iMac Mid 2011 21.5" Upgrade

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Level 1

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iMac Mid 2011 21.5" Upgrade

I was recently given a 21.5" iMac Mid 2011.

I am an unable to update it past OS X LION 10.7.5, so my question is, if I upgrade the RAM, Harddrive etc. will I be able to update to the newer OS or will it forever be maxed out at LION?

I have a friend in I.T. that specialises in PC's more than Apple so he is willing and able to upgrade the parts for me, he's just not sure (as am I) if it will actually make much of a difference to the operating system.

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Jun 29, 2021 7:08 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

D.I. Johnson

Level 7

24,149 points

Jun 29, 2021 7:44 PM in response to raineallira

Hello, raineallira.

Your iMac is capable of running macOS 10.13.6 High Sierra as it is now without any hardware upgrade.

But because it is currently running 10.7.5 Lion you will have to upgrade the OS incrementally in two steps.

Your first upgrade will need to be to 10.10 Yosemite, 10.11 El Capitan or 10.12 Sierra - it doesn't matter which.

The second upgrade will be directly to 10.13. High Sierra.

Please see the support article that @Jack-19 linked in their post.

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Answer 2

Jack-19

Level 8

46,020 points

Jun 29, 2021 7:10 PM in response to raineallira

Hi raineallira,

Welcome to Apple Support Communities.

While you cannot upgrade components except for the RAM, you can upgrade the version of macOS to macOS 10.13 High Sierra. Get it here: How to get old versions of macOS - Apple Support. Backup first!

-Jack

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