Upgrade to macOS Big Sur

Before installing this upgrade, make sure that your Mac is ready.

The model and year of your Mac will determine which macOS you can upgrade to, your 2014 MacBook Air can upgrade to all these below read the following links. How to upgrade to macOS Mojave - Apple Support. How to upgrade to macOS High Sierra - Apple Support. How to upgrade to OS X El Capitan - Apple Support. Before upgrading make a full back up. The Mac OS Sierra has a major upgrade in the Gatekeeper user interface by adding two new security features that make the usage of your system much safer and save you from data theft. There is an Anywhere option in the system preference tab that allows the user to execute software programs without getting permission to run the same. MacOS High Sierra is a seasoned, robust, and straightforward-to-use operating system developed for your MacBook. With this OS, some of the novel features have been added for the desktop users. MacOS High Sierra might not offer diverse underlying differences to the user experience, but there are enough quality changes and they would certainly boost the performance of your Mac.

Check compatibility

macOS Big Sur supports most Mac models introduced in 2013 and later.

View compatible Mac models

Make a backup

Before you upgrade, make a complete backup with Time Machine, or store your files in iCloud.

Learn how to back up your Mac

Free up space

Sierra

If the installer needs more storage space to upgrade, you can free up space using tools that come with your Mac.

Free up storage spaceUpgrade From Mac Os Sierra To Mojave

Download macOS Big Sur

If you’re using macOS Mojave or later, choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, then click Software Update. If you’re using an earlier macOS, use the App Store instead.

Learn how to download and install macOS Big SurGo to the App Store

Get to know macOS Big Sur

Learn about some of the new features of macOS Big Sur.

Control Center

Control Center brings favorite controls such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Do Not Disturb, and Sound together in a single place—so you can easily adjust them at any time.

Use Control Center

Notification Center

Notification Center puts notifications and>

Safari

Customize your start page, navigate with ease using the new tab bar, and access a new privacy report to see just how Safari protects your privacy as you browse.

Get to know Safari

Can You Upgrade From Mac Os Sierra To Mojave

Maps

Discover great places around the world and navigate easier with guides, cycling directions, indoor maps, Look Around, electric vehicle routing, and more.

Messages

Send messages to friends and family using new tools that make it easier to keep track of group conversations and give you fun, engaging ways to express yourself.

Use MessagesLearn more on YouTube

Photos

Use the expanded editing capabilities in Photos to easily make simple changes and more advanced adjustments to your photos.

Learn how to edit your photos

Have a question?

Ask everyone. Our Apple Support Community can help you find answers.

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11 8 likes 17,995 views Last modified Feb 2, 2021 4:31 PM

This is a series of tips that cover Mac OS X client edition. Server forums cover Mac OS X server on the community.

Here is the series of tips for related Macs. 10.6,10.7, 10.8, 10.9, 10.10,10.11,

10.12 ,10.13, 10.14 Mojave, 10.15 Catalina , 11.0 Big Sur.


See special note about resetting the SMC during updates and upgrades, later in the tip.


is an article I wrote that everyone updating their Mac should read. No update should be ventured into with operating systems or software without first ensuring your data is backed up in two separate places. Slowing down of your Mac should not lead you to assume an update will fix everything. First isolate why your Mac is slowing down or crashing before installing anything new.

Apple includes many full upgrade installer links on https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211683


Can I Update From Macos High Sierra To Mojave

Note: APFS came about with High Sierra, and Mojave continues the practice of auto-reformatting drives into APFS that are solid state like flash drives from HFS Journaled. If you need to downgrade to an older system than High Sierra, you will need to reformat the drive again, or leave a partition with the old formatting available.


Apple released for 10.14.6 users, 2020-003 Mojave security update. If running an earlier version of 10.14, run the 10.14.6 Combo update first.


Apple recommends you have these Macs according to: https://support.apple.com/kb/SP777?locale=en_US


  • MacBook (Early 2015 or newer) [model identifier 8,1 or later]
  • MacBook Air (Mid 2012 or newer) [model identifier 5,1 or later]
  • MacBook Pro (Mid 2012 or newer) [model identifier 9,1 or later]
  • Mac mini (Late 2012 or newer) [model identifier 6,1 or later]
  • iMac (Late 2012 or newer) [model identifier 12,1 or later]
  • Mac Pro (Late 2013; Mid 2010 and Mid 2012 models with recommended Metal-capable graphics cards) [model identifier 5,1 or later]


bracketed items in quotes were added for additional identification purposes. Your Apple menu -> About This Mac -> System Report or System Profiler gives you the model identifier.


All of the Macs that are older than 10.11, need to be updated to 10.11 first before installing Mojave.

The oldest MacBook Air, Mac mini, and iMac which can upgrade to Mojave shipped with 10.8, Mountain Lion.

The oldest MacBook Pro which can upgrade to Mojave shipped with 10.7, Lion.

The oldest MacBook had Mac OS X 10.10 installed.

The oldest Mac Pro on the list above with the compatible graphics cards, had 10.6 originally installed, and is the only Mac that shipped with 10.6 that can install Mojave. Before upgrading to 10.7 or later, read this tip as Apple has not reintroduced a series of software that made older Mac compatible software compatible with Intel Macs since 10.6.8's release.

Mac


Upgrade Mac Os X Sierra To Mojave

Apple released Mojave on September 24, 2018. Reports from:


earlier than that date were made with pre-release Mojave versions and can not be relied upon.


September 30, 2018 driver additions from third party update pages:

HP, and Samsung (HP has become the download site for at least some Mojave Samsung printers, if you have Samsung see if any are Catalina compatible)

Silverfast.


10.14.3 was released January 22, 2019. Note, some users are reporting 10.14.3 will not successfully apply as an update without an SMC reset as described how to do in this link: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

Frequently both updates and upgrades will require multiple reboots to successfully apply. Do NOT become impatient if you find the screen go blank during the update or upgrade process. If you press the power button to shut it down while it is rebooting for the update or upgrade, it may quit the process, and leave you stuck.

Upgrade Mac Os From Sierra To Mojave


Use the macOS Mojave forum for operating system specific questions of other end users such as yourself.

Note: https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/partition-a-physical-disk-dskutl14027/mac

are directions for creating a separate partition that will allow you to dual boot into an older operating system

Can Sierra Be Upgraded To Mojave

if you find something not compatible with the current. Once you install the older operating system, you can use the Startup manager to dual boot to the older system.


You can't install Mojave from the Finder, unless you are running 10.13.6 or earlier.


The direct download link for Mojave is:

Note: some people have had trouble downloading the latest Mojave links. https://brave.com/ has been found to be a better web browser than some if you run into issues and is known to work on Mac OS X 10.10 and later.


Upgrade From Mac Os High Sierra To Mojave

Note: the 2020-004 security update for Mojave has a bug with the screen saver getting stuck. To repair delays in the screen saver, 'The workaround is to choose a non-picture screen saver such as Flurry, Message, etc.' (special thanks to community member dialabrain for this report.