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iMac running Sierra - updating to Mojave

gmac1124

gmac1124

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 18, 2018
7
1
Birmingham, Alabama
Using an iMac (27-inch, Late 2013) - Attempted to update to High Sierra earlier this year and the computer got stuck in "can't update... please retry" mode - I had to force it to shut down. I had to erase the computer completely, download the original OS, reinstall the OS ... THEN, update to Sierra... THEN, restore from backup. This took about 2 days. Everything was fine after the restore, but I never attempted to load High Sierra again. Can I update to Mojave from Sierra... and is it SAFE to try? I'm very reluctant, but want to have the latest OS.
 
Installed High Sierra in january and everything looked fine for a couple of weeks until the computer would break and needed a reinstall. Wouldn't trust :apple: to do any update again right now, however Mojave might be better according to some. If you backup everything important on the computer you have nothing to lose except another 2 days if it fails.
 
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Before you attempt to upgrade again, I'd suggest you use an external drive to create a fully-bootable cloned backup of your Low Sierra install (the one you have now).

You can use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to do this.
Both are FREE to download and use for 30 days -- this costs you nothing except the time.

WHY do this?
Because if you attempt the upgrade, and if it fails, it's then child's play to:
1. Boot from your cloned backup
2. ERASE the internal drive
3. RESTORE from the cloned backup BACK TO your internal drive.
... and you'll be "right back where you started from", with little effort or time involved.
 
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mikehalloran said:
Don't you have a Time Machine backup?

Many older Macs require 10.13.6 before a Mojave install.

The High Sierra install can take a very long time on a fusion or HHD.
Click to expand...

Yes, I keep my computer backed up with Time Machine, I was asking about the update to see if there had been anyone who had issues going from Sierra to Mojave (instead of from High Sierra to Mojave). I don't have time to go through the same issues I had with the previous attempt at updating to High Sierra. I also don't know why, if my computer is on the list of compatible devices, that it would not update. I always want the latest possible OS, and always update as soon as possible, but I am thinking I'm just gonna leave things as they are.
 
We read what you wrote. Once again: According to Apple, older Macs need to be on 10.13.6 first because of a firmware update that needs to be run so that it will accept Mojave. A 2013 is 5 years old and meets every definition of an older Mac.

I don't know why you had problems with High Sierra. If your iMac was on my bench, I could tell you—but it's not.

gmac1124 said:
I don't have time to go through the same issues I had with the previous attempt at updating to High Sierra.
Click to expand...

This is day 3 of the discussion and you haven't told us exactly what those problems were. Doing so may give someone here a clue.

If you have an HHD or Fusion drive, High Sierra will not convert to APFS. If you clicked yes anyway, that's a problem, for example. You shouldn't have been given that option except in Beta but if you were, that can be an indicator of a disk problem.

My only advice is to rerun the High Sierra installer. Be patient—it can take a long time. Note any problems you encounter as they are important.

Or leave it alone. If you have an HHD, many of the advantages of HS won't be available to you although Mojave fixes some of that.
 
mikehalloran said:
We read what you wrote. Once again: According to Apple, older Macs need to be on 10.13.6 first because of a firmware update that needs to be run so that it will accept Mojave. A 2013 is 5 years old and meets every definition of an older Mac.

I don't know why you had problems with High Sierra. If your iMac was on my bench, I could tell you—but it's not.



This is day 3 of the discussion and you haven't told us exactly what those problems were. Doing so may give someone here a clue.

If you have an HHD or Fusion drive, High Sierra will not convert to APFS. If you clicked yes anyway, that's a problem, for example. You shouldn't have been given that option except in Beta but if you were, that can be an indicator of a disk problem.

My only advice is to rerun the High Sierra installer. Be patient—it can take a long time. Note any problems you encounter as they are important.

Or leave it alone. If you have an HHD, many of the advantages of HS won't be available to you although Mojave fixes some of that.
Click to expand...


My original post explained the issues I had with an attempt to update to High Sierra. It would not update and I had to erase my computer and restore from backup. I was only asking if anyone had been able to update to Mojave from Sierra (rather than High Sierra). My hard drive is not SSD. I thought this might be a nice place to get advice, but I think I will just seek it elsewhere.
 
You did not explain what happened except that it failed. That is the result and not the information that experienced Mac techs need to know.

You have been given excellent advice. Unfortunately, what you want is for someone to say, "Oh, just do ..."

We'd like to but we can't. Not because we don't know Macs but because we don't know what happened on yours. "It would not update and I had to erase my computer and restore from backup." isn't enough information.

Sorry. The only way anyone can do this online is for you to try it again and give a blow-by-blow account of how it failed. That means you try it, take notes as it happens and tell us exactly including any error messages and how long it took before you gave up.

BTW, it might work. High Sierra can take over an hour to install on a Mac with an SSD—a spinning hard drive can take a lot longer. There will be long periods of time where it looks like nothing is happening.

Or have an experienced tech do it.
 
mikehalloran said:
You did not explain what happened except that it failed. That is the result and not the information that experienced Mac techs need to know.

You have been given excellent advice. Unfortunately, what you want is for someone to say, "Oh, just do ..."

We'd like to but we can't. Not because we don't know Macs but because we don't know what happened on yours. "It would not update and I had to erase my computer and restore from backup." isn't enough information.

Sorry. The only way anyone can do this online is for you to try it again and give a blow-by-blow account of how it failed. That means you try it, take notes as it happens and tell us exactly including any error messages and how long it took before you gave up.

