macOS Big Sur elevates the most advanced desktop operating system in the world to a new level of power and beauty. Experience Mac to the fullest with a refined new design. Enjoy the biggest Safari update ever. Discover new features for Maps and Messages. Get even more transparency around your privacy.
Chances are, your Mac can run macOS Big Sur
The following models are supported:
To save the time and expense of upgrading to Snow Leopard just to get to Lion, you can try an unsupported method of upgrading from Tiger or Leopard to Lion explained in Joe Kissell’s “Take Control of Upgrading to Lion.” Follow these steps: Start your Mac normally from your old (Tiger or Leopard) system. What Leopard users SHOULD do now, whether or not they plan to upgrade: Update to OS X 10.5.8 (Leopard) if you have not done so already. Use Software Update to keep all Apple software up to date. Apply all free updates to other software you use. Set up an external hard drive and use Time Machine. If your computer has 1GB of memory or less, add more. Do you have an old Mac running OS X 10.5 'Leopard' or earlier? If so, here's your chance to grab a free upgrade to Snow Leopard, direct from Apple. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife) Apple. According to Apple's support page, you are still able to update your OS from Snow Leopard for free to El Capitan. This would allow you to continue using TeamViewer also on this device. Thanks and all the best, Esther.
- MacBook (2015 or later)
- MacBook Air (2013 or later)
- MacBook Pro (Late 2013 or later)
- Mac mini (2014 or later)
- iMac (2014 or later)
- iMac Pro (2017 or later)
- Mac Pro (2013 or later)
To see which model you have, click the Apple icon in your menu bar and choose About This Mac.
Make sure you’re ready to upgrade.
Before you upgrade, we recommend that you back up your Mac. If your Mac is running OS X Mavericks 10.9 or later, you can upgrade directly to macOS Big Sur. You’ll need the following:
- OS X 10.9 or later
- 4GB of memory
- 35.5GB available storage on macOS Sierra or later*
- Some features require an Apple ID; terms apply.
- Some features require a compatible internet service provider; fees may apply.
Upgrading is free and easy
Upgrading from macOS Catalina 10.15 or Mojave 10.14?
Go to Software Update in System Preferences to find macOS Big Sur. Click Upgrade Now and follow the onscreen instructions.
Upgrading from an older version of macOS?
If you’re running any release from macOS 10.13 to 10.9, you can upgrade to macOS Big Sur from the App Store. If you’re running Mountain Lion 10.8, you will need to upgrade to El Capitan 10.11 first.
If you don’t have broadband access, you can upgrade your Mac at any Apple Store.
- OS X 10.9 or later
- 4GB of memory
- 35.5GB available storage on macOS Sierra or later*
- Some features require an Apple ID; terms apply.
- Some features require a compatible internet service provider; fees may apply.
For details about your Mac model, click the Apple icon at the top left of your screen and choose About This Mac. These Mac models are compatible with macOS Big Sur:
- MacBook (2015 or later)
- MacBook Air (2013 or later)
- MacBook Pro (Late 2013 or later)
- Mac mini (2014 or later)
- iMac (2014 or later)
- iMac Pro (2017 or later)
- Mac Pro (2013 or later)
Siri
Requires a broadband internet connection and microphone (built-in or external).
Hey Siri
Supported by the following Mac models:
- MacBook Pro (2018 or later)
- MacBook Air (2018 or later)
- iMac Pro (2017 or later)
Dictation, Voice Control, and Voice Memos
Requires a microphone (built-in or external).
Spotlight Suggestions
Requires a broadband internet connection.
Gestures
Requires a Multi-Touch trackpad, Force Touch trackpad, Magic Trackpad, or Magic Mouse.
Force Touch gestures require a Force Touch trackpad.
VoiceOver gestures require a Multi-Touch trackpad, Force Touch trackpad, or Magic Trackpad.
Photo Booth
Requires a FaceTime or iSight camera (built-in or external) or USB video class (UVC) camera.
FaceTime
Audio calls require a microphone (built-in or external) and broadband internet connection.
Video calls require a built-in FaceTime camera, an iSight camera (built-in or external), or a USB video class (UVC) camera; and broadband internet connection.
