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Mac OS for Late 2012 Mac Mini 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7 - Apple pages wrong?

G

gigaguy

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Apr 19, 2010
1,380
124
USA
Why does Apple Catalina support page show Mac Mini Late 2012 as compatible? I have no update options past High Sierra on my Mac. Apple phone support says Catalina will not work on 2012 Mac Mini. Error on Apple's Catalina support page?

These Mac models are compatible with macOS Catalina:
  • MacBook (Early 2015 or newer)
  • MacBook Air (Mid 2012 or newer)
  • MacBook Pro (Mid 2012 or newer)
  • Mac mini (Late 2012 or newer)
  • iMac (Late 2012 or newer)
  • iMac Pro (2017)
  • Mac Pro (Late 2013 or newer)
 
Something is not right then because Mactracker also shows the Late 2012 Mac Mini can be updated to Catalina 10.15.7.

Are you sure your Mac Mini is a Late 2012 model? What does it say from your Apple menu, "About this Mac"?
 
Yes. I'm original owner. Still works great too. No update options in App store or Update Menu.
Mac mini (Late 2012)
2.3 GHz Intel Core i7
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB
1TB Fusion Drive
on High Sierra 10.13.6
 
says- To use the Mac App Store, you need Mac OS 10.6.6 or greater. For more information, please click here.
I clicked there and it opened a Big Sur Update page.
Then on the Big Sur page it says you need Mac mini (2014 or later)
 
Last edited:
gigaguy said:
says- To use the Mac App Store, you need Mac OS 10.6.6 or greater. For more information, please click here.
I clicked there and it opened a Big Sur Update page.
Then on the Big Sur page it says you need Mac mini (2014 or later)
Click to expand...
That's a strange error, especially because the 2012 Mac mini shipped with at least Mac OS 10.8.

Anyway...

After some searching, I came across this:
joshfromowingsmill said:
1) Quit App Store

2) Go to Activity Monitor (Utilites Folder), and search for "store". You need to Force Quit the following:
A) com.apple.appstore.Plugin..., then select Quit, then select FORCE QUIT
B) storeagent, then select Quit, then select FORCE QUIT

3) Go to Terminal (Utilities Folder), and type:

rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.appstore.plist

press enter

rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.storeagent.plist

press enter

rm -rf ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/*

press enter

4) Open App Store, you're done!
Click to expand...
Basically, corrupt and/or incorrectly associated preference files that need to be removed.
 
Last edited:
gigaguy said:
says- To use the Mac App Store, you need Mac OS 10.6.6 or greater. For more information, please click here.
I clicked there and it opened a Big Sur Update page.
Then on the Big Sur page it says you need Mac mini (2014 or later)
Click to expand...
The 2012 Mac mini absolutely supports Catalina. The easiest way to get the installer at this point would probably be to boot into Internet Recovery. Because Catalina is the last operating system these computers support, Internet Recovery will not attempt to install Big Sur.
 
chrfr said:
The 2012 Mac mini absolutely supports Catalina. The easiest way to get the installer at this point would probably be to boot into Internet Recovery. Because Catalina is the last operating system these computers support, Internet Recovery will not attempt to install Big Sur.
Click to expand...
Not a bad suggestion.* Unfortunately, it's not an upgrade route. Unless things have changed in the past few years, Internet Recovery mode downloads/boots the macOS version that your Mac originally shipped with. At least that has been my experience as well as others, apparently.
With an erased 2009 MacBook Pro, as Patrick has, he can’t use Internet Recovery, which will reinstall the original operating system that came with the Mac.
Click to expand...

How to restore your Mac to an older version of OS X

A reader wants to restore Yosemite, but can't access it during in OS X Recovery.
www.macworld.com www.macworld.com

* I do understand your logic of why you'd expect the Mac to boot from the latest compatible OS version.

@chscag You beat me to it. :)
 
Have a mac mini 2012 with Catalina, no issues.

As someone said earlier, do an internet recovery and hold down the keys after hearing the chime on boot: Option-Command-R. Before doing this, First go and boot into Recovery and go to Utilities and erase the drive for good measure. Then shut done your mini and do the Recovery option holding down the keys.

This option will install the last or latest OS that your mac mini will handle which is macOS Catalina.