BTW, it might work. High Sierra can take over an hour to install on a Mac with an SSD—a spinning hard drive can take a lot longer. There will be long periods of time where it looks like nothing is happening.

Or have an experienced tech do it.
Click to expand...

Here's the blow by blow account which was basically given in the original thread.

I had OS Sierra on my computer
I downloaded High Sierra
I started the update
I left it updating for HOURS
I came back to find an error message saying it could not update and the only option was to "Restart"
After the restart, it immediately began trying to update again and would end up with the same error. Over and over.
The ONLY option to get it out of this was to FORCE the computer to shut down... which I did.
When it powered up after the forced shut down, it gave me an error that I can't remember, but the computer did not operate.
I then spoke with a technician and my option was to ERASE the computer, reload the original software and then update to Sierra. After updating to Sierra, I then restored from my Time Machine backup and the computer has worked with no issues since that time.
I like to have the latest operating system and my main question was "Can you upgrade to Mojave from Sierra"... So, NO, I do not want someone to say "Just do"... I wanted to ask a simple question and avoid what happened when I tried to update previously. I have used Macs for 25 years, I am fully capable of figuring all of this out without your smart aleck responses.
 
gmac1124 said:
Using an iMac (27-inch, Late 2013) Can I update to Mojave from Sierra... and is it SAFE to try?
Click to expand...
According to this Apple page you meet all of the requirements:
https://www.apple.com/macos/how-to-upgrade/#hardware-requirements

Yes, technically you can upgrade from Sierra to Mojave and it SHOULD work, but any new OS upgrade can be risky, as you know from experience. Take precautions and handle it like you did the High Sierra upgrade. Do a fresh backup before the Mojave installation. I would also recommend disconnecting any external drives and do a fresh restart before initiating the Mojave upgrade.

One other item to note. Mojave 10.14.1 will probably be released around Oct. 30, so maybe wait until that happens and monitor the forum to see if there is any glitches with the .1 update.
 
CoastalOR said:
According to this Apple page you meet all of the requirements:
https://www.apple.com/macos/how-to-upgrade/#hardware-requirements

Yes, technically you can upgrade from Sierra to Mojave and it SHOULD work, but any new OS upgrade can be risky, as you know from experience. Take precautions and handle it like you did the High Sierra upgrade. Do a fresh backup before the Mojave installation. I would also recommend disconnecting any external drives and do a fresh restart before initiating the Mojave upgrade.

One other item to note. Mojave 10.14.1 will probably be released around Oct. 30, so maybe wait until that happens and monitor the forum to see if there is any glitches with the .1 update.
Click to expand...


Thank you for your kind response. I do plan to do all the above before attempting the update.
 
I'm sure many folks are happy with Mojave and it might be a perfectly acceptable time for you to upgrade as well, but after dealing with issue after issue with High Sierra I am waiting at least 6-8 months before I even think about upgrading to Mojave. High Sierra did not become stable for me until the last .6 update.
 
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Bryan Bowler said:
I'm sure many folks are happy with Mojave and it might be a perfectly acceptable time for you to upgrade as well, but after dealing with issue after issue with High Sierra I am waiting at least 6-8 months before I even think about upgrading to Mojave. High Sierra did not become stable for me until the last .6 update.
Click to expand...


Thanks You Bryan, I had waited around 6 months when I attempted High Sierra, and after the fiasco, I decided not to try again. I am going to wait a bit before attempting to update to Mojave.
 
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gmac1124 said:
Thanks You Bryan, I had waited around 6 months when I attempted High Sierra, and after the fiasco, I decided not to try again. I am going to wait a bit before attempting to update to Mojave.
Click to expand...

I can understand and appreciate your desire to wait, especially after what you went through trying to upgrade to High Sierra. In my humble opinion, I feel like it is prudent to wait and on the bright side Mojave does not offer any "must-have" features that necessitate an upgrade right away. Have a nice weekend...
 
My opinion only. Take it for what you paid for it:

There's no compelling need to run the latest version of the Mac OS. There are a very few cases where someone might actually -need- the latest version, but these are indeed "few".

I've seen many many posts here from folks who had a good, working system and then... "upgraded for the sake of upgrading", and then.... BAM! Everything broke on them.

Then they struggle, literally flopping around like a fish out of water, trying to get things working or get back to the previous version of the OS that they were using.

Over 30+ years of Mac'ing, one of "the secrets" I've found:
"Stay back" an OS release or two.
Things are often much more stable that way.

My late 2012 Mini runs happily on Low Sierra.
My 2015 MacBook Pro came with El Capitan, and that's where it's remaining for the foreseeable future.
If I need to use my 2010 MacBook Pro, it boots up in Snow Leopard -- fine with me.
My 2006 iMac -- which I still use for music production -- is 'way back on Lion.
They ALL boot and run fine, and do what I need.
 
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I am still running regular Sierra on a 2017 iMac. Ran into problems when I tried to update to High Sierra, so just decided to stick with regular Sierra. It still runs great on the internal SSD as well as a bootable external SSD.
 
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If you have no compelling need to upgrade, there's nothing wrong with staying put.

If OS support and security updates are important to you:

Sometime early next year, Apple will stop supporting El Capitan with security upgrades etc. It will be 2020 for Sierra. This is not a guess. California laws and AppleCare require OS support for 3 years after the last one has been sold. Once that date has passed, the Apple announcement is regular as clockwork.
 
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