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GameGuru38

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 7, 2009
148
9
Ohio
In my Apple ID I have Lion, Yosemite and El Capitan but no Mavericks. Mavericks is the one I want to install on my 2008 iMac but I can't just download it. I did purchase a USB thumb drive from Amazon with Mavericks on it but I really wish it was in my Apple ID so I can just download it when needed.

Is there anyway to get it added? Anyone at Apple who can do not?
 
In my Apple ID I have Lion, Yosemite and El Capitan but no Mavericks. Mavericks is the one I want to install on my 2008 iMac but I can't just download it. I did purchase a USB thumb drive from Amazon with Mavericks on it but I really wish it was in my Apple ID so I can just download it when needed.

Is there anyway to get it added? Anyone at Apple who can do not?

I'm not 100% sure if this will work, but it's worth a try, if you'd be happy to bear with me!

You advised you got Mavericks on a USB thumb drive. So install it to the iMac. Once it's installed, hold CMD+R on startup to boot into OS X Utilities. Select 'reinstall OS X'. It will then prompt you to sign in with your Apple ID in order to do the install.

Now again, I'm not sure if that will only work if you already have it against your Apple ID. But as my hazy memory serves, I'm slightly certain that it does redeem the app against your Apple ID when you do this, even if you hadn't downloaded it before.
 
You advised you got Mavericks on a USB thumb drive. So install it to the iMac. Once it's installed, hold CMD+R on startup to boot into OS X Utilities. Select 'reinstall OS X'. It will then prompt you to sign in with your Apple ID in order to do the install.

That won't work. Since he would be on a Mavericks recovery partition, it would try to download Mavericks and once the AppleID is entered, it will see Mavericks is not attached to that account and slam on the brakes. :(

OP>> You are not the only one is this situation, but from what I have seen there is no legit way to get Mavericks is you did not previously "purchase" it under your AppleID.
 
That won't work. Since he would be on a Mavericks recovery partition, it would try to download Mavericks and once the AppleID is entered, it will see Mavericks is not attached to that account and slam on the brakes. :(

Awwh that's a shame :( Sorry for my bad advice OP, I figured it was worth a shot as I can't think of any other way to add it as redeemable.
 
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Ok cool, I just officially will not be able to get Mavericks. That's a shame as I liked Mavericks more than Yosemite, never messed with El Capitan, just added it to my account for the future.
 
Ok cool, I just officially will not be able to get Mavericks. That's a shame as I liked Mavericks more than Yosemite, never messed with El Capitan, just added it to my account for the future.
You need a Mac that originally shipped with Mavericks and has its recovery partition intact to be able to register it agains your account. Why you'd want to I don't know. It was a buggy os
 
In my Apple ID I have Lion, Yosemite and El Capitan but no Mavericks. Mavericks is the one I want to install on my 2008 iMac but I can't just download it. I did purchase a USB thumb drive from Amazon with Mavericks on it but I really wish it was in my Apple ID so I can just download it when needed.

Is there anyway to get it added? Anyone at Apple who can do not?

If you have some software that won't work on newer OS you could try contacting Apple support and ask them kindly to provide Mavericks redeem code for you. I am not sure if it will work but its worth a try...
 
Anyone know of a piece of software that only worked in Mavericks and not Yosemite our El Capitan?
 
You need a Mac that originally shipped with Mavericks and has its recovery partition intact to be able to register it agains your account. Why you'd want to I don't know. It was a buggy os
If you had a Mac that shipped with Mavericks there is a work around here where you can intercept the Internet recovery installer and make a USB key that way, but that still would not associate Mavericks with the AppleID.
 
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I'm not 100% sure if this will work, but it's worth a try, if you'd be happy to bear with me!

You advised you got Mavericks on a USB thumb drive. So install it to the iMac. Once it's installed, hold CMD+R on startup to boot into OS X Utilities. Select 'reinstall OS X'. It will then prompt you to sign in with your Apple ID in order to do the install.

Now again, I'm not sure if that will only work if you already have it against your Apple ID. But as my hazy memory serves, I'm slightly certain that it does redeem the app against your Apple ID when you do this, even if you hadn't downloaded it before.
If you have purchased Mavericks USB via Amazon, why not contact Apple support, and tell them this fact. You can even upload Amazon purchase slip. I almost certain that Apple will open the download for your Apple ID, because it's your right to get support from Apple as software vendor even though you buy it from Amazon, and also, there is no cost for Apple by doing this.
 
If you have purchased Mavericks USB via Amazon, why not contact Apple support, and tell them this fact. You can even upload Amazon purchase slip. I almost certain that Apple will open the download for your Apple ID, because it's your right to get support from Apple as software vendor even though you buy it from Amazon, and also, there is no cost for Apple by doing this.
I think you are missing what is going on here with Amazon. Mavericks was free to download from Apple. Anybody selling a Mavericks USB key on Amazon is doing so illegally and violating Apple's EULA. All they did was get a Mavericks installer and make a USB key and sell it through a storefront on Amazon. Buying this does not in any way give you some sort of claim to Mavericks from Apple.
 
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