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Upgrading the OS on an old Mac

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  • 22-06-2018 11:45am
    #1
    Pixel Eater
    Registered Users Posts: 486 ✭✭


    So I have an older iMac (circa late 2010), still working perfectly. I was just going to sell it but the computer I bought to replace it is having niggling problems and may have to return it. I then looked into maybe upgrading the Mac by installing an newer operating system.


    Is this difficult? The official Apple website said it isn't but then again they would say that. Is there any issues in doing this? Will it run slower for example? I'm specifically concerned with an old version of Photoshop I have, would this be effected?


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    #2
    Sad Professor
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,678 CMod ✭✭✭✭Sad Professor


    Upgrading the OS is easy. You download the installer, follow some instructions and click install. Then come back in a couple of hours or so.

    Will the Mac run slower afterwards? Almost certainly but it's usually worth it to have an up-to-date operating system.

    Will all your apps still work? Probably not, but it depends on what version of Mac OS you currently using and what version of those apps you have. You'd have to check into that yourself to see if they support the latest version of Mac OS or how much it costs to upgrade them.

    If it's a mid-2010 iMac then it should be able to run the latest version of Mac OS known as High Sierra. Since you don't seem to know anything about operating systems, I'm guessing it's never been upgraded and is still running Snow Leopard (10.6). You can check this in About this Mac. If so I think you will need to install El Capitan (10.11) first before upgrading to High Sierra (10.12). See here:

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

    Will everything go smoothly? Hard to say. If you are going from 10.6 to 10.11, any number of things could go wrong. Not many users make such a massive upgrade. Backup everything up and prepare for the worst just in case.


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