Apple TV
High dynamic range (HDR) video playback is supported by the following Mac models:
- MacBook Pro (2018 or later)
- iMac Pro (2017 or later)
- Mac Pro (2019) with Pro Display XDR
Dolby Atmos soundtrack playback is supported by the following Mac models:
- MacBook Air (2018 or later)
- MacBook Pro (2018 or later)
Sidecar
Supported by the following Mac models:
- MacBook (2016 or later)
- MacBook Air (2018 or later)
- MacBook Pro (2016 or later)
- Mac mini (2018 or later)
- iMac (late 2015 or later)
- iMac Pro (2017 or later)
- Mac Pro (2019)
Supported by all iPad models with Apple Pencil support:
- 12.9-inch iPad Pro
- 11-inch iPad Pro
- 10.5-inch iPad Pro
- 9.7-inch iPad Pro
- iPad (6th generation or later)
- iPad mini (5th generation)
- iPad Air (3rd and 4th generation)
Continuity Camera
Requires an iPhone or iPad that supports iOS 12 or later.
Continuity Sketch and Continuity Markup
Requires an iPhone with iOS 13 or later or an iPad with iPadOS 13 or later.
Handoff
Requires an iPhone or iPad with a Lightning connector or with USB-C and iOS 8 or later.
Instant Hotspot
Requires an iPhone or iPad with cellular connectivity, a Lightning connector or USB-C, and iOS 8.1 or later. Requires Personal Hotspot service through your carrier.
Universal Clipboard
Requires an iPhone or iPad with a Lightning connector or with USB-C and iOS 10 or later.
Auto Unlock
Requires an Apple Watch with watchOS 3 or later or an iPhone 5 or later.
Approve with Apple Watch
Requires an Apple Watch with watchOS 6 or later or an iPhone 6s or later with iOS 13 or later.
Apple Pay on the Web
Requires a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air with Touch ID, an iPhone 6 or later with iOS 10 or later, or an Apple Watch with watchOS 3 or later.
Phone Calling
Requires an iPhone with iOS 8 or later and an activated carrier plan.
SMS
Requires an iPhone with iOS 8.1 or later and an activated carrier plan.
Home
Requires an iPhone with iOS 12 or later and a configured Home app.
AirDrop
AirDrop to iOS and iPadOS devices requires an iPhone or iPad with a Lightning connector or with USB-C and iOS 7 or later.
AirPlay
AirPlay Mirroring requires an Apple TV (2nd generation or later).
AirPlay for web video requires an Apple TV (2nd generation or later).
Peer-to-peer AirPlay requires a Mac (2012 or later) and an Apple TV (3rd generation rev A, model A1469 or later) with Apple TV software 7.0 or later.
Time Machine
Requires an external storage device (sold separately).
Maps electric vehicle routing
Requires an iPhone with iOS 14 and a compatible electric vehicle.
Maps license plate restrictions
Requires an iPhone running iOS 14 or an iPad running iPadOS 14.
Boot Camp
Upgrade Your Old Mac To Snow Leopard For Free Online
Allows Boot Camp installations of Windows 10 on supported Mac models.
Exchange Support
Requires Microsoft Office 365, Exchange 2016, Exchange 2013, or Exchange Server 2010. Installing the latest Service Packs is recommended.
Windows Migration
Supports OS X 10.7 or later and Windows 7 or later.
App Store
Available only to persons age 13 or older in the U.S. and many other countries and regions.
Photos
The improved Retouch tool is supported on the following Mac models:
- MacBook Pro (15-inch and 16-inch models) introduced in 2016 or later
- iMac (Retina 5K models) introduced in 2014 or later
- iMac (Retina 4K models) introduced in 2017 or later
- iMac Pro (2017 or later)
- Mac Pro introduced in 2013 or later
- Apple Books
- Apple News
- App Store
- Automator
- Calculator
- Calendar
- Chess
- Contacts
- Dictionary
- DVD Player
- FaceTime
- Find My
- Font Book
- Home
- Image Capture
- Launchpad
- Maps
- Messages
- Mission Control
- Music
- Notes
- Photo Booth
- Photos
- Podcasts
- Preview
- QuickTime Player
- Reminders
- Safari
- Siri
- Stickies
- Stocks
- System Preferences
- TextEdit
- Time Machine
- TV
- Voice Memos
- Activity Monitor
- AirPort Utility
- Audio MIDI Setup
- Bluetooth File Exchange
- Boot Camp Assistant
- ColorSync Utility
- Console
- Digital Color Meter
- Disk Utility
- Grapher
- Keychain Access
- Migration Assistant
- Screenshot
- Screen Time
- Script Editor
- Sidecar
- System Information
- Terminal
- VoiceOver Utility
- Arabic
- Catalan
- Croatian
- Simplified Chinese
- Traditional Chinese
- Traditional Chinese (Hong Kong)
- Czech
- Danish
- Dutch
- English (Australia)
- English (UK)
- English (U.S.)
