To get the latest features and maintain the security, stability, compatibility, and performance of your Mac, it's important to keep your software up to date. Apple recommends that you always use the latest macOS that is compatible with your Mac.
Sounds like a 'go home, you're drunk' situation. But Duet manages it, and with minimal installation headaches, too. Then so long as you're connected via cable to your Mac and the OS X. How to download older Mac OS X versions via the App Store. If you once had purchased an old version of Mac OS X from the App Store, open it and go to the Purchased tab. There you'll find all the installers you can download. However, it doesn't always work that way.
Learn how to upgrade to macOS Big Sur, the latest version of macOS.
Check compatibility
If a macOS installer can't be used on your Mac, the installer will let you know. For example, it might say that it's too old to be opened on this version of macOS, or that your Mac doesn't have enough free storage space for the installation.
To confirm compatibility before downloading, check the minimum requirements for macOS Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra, Sierra, El Capitan, or Yosemite. You can also find compatibility information on the product-ID page for MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, MacBook, iMac, Mac mini, or Mac Pro.
Make a backup
Before installing, it's a good idea to back up your Mac. Time Machine makes it simple, and other backup methods are also available. Learn how to back up your Mac.
Download macOS
It takes time to download and install macOS, so make sure that you're plugged into AC power and have a reliable internet connection.
Safari uses these links to find the old installers in the App Store. After downloading from the App Store, the installer opens automatically.
Go Home You're Drunk Mac Os X
- macOS Catalina 10.15 can upgrade Mojave, High Sierra, Sierra, El Capitan, Yosemite, Mavericks
- macOS Mojave 10.14 can upgrade High Sierra, Sierra, El Capitan, Yosemite, Mavericks, Mountain Lion
- macOS High Sierra 10.13 can upgrade Sierra, El Capitan, Yosemite, Mavericks, Mountain Lion
Safari downloads the following older installers as a disk image named InstallOS.dmg or InstallMacOSX.dmg. Open the disk image, then open the .pkg installer inside the disk image. It installs an app named Install [Version Name]. Open that app from your Applications folder to begin installing the operating system.
- macOS Sierra 10.12 can upgrade El Capitan, Yosemite, Mavericks, Mountain Lion, or Lion
- OS X El Capitan 10.11 can upgrade Yosemite, Mavericks, Mountain Lion, Lion, or Snow Leopard
- OS X Yosemite 10.10can upgrade Mavericks, Mountain Lion, Lion, or Snow Leopard
Install macOS
Follow the onscreen instructions in the installer. It might be easiest to begin installation in the evening so that it can complete overnight, if needed.
If the installer asks for permission to install a helper tool, enter the administrator name and password that you use to log in to your Mac, then click Add Helper.
Please allow installation to complete without putting your Mac to sleep or closing its lid. Your Mac might restart, show a progress bar, or show a blank screen several times as it installs macOS and related firmware updates. Space goal cannon mac os.
Learn more
You might also be able to use macOS Recovery to reinstall the macOS you're using now, upgrade to the latest compatible macOS, or install the macOS that came with your Mac.
If you've been using a Mac for any length of time, you know that it's more than just a pretty point-and-click, window-and-icon interface. Beneath the surface of the operating system is an entire world that you can access only from the command line. Terminal (in your /Applications/Utilities folder) is the default gateway to that command line on a Mac. With it, instead of pointing and clicking, you type your commands and your Mac does your bidding.
Why would you want to do that? For almost all of your computing needs, the regular graphical user interface is enough. But the command line can be handy when it comes to troubleshooting your Mac, to turn on 'hidden' settings, and other advanced chores. It's a good idea for anyone who isn't an utter beginner to be familiar with it.
If you aren't already familiar with your Mac's command-line interface. First up: How to navigate the file system from the command-line prompt.
