How to upgrade mid-2012 Macbook Air to Catalina

[sakau2007]

I have a mid-2012 Macbook Air which according to Apple's website supports Mac OS X up to Catalina. I am on much older El Capitan and when I go "About this Mac" and look at the overview and click Software update... it doesn't show any software updates are available.

Is there someplace else I should be looking to do an OS upgrade?

 

[Amethyst1]

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/macos-catalina/id1466841314?mt=12

 

[sakau2007]

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/macos-catalina/id1466841314?mt=12

Thank you. I think the issue was I did not have enough free space. When I followed that link, it told me not enough space. When I emptied my trash and followed the link, I was able to download it (although I still need to free up an additional 4GB or so to actually install it, so I'll do that now). Thank you very much.

 

[Jack Neill]

I would also recommend OCLP and Big Sur. I have a 2012 i5/4/1TB Air and it runs nice and smooth with Big Sur and updates OTA just fine. Its really just like being supported. But Catalina works too.

 

[stranded_ozi]

I have a mid-2012 Macbook Air which according to Apple's website supports Mac OS X up to Catalina. I am on much older El Capitan and when I go "About this Mac" and look at the overview and click Software update... it doesn't show any software updates are available.

Is there someplace else I should be looking to do an OS upgrade?

I know this was a while ago but thought I'd share my resolution since I had this same problem.
I am happy to say its now resolved and macbook air is running smooth on Catalina.
Nothing was working to update my Macbook Air 2012. Even though it is supposed to be able to get Catalina, it was stuck on Lion. I tried everything.

The problem was tracking down a fresh install for Catalina. Only the available downloads seem to be versions of Catalina that do not work to update older ios (or fresh install).

Anyway, finally after hours of trial and error I got it working.

I made a google drive folder with the bootable Catalina OS and instructions on how I got mine to work. Feel free to use it.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MTLdCZPTyPVSF_pDGfGM_8bQ03KWRycd?usp=sharing

All the best!