- Finnish
- French
- French (Canada)
- German
- Greek
- Hebrew
- Hindi
- Hungarian
- Indonesian
- Italian
- Japanese
- Korean
- Malay
- Norwegian
- Polish
- Brazilian Portuguese
- Portuguese
- Romanian
- Russian
- Slovak
- Spanish
- Spanish (Latin America)
- Swedish
- Thai
- Turkish
- Ukrainian
- Vietnamese
TidBITS reader Scott Maxwell asked for my advice surrounding selling or giving away an old Mac, with regard to the version of Mac OS X installed. In Scott’s case, he wanted to give an old MacBook to a relative. Scott didn’t remember what the MacBook came with originally, but it’s currently running Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and is compatible with 10.7 Lion, but not 10.8 Mountain Lion. Since Scott’s relative wanted to be able to use iCloud, an upgrade from Snow Leopard to Lion was necessary, but Lion is no longer available in the Mac App Store.
I’ll go through the legalities in a bit, but the simple answer in this case is that you can still buy Lion from Apple, although the process is a bit more involved.
How to Get OS X 10.7 Lion Installed — First, you must call Apple at 800-MY-APPLE (800-692-7753) and work your way through the automated system until you can talk to a representative. (After getting frustrated with the first few directions, I pushed 0 and # a few times until the phonebot threw up its hands and transferred me to a real person.) You can then place an order for OS X 10.7 Lion for $19.99, and within 3 business days, Apple will send you the necessary Mac App Store redemption codes via email. To download and install Lion, you must be running 10.6.8, so if your Mac is running 10.5 Leopard
or 10.4 Tiger, you may need to drop another $19.99 on Snow Leopard, which Apple still sells on DVD.
Upgrade Your Old Mac To Snow Leopard For Free Download
To save the time and expense of upgrading to Snow Leopard just to get to Lion, you can try an unsupported method of upgrading from Tiger or Leopard to Lion explained in Joe Kissell’s “Take Control of Upgrading to Lion.” Follow these steps:
- Start your Mac normally from your old (Tiger or Leopard) system.
- Make sure you’re logged in as an administrator. (If you’re not sure, open the Accounts pane of System Preferences. If the account under which you’re currently logged in has the word “Admin” under it, you’re good to go.)
Open Terminal (in /Applications/Utilities) and enter this, followed by pressing the Return key:
sudo nano /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plistWhen prompted, enter your administrator password.
Use the arrow keys to move the cursor down to the last
<string>entry (the third-from-last line). Replace the current version (for example, 10.4.11 or 10.5.8) with 10.6.8.Press Control-X to quit the text editor, and press
Ywhen asked if you want to save the modified buffer. Then you can quit Terminal.
Upgrade Your Old Mac To Snow Leopard For Free Video
Now you can boot from a volume containing Snow Leopard or Lion and follow the normal steps for an in-place upgrade; when the Lion installer prompts for a destination, select the specially modified volume.
(As an aside, if you have purchased Lion from the Mac App Store and subsequently upgraded to Mountain Lion, you can still download a copy of Lion from your Purchases list. It shows up normally for me, but if it’s hidden for you, choose Store > View My Account, then click View Hidden Purchases and the Unhide button. Once you have it, you can use Recovery Disk Assistant to create an external Recovery volume that you can boot from to reinstall Lion.)
The Fine Print — So why is all this necessary? Is there really anything wrong with just wiping a Mac you’re going to give away and installing a fresh copy of the latest version of OS X it can run? I won’t tell anyone if you do, but Apple’s legal beagles have anticipated that you might want to do this and have explicitly forbidden it in the Software License Agreement.
