Can my old MacBook Pro be updated?

[pjschmid]

I have a very old MacBook Pro that hasn’t been updated in a while. It’s a 2009 model and still on Yosemite. Yes I know, I know, I neglected the poor thing. My question is can it be updated to a point where I can connect to my iCloud account and download pictures and connect my iPhone to get my iTunes library moved over. I have ordered a MacBook Neo, which will be perfect for my needs. I don’t do heavy processing. But I don’t want to lose my photo library or my iTunes library and was hoping that I would be able to get my iTunes on my iPhone and get my photos into the cloud.

I have turned it on and everything seems to be working and intact. It’s just that the operating system is too old to even use safari. (I’m using my iPad for this post.)

 

[FreakinEurekan]

You’d need High Sierra to sync photos with iCloud, and that’s too new for your Mac.

One option is to use Migration Assistant to move photos, etc to the MacBook Neo, then sync from there. I’ve never run MA from Yosemite to Tahoe (you could upgrade to macOS El Capitan, but I don’t know that there’s any value in doing that).

MA seems like the simplest solution to me, but we’ll see if others have any ideas.

 

[pjschmid]

You’d need High Sierra to sync photos with iCloud, and that’s too new for your Mac.

One option is to use Migration Assistant to move photos, etc to the MacBook Neo, then sync from there. I’ve never run MA from Yosemite to Tahoe (you could upgrade to macOS El Capitan, but I don’t know that there’s any value in doing that).

MA seems like the simplest solution to me, but we’ll see if others have any ideas.

Will migration assistant allow me to move my iTunes library too?

 

[loopy123]

Migration assistant will move all your data. I just did it with an old Intel MacBook for a family member. Worked great.
All your photos will come across, not sure about iTunes. But Migration assistant will be your best bet.
Worse case you could move the songs via file sharing.
I would guess you will be doing this over WiFi, just give MA overnight to move things. You could use ethernet if you have a ethernet adapter for your Neo, but unless you ordered that with your Neo no point in getting one just for the migration.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Will migration assistant allow me to move my iTunes library too?

Should, yeah. But like I said I haven’t done it.

If iTunes data doesn’t move via MA it’s not the end of the world; there are manual methods you can use.

 

[pjschmid]

Thank you to those that helped with advice. I now have my new Neo and they were able to get my photos and iTunes off my old Macbook Pro at the Apple store. It's so nice to have a fully functioning laptop again.