Dusting off old Macbook Pro (2009) What is the highest OS I can run on it?

[brgjoe]

(and as a prelude, I have no idea what I am doing).

Ok, I went back into the ol' closet and unearthed my old Macbook Pro from (I think) 2009. I think it is a Macbook Pro 5.5 with a core duo processor and 4GB DDR3 RAM. It is currently running 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard).

What is the highest OS it can be upgraded to? El Capitan? High Sierra? Something else?

I thought I had upgraded to El Capitan but then when I restarted, I was still on 10.6.8. Probably installed something incorrectly or something. I do believe I at least have the parameters to upgrade to at least that OS.

Or is it even worth it to attempt to upgrade from Snow Leopard with a Macbook this long in the tooth?

Thanks in advance!

 

[lostom]

Apple's support document. https://support.apple.com/kb/SP728?viewlocale=en_AU&locale=en_AU.

You should be able to get El Capitan.

 

[MBAir2010]

I'm very sure that High Sierra works on all intel based  notebooks that ran came with Snow Leopard.
there are patches out there that can help run Mojave and Catalina on MacBooks with that processor.
you might have a iLife problem were there are 2 photos programs, were done will be grayed out.
Have fun with your old friend!

 

[CoastalOR]

I agree that El Capitan (10.11) is the maximum Apple supported OS for a 2009 MBP.