The prompt
By default, when you open Terminal, the first thing you'll see is something like this:
Go Home You're Drunk Mac Os Catalina
The first line shows the last time you logged into your Mac via the command line; that's the current time, when you're using Terminal. The second line is the prompt, and while it can change from system to system depending on configuration, by default it contains several bits of information.
In my prompt, walden is the name of my Mac (same as the name in the Sharing pane of System Preferences), and kirk is my user name. The ~ shows where I am in the file system of my Mac; ~ is a shortcut that means the current user's home folder. (In the Finder, that's the folder with your user name and the house icon.) Finally, the $ is a character that the bash shell (the default interface that Terminal uses) displays to indicate that it's ready to accept a command.
What's in a folder
When you first get to the command line, you're in your home folder. While you're there—or when you're in any folder (directory in Unix-speak)—you might want to know what's in it. To do that you use the ls (or list) command. Type ls and press the Return key, and you'll see the folders (and/or files) in the current directory.
Go Home You're Drunk Mac Os 11
The output of the plain ls command is pretty sparse; it shows you the names of files and folders contained in the current directory (including some familiar ones such as Movies, Music, Pictures, and so on). Fortunately, you can add a number of optional switches to the ls command that allow you to see more information. So, for example, try typing ls -l (that's a lower-case L), then pressing Return. You'll see something like this:
Sounds like a 'go home, you're drunk' situation. But Duet manages it, and with minimal installation headaches, too. Then so long as you're connected via cable to your Mac and the OS X. How to download older Mac OS X versions via the App Store. If you once had purchased an old version of Mac OS X from the App Store, open it and go to the Purchased tab. There you'll find all the installers you can download. However, it doesn't always work that way.
Learn how to upgrade to macOS Big Sur, the latest version of macOS.
Check compatibility
If a macOS installer can't be used on your Mac, the installer will let you know. For example, it might say that it's too old to be opened on this version of macOS, or that your Mac doesn't have enough free storage space for the installation.
To confirm compatibility before downloading, check the minimum requirements for macOS Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra, Sierra, El Capitan, or Yosemite. You can also find compatibility information on the product-ID page for MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, MacBook, iMac, Mac mini, or Mac Pro.
Make a backup
Before installing, it's a good idea to back up your Mac. Time Machine makes it simple, and other backup methods are also available. Learn how to back up your Mac.
Download macOS
It takes time to download and install macOS, so make sure that you're plugged into AC power and have a reliable internet connection.
Safari uses these links to find the old installers in the App Store. After downloading from the App Store, the installer opens automatically.
Go Home You're Drunk Mac Os X
- macOS Catalina 10.15 can upgrade Mojave, High Sierra, Sierra, El Capitan, Yosemite, Mavericks
- macOS Mojave 10.14 can upgrade High Sierra, Sierra, El Capitan, Yosemite, Mavericks, Mountain Lion
- macOS High Sierra 10.13 can upgrade Sierra, El Capitan, Yosemite, Mavericks, Mountain Lion
Safari downloads the following older installers as a disk image named InstallOS.dmg or InstallMacOSX.dmg. Open the disk image, then open the .pkg installer inside the disk image. It installs an app named Install [Version Name]. Open that app from your Applications folder to begin installing the operating system.
- macOS Sierra 10.12 can upgrade El Capitan, Yosemite, Mavericks, Mountain Lion, or Lion
- OS X El Capitan 10.11 can upgrade Yosemite, Mavericks, Mountain Lion, Lion, or Snow Leopard
- OS X Yosemite 10.10can upgrade Mavericks, Mountain Lion, Lion, or Snow Leopard
Install macOS
Follow the onscreen instructions in the installer. It might be easiest to begin installation in the evening so that it can complete overnight, if needed.
If the installer asks for permission to install a helper tool, enter the administrator name and password that you use to log in to your Mac, then click Add Helper.
Please allow installation to complete without putting your Mac to sleep or closing its lid. Your Mac might restart, show a progress bar, or show a blank screen several times as it installs macOS and related firmware updates. Space goal cannon mac os.
