Problem upgrading a 2011 Macbook Pro to Sierra

Question

Level 1

8 points

Problem upgrading a 2011 Macbook Pro to Sierra

I just got a 2011 Macbook Pro from a friend who asked me to donate it, or its value, to charity. It has 4GB ram, and some months ago the 500MB disk died and I managed to reinstall Lion onto a 128GB SSD. I'd like to get it fully up to date before selling it, and it ticks the boxes for upgrading to Sierra.

Briefly, I'm an experienced IT person but not very experienced with MacOS.

Via the Apple support pages, I downloaded a 5.1GB Install.dmg for Sierra. I double clicked on that and it reported that it was updating the OS, and after a while, that it had completed successfully. No reboots occurred, which seemed suspicious to me. Even after manually rebooting, the OS still reports as 10.7. What did I just do, and how do I install Sierra, or, if I have, how do I boot it?

Thanks.

Posted on Sep 9, 2021 12:24 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,596 points

Sep 9, 2021 3:11 PM in response to madwab

Okay so you downloaded the InstallOS.dmg it should be 5.01GBs.

Open that to get the InstallOS.pkg.

Open that to get an installation window that tells you this will take 7MBs of disk space.

Therefore this is not actually installing macOS Sierra, after all it only took seconds.

What it is actually doing is creating the Install macOS Sierra.app in your Applications folder.

Have a look, double-click on that to start the installation of Sierra.

Or you could upgrade the mac to macOS High Sierra 10.13.6.

Open Safari and click on this link,

How to get old versions of macOS – Apple Support

Go to Check Compatibility to see if your mac qualifies for the OS upgrade you want.

Then go to the Download OS section and click on the OS you want to install.

Before upgrading make a full back up of your Mac.

Check that third party apps you use have updates available for the new OS.

https://roaringapps.com

Check that your printers/ scanners etc have updated drivers and software available for the new OS.

Connect your mac to your router via cable rather than rely on WiFi.

Do not use your mac while it is downloading

and do not use any other devices that share the same internet connection.

If the App Store says ‘Open’ then it is detecting a previous download of the install app

go to the Applications folder locate Install macOS ******.app.

Move it to the Trash, empty the Trash.

Restart, click on the link again, the App Store should say ‘Get' or 'Download'.

Reply

Answer 2

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,596 points

Sep 9, 2021 10:50 PM in response to madwab

The current version of GarageBand available in the App Store requires a mac running macOS Big Sur 11.0.

If you had ever downloaded GarageBand with your Apple ID you can open the App Store

click on the Purchased section, login.

If GarageBand had ever been 'Purchased' before it should appear in the list.

Click on the Download button and you will see a drop down prompt,

Click on Download, and it will download a version of GarageBand that you can run in macOS High Sierra.

Reply

Answer 3

madwab Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 9, 2021 6:06 PM in response to Eau Rouge

Excellent reply: very clear, answered the question and more. Sierra install is completing as I type this. I'll then see about High Sierra - my understanding as that, officially, this model stops at Sierra, and that unofficially, 8GB RAM is recommended for High Sierra. If I can get High Sierra or beyond, I'll donate the selling price to charity and keep it myself.

Thanks for the help.

Reply

Answer 4

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,596 points

Sep 9, 2021 10:32 PM in response to madwab

Any mac that can run macOS Sierra can run macOS High Sierra.

4GBs of RAM should be okay as long as you don't run too many apps

at the one time, or expect your mac to do high definition, or UHD video

editing or 3D modelling.

A MacBook Pro from 2011 can only upgrade to macOS High Sierra 10.13.6

it cannot install newer versions of macOS.

Reply

Answer 5

madwab Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 9, 2021 10:39 PM in response to Eau Rouge

Yes, I've since installed HS and it seems to run OK. Prior to that, attempting to install Garageband gave the message that it needed High Sierra or later. Turns out that misleading at best, as it now says Catalina is required which, as you say, isn't an option, at least through the app store. Afaik Apple don't make OS specific versions of Garageband available, so I'm out of luck on that.

Thanks again.

Reply

Answer 6

madwab Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 10, 2021 1:30 PM in response to Eau Rouge

I've never owned a Mac OS device. I've purchased the ios Garageband app. Logging into the same account on Mac OS shows no purchases so, not surprisingly, the ios version doesn't count. It does seem an odd attitude by Apple: we keep copies of our free app for older versions of Mac OS, but you can only get Garageband versions older than the current version if you've previously purchased a copy. Why the requirement for a previous purchase?

Oddly, the App Store will happily let me lay out a large sum for Logic Pro X, which surely would have problems realizing its potential on such an old device - one which won't let me 'purchase' Garageband or even Excel, because it's too old. I have older, lower spec Windows laptops running Excel just fine.

So it goes.

Reply

Problem upgrading a 2011 Macbook Pro to Sierra

Similar questions