Too bad the Mac Mini 2012 cannot handle macOS Big Sur. :(
 
Under store search - I don't have 'storeagent'.
I do have 'com.apple.appstore.PluginXPCService' and 8 other items
 
Last edited:
I forced quit those 2 items. Did the Terminal commands. Restarted Mac.
Still no difference in Updates Menus, no OS Updates showing..
 
Yes, Same tmessage, it then points the the Big Sur update, but I didn't click it. Wanting to understand more about what is wrong. It might do the B S update, but is that how I get to Catalina after that ? (if it will do it).
 
UPDATE: Following what I learned, mentioned in a later post, I would now say it might actually be worth trying Internet Recovery. Your upgrading to High Sierra should now cause the Mac to load Catalina. Not a guarantee, but probably worth a try.

————————————-
I do have a legit, official Catalina installer, but it's >8GB, so not exactly a quick and easy upload.

Nonetheless, there is an alternative.
mycyberuniverse.com

How to download a complete macOS Catalina installer app | My Cyber Universe

Attempting to download macOS Catalina from the Mac App Store you may find that a small version of the “Inst…
mycyberuniverse.com mycyberuniverse.com

I've never used the Catalina Patcher app, therefore, can't provide any direct assistance for that. However, MacRumors apparently endorses it.
www.macrumors.com

How to Install macOS Catalina on an Unsupported Mac

Each year that Apple releases a major new version of macOS, a few older Mac models that ran the previous version usually fail to make the new list of...
www.macrumors.com www.macrumors.com
Basically, after step 5, you quit using the patcher and launch the official install app.
 
Last edited:
MacCheetah3 said:
Internet Recovery mode downloads/boots the macOS version that your Mac originally shipped with.
Click to expand...
There are at least one or two exceptions to this. Internet Recovery for 2011 iMacs is for Mac OS 10.7 Lion but some of these shipped with Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard which predates Internet Recovery.
 
mdgm said:
There are at least one or two exceptions to this. Internet Recovery for 2011 iMacs is for Mac OS 10.7 Lion but some of these shipped with Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard which predates Internet Recovery.
Click to expand...
That could indeed be true, although, apparently, it has to do with OS installer availability, such as stated in the following article.
Apple said:
  • On an Intel-based Mac, you can use Option-Command-R at startup to upgrade to the latest macOS that is compatible with your Mac. Exceptions:
    • If macOS Sierra 10.12.4 or later was never previously installed, you will receive the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available.
    • If your Mac has the Apple T2 Security Chip and you never installed a macOS update, you will receive the latest macOS that was installed on your Mac.
Click to expand...
What I wasn't aware of -- probably because I haven't used Internet Recovery for several years -- installing 10.12.4 or later changes the behavior.
 
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MacCheetah3 said:
I've never used the Catalina Patcher app, therefore, can't provide any direct assistance for that. However, MacRumors apparently endorses it.
Click to expand...

The fact that there's a thread on this topic doesn't mean that "MacRumors endorses it". ;)

Sorry, I don't understand what is going on here either. My 2012 2.6ghz quad Mini is happily running Catalina as well. No patching was needed.
 
MacCheetah3 said:
Unless things have changed in the past few years, Internet Recovery mode downloads/boots the macOS version that your Mac originally shipped with.
Click to expand...
This is no longer correct. Once the computer has had 10.12.4 or later installed on it, the firmware is updated so that you can install either the original OS or the latest compatible version.
 
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2012 Mac Mini i7 Server 2.6GHz CTO/BTO purchased in 2014.

I used the Catalina OSX installer on USB boot to wipe clear and worked fine.

As a matter of fact, I just sold it on eBay for $475 which almost paid for my M1 Mini that I am in love with!

Screen Shot 2020-12-11 at 7.05.45 AM.png
 
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viettanium said:
on the Tech Specs page of the new AirPods Max, they lists Mac mini 2012 as device support, but AirPods Max requires Big Sur 11.1.
www.apple.com

AirPods Max - Technical Specifications

View all technical specifications for AirPods Max.
www.apple.com
Click to expand...
That’s funny. What’s also funny is I’m seeing “...with the latest version of [OS]” for all devices. Not exactly helpful.
 
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