I'm still on Yosemite, mainly because every time I "upgrade" I end up with a system that I dislike even more than the previous one. Even so, it looks like I may have to upgrade in order to use some new software. This new software will work with El Capitan, and I'm thinking that this may not be too painful an upgrade.

The question is: Is it possible to get a legitimate El Capitan install package from somewhere? It doesn't appear to be possible through the App Store.

How to download OS X El Capitan - Apple Support includes a d/l link for El Cap.

Apple doesn't want you to be behind the times, so they make it difficult to find back OS versions. Searching the App Store isn't the answer; you've got to do a Google search.

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately when I try to download it from the App store, it tells me that it won't work on my computer, which is ridiculous. El Capitan came out only a few months after I bought this computer. I think they see that my computer is compatible with High Sierra and so they want to force me to download that instead. No thank you.

Anyway, I've reconsidered, and I think I'll stay with Yosemite for now. I'm hoping (without much optimism) that Apple will eventually come out with a better OS, and I may upgrade at that point.

I guess that I should have downloaded El Capitan when it was still current, but I'd heard so many bug reports at the time, that I didn't want to touch it.

I believe trying to download from the Apple Store will detect what OS you currently are using on your computer and, by design, will not give you the option to download an earlier version from them.

I also suspect, that even if you find an older version to download, you will have to do so on a separate drive (8 GB flash drive, for example) AND erase the current drive that contains the later version before installing the earlier version on it. (Perhaps you already realize this.)

P.S. Tried to send you a PM, Bob00001, but your preferences appear to be set not to accept PMs from other members.

All Private Messaging is turned off on these forums.

Try calling AppleCare. (With their new "We'll call you" procedure it's almost painless.)

Back in January I was going through the same throes vis-à-vis El Capitan — see "Downloading Mac OS" thread. Urquhart was most helpful in his post #47409 (2018-01-05) which follows (somewhat edited):


Subsequent to that there were several threads with dealt with a number of El Capitan issues.

Re: All Private Messaging is turned off on these forums.

Is this something new or has this always been the case?

P.S. Under MY STUFF/EDIT PREFERENCES, there is an box option to "accept messages from other users " . . . which I have checked, so I presumed PM-ing to be a feature of this forum.

PMing has been turned off since day one.

There may have been a discussion about it early on, but after all these years, I'm not sure.

I'm still running Yosemite (10.10) so El Capitan (10.11) would be a newer version.




Thanks, I'll give it a try.

RE: "I'm still running Yosemite (10.10) so El Capitan (10.11) would be a newer version."

-----------------------


True. But I think - someone correct me if I am wrong - when one "upgrades" from ANY earlier version, the only option through Apple is its latest OS (which, currently, is High Sierra).

The only way I know of to go back to an earlier version is if one has access to a copy of that previous version (e.g. El Capitan) which was made on a separate bootable drive prior to installing said version.

P.S. There are several websites out there offering download versions of older Apple OSs. But, having never tried, I cannot vouch for either their reliability or legality.

Wrong. Urquhart's advice and URLs worked perfectly for me — as I imagine they would for anyone.

Urquhart's links that you posted have nothing to do with Bob0000_1's problem, i.e. that the App Store is not permitting him to d/l El Cap even though he's running Yosemite.

I'll repeat my suggestion that he call AppleCare.

More: See post #48669

That's correct if you go via the standard App Store route, but Apple also offers earlier versions via, for instance, the link I posted for users who don't want to go all the way.

Granted that they make being a laggard difficult, but they don't make it impossible.


There's no need to make a bootable drive; all you've got to do is archive Install macOS Whatever.app.


Naaah!

Yes, I agree; I have no doubt that's exactly what's happening. Apple doesn't want people using older OS's if they can bully them into using their latest nightmare. The real problem for me is that I know for a fact that several commercial software packages that I use, won't work on High Sierra, and so, if I upgrade to High Sierra I'll have to spend $$$$ for upgrades to those apps.

I've now downloaded the combo updater and security update using the link in Grelber's post #48698. Thanks for that! I'm surprised that Apple didn't delete it.


I'm still debating whether or not to install this on my main boot drive. I'll probably try installing it on another HD just to be safe. If it works out okay, then I'll put it on my main HD.

grelber's linked d/l's are useless without an existing El Cap installation; they can't be "installed" anywhere, because they're merely updates. (They haven't been deleted because people are still doing fresh El Cap installs.)

CALL APPLECARE! (It's a free call, and it's almost painless, because they'll now call you back and save you from waiting on hold.)

Absolutely right, artie. I don't know what I was thinking .. or not, as the case may be. [See my comments in Post #47399 in the "Downloading Mac OS" thread.]
Mea culpa.
Sorry for the confusion, Bob.

Well, that's a bummer. Oh well, at least I've got them to use if I can find a full El Cap install from somewhere.



Will do.

Don't let 'em snow you; be forceful and ask to be kicked upstairs if you must!

RE: "CALL APPLECARE! (It's a free call . . . "

----------------------------------------

Free? When I bought my MBPro in 2011, it cost an additional $300 for AppleCare. Is this no longer the case?

What is "macOS Whatever.app?"

Shorthand for "the installer for whichever version of macOS you're dealing with".

It's still the case, but your $300 AppleCare was for tech support and repairs, including parts, on your Mac.

Just plain old tech support such as that we're discussing is free (or at least that's what the AMR Senior Specialist to whom I spoke the other day told me when I asked the same question).

What does "Naaah" mean?


No, these don't exist . . . OR . . . No don't do that?

