How and when to upgrade your Mac's RAM. First, you should determine if your system's RAM is upgradable. In essence, if you have a Retina MacBook Pro, or a MacBook Air, the memory on the system is soldered to the motherboard and cannot be upgraded. Otherwise, you should be able to upgrade your RAM. Next check the RAM's type and speed.
I received the following request from a customer. I need to update my computer from a 10.9.5 to a minimum of a 10.10, how can I do that without losing my files? This individual had a Macbook Professional with Mavericks installed.
They were trying to connect a new printer, a Canon TS5100. This install would not get past the set up stage, after loading the Canon installation CD-ROM. Canon recommended upgrading MAC OS 10.9.5 Mavericks to at least Yosemite. Below is my response with some instructions. Usually, upgrading your MAC OS does not affect your personal files. However, you can back your data manually to an external hard drive or USB flash drive. Also, you can create a Time Machine backup of your computer.
You can upgrade your Macintosh with operating system 10.9.5 Mavericks by going into the Apple Store. You will need to download Yosemite.
Once that download finishes, you will be prompted to install or need to double click the download. You will need your Apple ID to enter the Apple store. Also, you will need your Macintosh administrator password. Without either password, you will be fucked. You may have to upgrade to MAC OS 10.11 El Capitan or MAC OS 10.13 High Sierra instead.
You will follow the same steps. Once you enter in your correct Macintosh administrator password, you will continue on with the prompts.
You will choose the destination hard drive. Finally, you will click on “Restart”. Your Macintosh will reboot and upgrade from MAC OS 10.9.5 to MAC OS X 10.10. Congratulations, you have upgraded the operating system on your Macintosh.
If you are having problems finding OS 10.10 Yosemite, there is a search tool within the Apple Store, in the upper right hand corner. Type in MAC OS Yosemite or MAC OS 10.10 and hit your enter key.
If you cannot find a download for Yosemite, then search for El Capitan 10.11 or High Sierra 10.13 instead. Once you successfully upgrade your Macintosh to a newer operating system, then you will be able to reinstall that operating system upgrade via the Apple Store. Click on “Purchases” tab in Apple Store and any operating system you downloaded and installed should be listed. You would just click on “Download” and follow the prompts to install that Macintosh operating system.
Follow these steps to keep it up to date:. Choose System Preferences from the Apple () menu, then click Software Update to check for updates. If any updates are available, click the Update Now button to install them.
Or click ”More info” to see details about each update and select specific updates to install. When Software Update says that your Mac is up to date, macOS and all of its apps are also up to date. That includes, Books, Messages, Mail, Calendar, Photos, and FaceTime. To automatically install macOS updates in the future, including apps downloaded from the App Store, select ”Automatically keep my Mac up to date.” Your Mac will notify you when updates require it to restart, so you can always choose to install those later. Such as macOS High Sierra, Sierra, El Capitan, or earlier,. follow these steps to keep it up to date:.
Open the App Store app on your Mac. Click Updates in the App Store toolbar. Use the Update buttons to download and install any updates listed. When the App Store shows no more updates, your version of macOS and all of its apps are up to date. That includes, iBooks, Messages, Mail, Calendar, Photos, and FaceTime. Later versions are available. To automatically download updates in the future, choose Apple menu () System Preferences, click App Store, then select ”Download newly available updates in the background.” Your Mac will notify you when updates are ready to install.
If you're using, get OS X updates by choosing Software Update from the Apple menu.