I am almost maxed out on the “free” allotment.

[Ah Pook]

I have a late 2008 MacBook Pro and am running El Cap 10.11.6. Mine is too old to run Yosemite.

I Time Machine to an external 1TB hard drive. They start at $45 on Amazon.

[SideShow Bob]

I have a late 2008 MacBook Pro and am running El Cap 10.11.6. Mine is too old to run Yosemite.

I Time Machine to an external 1TB hard drive. They start at $45 on Amazon.

Strange, Yosemite (10.10) is one step below El Capitan (10.11) What I have been reading, I can only upgrade from Yosemite to El Capitan due to the manufacture designation “Early. 2009”. Any upgrade beyond that is not compatible.

[CS1983]

I’ll have to check, but I know that I will have to pay for cloud service, I am almost maxed out on the “free” allotment.

Not if you sign up for a new service, unless you need more than the free ones offer.

Check total size you need to back up and let us know.

[Mtneer]

I managed to upgrade a 2009 Mac Pro to High Sierra (10.13.6). According to Apple, it wasn't supposed to go that high but I found some instructions. Had to download a file to a USB and reboot. Sorry, can't remember details, but it can be done depending on machine.

If I replace a video card, I could bring it up to Mojave (10.14.6) and probably Catalina (10.15, next month) but not worth the expense.

[Circuits]

Apple intentionally restricts some upgrades to particular machine hardware IDs, even though the hardware may be perfectly capable of running the upgrade. It's their way of aging out obsolete machines and forcing users to keep upgrading.

I have a couple 2008 Mac Pros I've upgraded all the way to High Sierra by patching the installation media, though Apple tried to do away with them as of El Capitan. I haven't bothered with Mojave or later due to video card issues, though I'm exploring some Hackintosh possibiities since I do prefer the interface and user experience in MacOS to that of Win10.

As mentioned, you can get UniBeast and an installation image to create a patched install drive on a 16Gb or larger thumb drive - though I had troubles getting my old MacPros to boot with those and ended up patching an install image on an old SATA drive and actually installing that in the box.

You can find instructions at tonymacx86.com.