To summarize, you can sell or give away a Mac with the version of Mac OS X that came pre-installed on it. If you bought 10.6 Snow Leopard on its own, you can sell that on its own. But if you purchased your license to Lion or Mountain Lion through the Mac App Store, it is not transferable and must be removed before you sell or give the Mac away. And don’t think that getting Lion on a USB drive is a workaround; Apple considers it equally as non-transferable as a Mac App Store version.
Here’s the text for each of the last three versions of Mac OS X:
3) Transfer. You may not rent, lease, lend, sell, redistribute or sublicense the Apple Software. Subject to the restrictions set forth below, you may, however, make a one-time permanent transfer of all of your license rights to the Apple Software (in its original form as provided by Apple) to another party, provided that: (a) the transfer must include all of the Apple Software, including all its component parts (excluding Apple Boot ROM code and firmware), original media, printed materials and this License; (b) you do not retain any copies of the Apple Software, full or partial, including copies stored on a computer or other storage device; and (c) the party receiving the Apple Software reads and agrees to accept the terms and
conditions of this License. You may not rent, lease, lend, redistribute, sublicense or transfer any Apple Software that has been modified or replaced under Section 2H above. All components of the Apple Software are provided as part of a bundle and may not be separated from the bundle and distributed as standalone applications. Apple Software provided with a particular Apple-branded hardware product may not run on other models of Apple-branded hardware.
3) Transfer.
A. If you obtained the Apple Software preinstalled on Apple-branded hardware, you may make a one-time permanent transfer of all of your license rights to the Apple Software (in its original form as provided by Apple) to another party, provided that: (i) the Apple Software is transferred together with your Apple-branded hardware; (ii) the transfer must include all of the Apple Software, including all its component parts, printed materials and this License; (iii) you do not retain any copies of the Apple Software, full or partial, including copies stored on a computer or other storage device; and (iv) the party receiving the Apple Software reads and agrees to accept the terms and conditions of this License. For purposes of this License,
if Apple provides an update (e.g., version 10.7 to 10.7.1) to the Apple Software, the update is considered part of the Apple Software and may not be transferred separately from the pre- update version of the Apple Software.
Upgrade Your Old Mac To Snow Leopard For Free Youtube
B. If you obtained your license to the Apple Software from the Mac App Store or on Apple-branded physical media, it is not transferable. If you sell your Apple-branded hardware to a third party, you must remove the Apple Software from the Apple-branded hardware before doing so, and you may restore your system to the version of the Apple operating system software that originally came with your Apple hardware (the “Original Apple OS”) and permanently transfer the Original Apple OS together with your Apple hardware, provided that: (i) the transfer must include all of the Original Apple OS, including all its component parts, printed materials and its license; (ii) you do not retain any copies of the Original Apple OS, full or partial,
including copies stored on a computer or other storage device; and (iii) the party receiving the Original Apple OS reads and agrees to accept the terms and conditions of the Original Apple OS license.
3) Transfer.
A. If you obtained the Apple Software preinstalled on Apple-branded hardware, you may make a one-time permanent transfer of all of your license rights to the Apple Software (in its original form as provided by Apple) to another party, provided that: (i) the Apple Software is transferred together with your Apple-branded hardware; (ii) the transfer must include all of the Apple Software, including all its component parts, printed materials and this License; (iii) you do not retain any copies of the Apple Software, full or partial, including copies stored on a computer or other storage device; and (iv) the party receiving the Apple Software accepts the terms and conditions of this License. For purposes of this License, if Apple provides
an update (e.g., version 10.8 to 10.8.1) to the Apple Software, the update is considered part of the Apple Software and may not be transferred separately from the pre-update version of the Apple Software.
B. If you obtained your license to the Apple Software from the Mac App Store, it is not transferable. If you sell your Apple-branded hardware to a third party, you must remove the Apple Software from the Apple-branded hardware before doing so, and you may restore your system to the version of the Apple operating system software that originally came with your Apple hardware (the “Original Apple OS”) and permanently transfer the Original Apple OS together with your Apple hardware, provided that: (i) the transfer must include all of the Original Apple OS, including all its component parts, printed materials and its license; (ii) you do not retain any copies of the Original Apple OS, full or partial, including copies stored on a
computer or other storage device; and (iii) the party receiving the Original Apple OS reads and agrees to accept the terms and conditions of the Original Apple OS license.