The latter. (Sorry for being obscure...so often.)

Any d/l of macOS other than directly from Apple would be bootleg and, therefore, untrustworthy (which is not to say that there aren't a slew of people selling apparently fully and honestly functional installers on eBay).

Re: "Shorthand for "whichever version of macOS you're dealing with."

-------------------


At one time, when I would go to the App Store, the previous versions of OS I downloaded would appear (e.g. El Capitan, Mavericks, etc.) However, none of these are listed there anymore - although the link provided earlier (#48653) says that older versions should appear in one's Apple Account under "Purchased."

If I go into Recovery, the only option is Sierra, which I currently have installed.

So, if Bob is still looking for FULL "El Capitan" (not just updates), where does he find it to download and install if not previously saved on a separate drive?

Re: "Apple doesn't want people using older OS's if they can bully them into using their latest nightmare . . . "


---------------


A few months ago, I had "upgraded" from SIERRA - first doing a secure erase of the HDD and then a clean install - to HIGH SIERRA, but encountered no end of little blips and annoyances.

I am working with a 2011 MBPro which may be a little too old by now. I again erased the HD and re-installed SIERRA. Everything works exactly as before and as it should. So, perhaps, HIGH SIERRA is just too much for a 7-year old computer to handle.

According to MacTracker, your MBPro should be able to handle High Sierra. On the other hand, how much RAM does it have? That could be the problem.

16gb RAM - which, I believe, is that maximum for this machine.

I don't know why you're not seeing anything in your Purchased tab; I've still got Yosemite and El Cap available for d/l in mine. (El Cap is the last version of macOS that would show in "Purchased"...something to do with transferring Macs between owners if my memory serves me.)

As per How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support, Recovery offers three options, depending on which key combo you use to access it.

I thought Bob would be able to d/l El Cap via How to download OS X El Capitan - Apple Support (I think grelber did.), but I just digested it and saw


which suggests that he can't, because his MBP is High Sierra capable.

I dunno. Let's see if he can wangle it out of AppleCare, and if not, he may have to go to eBay, which may be cheaper than upgrading his software. (Hmmm... In a pinch, I could d/l El Cap [which I just did, as a matter of fact, to make sure I could], burn it to a DVD, and mail it to him.)

[rant] Damn! Wanting you to be current is reasonable, but forcing you to be current, particularly when it's going to cost you, is NOT.

I don't get it. I don't doubt that Apple supports the Business Software Alliance, so why do they at the same time, in effect, support a market for bootleg OS X/macOS? [/rant]

Checked again, in case I had spazzed the last time.

My account PURCHASES show everything I have bought since 2011 when I got the MBPro . . . but not one of the OS downloads.

The machine came with Mountain Lion, I believe. I upgraded to Mavericks, Yosemite, El Capitan and Sierra. Went to High Sierra, but reverted back to Sierra. Fortunately, each time I did make a flash pen boot drive BEFORE installing the OS.

UPDATE: If I go to App Store / Store / View My Account in the dropdown menu, I can then HIDE or UNHIDE purchases. Sometime along the way I had chosen to hide some purchases . . . which included all the aforementioned OS downloads.

Mystery solved!

All except Sierra and High Sierra, I presume.

I'm resurrecting this thread almost a year later. I ended up not doing anything at the time. I'm still running Yosemite, but with all of the comments that I'm seeing about Mohave, I thought I'd better have another look at getting something newer than Yosemite. I'm not sure what's happened since I last tried, but when I go to the Apple Support site, I now see statements to the effect that if the latest MacOS version is not compatible with your existing hardware or software, you may be able to download an older MacOS version. I wonder if they got too many complaints about incompatibility, and finally gave in. So, I clicked on a link to download Sierra, which took me to the App store, and it appears to be downloading Sierra now. I'll report later with my results.

It turned out to be fairly painless. The installation went well. It took about a 1/2 hour.

Then, I started checking which applications wouldn't work. My biggest fear is that some unsupported legacy applications won't run and then I'm SOL. For example, I rely on iWeb to maintain my website. Fortunately it still seems to run.

All of my expensive applications worked. A couple of utilities like CyberDuck had to be upgraded, and there were a couple that relied on some libraries (X11 and MacTex) that seem to have disappeared. I downloaded the library packages, and re-installed them. Everything seems to be working so far.

As a bonus, a couple of software packages that claimed to work with Yosemite, but never did, now work correctly with Sierra. Most notable is LibreOffice 6. Under Yosemite, LibreOffice 6 would appear to start up, but it wouldn't do anything. So I'd had to revert to version 5.

I too was dependent on iWeb. I found that Sandvox was very similar and could import old iWeb web sites. See the specifics. It is not 100% perfect, but might be worth it in the long run.

I remember Sandvox being suggested to me a while back (probably by you). I downloaded the demo, but got no further. Despite their claim that it would convert my old iWeb site, This was the sticking point:


I looked at the themes that Sanvox had available, and didn't like any of them. They all seemed to have a cheesy Wordpress kind of look about them. This was a long time ago though, and maybe they've got some themes now that I'll like better.

At the time, it seemed to me that it should be possible to make a custom theme. I think I was going to look into doing that, but before I got that far I was able to track down the last iWeb update that Apple released, and installed that. It's been stable ever since, so I didn't do anything more at the time. I guess it's time to give Sandvox another look.

True, you will lose the iWeb theme, but Sandvox has 101 different themes, some of which have color or style variations, so you will have close to 150 to choose from.

Change is the only constant.