Learn more
You might also be able to use macOS Recovery to reinstall the macOS you're using now, upgrade to the latest compatible macOS, or install the macOS that came with your Mac.
If you've been using a Mac for any length of time, you know that it's more than just a pretty point-and-click, window-and-icon interface. Beneath the surface of the operating system is an entire world that you can access only from the command line. Terminal (in your /Applications/Utilities folder) is the default gateway to that command line on a Mac. With it, instead of pointing and clicking, you type your commands and your Mac does your bidding.
Why would you want to do that? For almost all of your computing needs, the regular graphical user interface is enough. But the command line can be handy when it comes to troubleshooting your Mac, to turn on 'hidden' settings, and other advanced chores. It's a good idea for anyone who isn't an utter beginner to be familiar with it.
If you aren't already familiar with your Mac's command-line interface. First up: How to navigate the file system from the command-line prompt.
The prompt
By default, when you open Terminal, the first thing you'll see is something like this:
Go Home You're Drunk Mac Os Catalina
The first line shows the last time you logged into your Mac via the command line; that's the current time, when you're using Terminal. The second line is the prompt, and while it can change from system to system depending on configuration, by default it contains several bits of information.
In my prompt, walden is the name of my Mac (same as the name in the Sharing pane of System Preferences), and kirk is my user name. The ~ shows where I am in the file system of my Mac; ~ is a shortcut that means the current user's home folder. (In the Finder, that's the folder with your user name and the house icon.) Finally, the $ is a character that the bash shell (the default interface that Terminal uses) displays to indicate that it's ready to accept a command.
What's in a folder
When you first get to the command line, you're in your home folder. While you're there—or when you're in any folder (directory in Unix-speak)—you might want to know what's in it. To do that you use the ls (or list) command. Type ls and press the Return key, and you'll see the folders (and/or files) in the current directory.
Go Home You're Drunk Mac Os 11
The output of the plain ls command is pretty sparse; it shows you the names of files and folders contained in the current directory (including some familiar ones such as Movies, Music, Pictures, and so on). Fortunately, you can add a number of optional switches to the ls command that allow you to see more information. So, for example, try typing ls -l (that's a lower-case L), then pressing Return. You'll see something like this:
Don't worry too much about what all that means right now; we're just getting our feet wet. The point is that ls can provide additional information about files and folders, depending on the options you specify. In this case, that additional information includes the name of the user who owns each item in the directory. (That ownership is part of the Unix system's file-permissions regime.) The kirk kirk next to most of those items above means that each one is owned by the user kirk, who is in the group kirk. The other understandable bit of information next to each file and folder is the date and time each one was last modified.
One other handy option: You can view invisible files—ones that the Finder doesn't normally show you—by typing ls -a. (These hidden files all have dots (.) in front of their names.)
Moving around
Go Home You're Drunk Mac Os Download
When you're in the Finder and you want to move to another folder, you find that folder and double-click it. From the command line, you use the cd (or change directory) command instead. So let's say you're in your Home folder and want to peek inside the Downloads folder. To do that, you'd type cd Downloads. (Remember to always type a space after any command that has an additional argument, such as the name of a directory in the previous example.) Once you've done that, ls will show you the contents of your Downloads folder.
Here are a couple of quick tricks for moving around in your Mac's file system.
- If you type
cdand press the Return key—with no directory specified—you'll go back to your Home folder. (You can also typecd ~to go there.) - If you type
cd /, you'll go to the root level of your startup disk. - If you type
cd .(that's two periods), you'll go to the directory above the one you're currently in. So if you're in your home folder, and typecd ., you'll go to your Mac's /Users folder. - And if you type
cd -(hyphen) you'll go back to the directory you were in before the last time you issued thecdcommand.
To learn more Terminal commands, see our articles on how to copy and move folders as well as delete files and folders using the command line and get help when you need it from man pages.
