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New MBA preinstalled with Lion, how to install on other Macs

T

thecause007

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 18, 2010
16
0
I bought a new MBA yesterday, and setup my 2010 MBA to my wife. I'd like to install Lion on her's as well as our Mac Mini, but it isn't working for me. My understanding is that since I already own Lion, I should be able to install on my other Macs.

I have put all three under my same Apple ID, but it does not give me the option to upgrade the other Macs.

I tried making a recovery USB drive from my new MBA, and when I boot up with my old MBA, I input my Apple ID and it says that this Apple ID has not purchased Lion.

Obviously when I look at the App store with my new MBA, it says that Lion is already installed, and does not give me an option to re-download it.

What do I need to do?
 
Only the Mac that comes with Lion can download it for free from the App Store. And then, only to reinstall via Recovery Mode. You'll have to buy Lion from the App Store. There is no way to transfer it from a 2011 Air or Mini to another computer.
 
Did you buy lion thru the app store and buy a macbook air? If not you will have to buy Lion in the app store. It won't just appear because you bought a macbook air.
 
gentlefury said:
Did you buy lion thru the app store and buy a macbook air? If not you will have to buy Lion in the app store. It won't just appear because you bought a macbook air.
Click to expand...

So if you buy Lion the expensive way, AKA bundled with an ultimate 13" air, they don't let you install on your other Macs?

Sounds pretty lame if you ask me.
 
thecause007 said:
So if you buy Lion the expensive way, AKA bundled with an ultimate 13" air, they don't let you install on your other Macs?

Sounds pretty lame if you ask me.
Click to expand...

You aren't buying Lion, your buying the MBA....it comes with Lion installed. You just spent $1500 on a computer and you can't spend $30 on your other computers? Come on!

I just bought Lion and I am now considering buying a MBA....I'm not upset.
 
gentlefury said:
You aren't buying Lion, your buying the MBA....it comes with Lion installed. You just spent $1500 on a computer and you can't spend $30 on your other computers? Come on!

I just bought Lion and I am now considering buying a MBA....I'm not upset.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say I'm upset... just a little disappointed. I did buy Lion, it was part of the cost of upgrading to a new Mac. You could put it the other way. $1750 for a new MBA with Lion preinstalled, and they don't let you install on your other devices under your Apple ID... when you can pay $29 bucks and cheap out and install on what... 5 machines in total?
 
thecause007 said:
I wouldn't say I'm upset... just a little disappointed. I did buy Lion, it was part of the cost of upgrading to a new Mac. You could put it the other way. $1750 for a new MBA with Lion preinstalled, and they don't let you install on your other devices under your Apple ID... when you can pay $29 bucks and cheap out and install on what... 5 machines in total?
Click to expand...

Im guessing if you complained to apple they will credit you for Lion...just seems like a lot of work for $30
 
You bought a Mac and the right to use Lion on that Mac and that Mac alone. This has been the same for all Mac OSes as far as I can remember.

There is a cost to Apple for developing a new version of their OS and providing the 3.5GB download reliably and at good speeds. The price is very reasonable.
 
You bought a license to use Lion on that Mac.

Want it on others? Buy it.

Simple as that.
 
To put it one step further, if you purchased a mac on or after June 6th, you can also d/l and install on all your Macs. So the only group who is left out of this license would be guys like me who ponied up for the new hardware...
 
thecause007 said:
To put it one step further, if you purchased a mac on or after June 6th, you can also d/l and install on all your Macs. So the only group who is left out of this license would be guys like me who ponied up for the new hardware...
Click to expand...

No, you're only allowed to install it on the eligible Mac. You still have to buy it through the App Store if you want to put it on older Macs.
 
mdgm said:
You bought a Mac and the right to use Lion on that Mac and that Mac alone. This has been the same for all Mac OSes as far as I can remember.

There is a cost to Apple for developing a new version of their OS and providing the 3.5GB download reliably and at good speeds. The price is very reasonable.
Click to expand...

I'm not debating the price or the work put in. What I'm saying is this is the first time they have officially allowed people who own a License to the OS to install on all of their Macs. I do own a license to Lion. I received that when I purchased the new MBA. But, for some reason, people who purchased their OS with hardware (the most expensive way to get Lion) are the only ones who are left out of taking advantage of the ability to buy once and use across all your Macs?

Seems a bit strange.
 
You bought an OEM license tied to the new hardware. It's not strange at all.
 
thecause007 said:
I'm not debating the price or the work put in. What I'm saying is this is the first time they have officially allowed people who own a License to the OS to install on all of their Macs. I do own a license to Lion. I received that when I purchased the new MBA. But, for some reason, people who purchased their OS with hardware (the most expensive way to get Lion) are the only ones who are left out of taking advantage of the ability to buy once and use across all your Macs?

Seems a bit strange.
Click to expand...

The $29 fee is for the right to upgrade your previous installation to the latest version. When you bought hardware, you paid for the right to use that OS on the hardware it came on, not the right to upgrade any and all previous OS installations. If you want that right, pay the $29 and quit bitching.
 
thecause007 said:
You guys crack me up...
Click to expand...

So, if you went out and bought a new laptop with Windows 7 preinstalled and all your older computers have Windows Vista installed, you feel you deserve to upgrade ALL of your older computers simply because you bought a new one? Does that make sense?
 
Aduntu said:
So, if you went out and bought a new laptop with Windows 7 preinstalled and all your older computers have Windows Vista installed, you feel you deserve to upgrade ALL of your older computers simply because you bought a new one? Does that make sense?
Click to expand...

So, if you went out and bought Windows 7 for one of your computers, would you expect to be able to install it on your other PC's? Oh wait, I guess not, since the Windows license is for one PC.

The Lion license is for all of your Macs, not just the one that you buy it for. That is the difference with 10.7, that you did not get before. It is new for this release, and does not compare to Win 7 or 10.6 or anything else in the past.

My point is, if you buy it in the MAS, $29 bucks and you get it for all your Macs. If you bought a new mac in the past month and a half, you get it for all of your macs. If you bought a new mac with it preinstalled, suddenly it is only good for that Mac and nothing else.

This argument is getting old. I asked the question because I figured if I shelled out $1750 for a new mac with Lion, I would get the same liberty as everyone else with Lion, and be able to upgrade my other Macs as well. Apparently this isn't the case. I asked the question cause I figured I might be doing something wrong since the Lion license specifically says that once you purchase Lion, you can install on all your Macs. I purchased Lion, and figured this to be the case.

Before I went and shelled out another $30 bucks, I figured I would ask the holier than thou guys on macrumors if there was a way to accomplish this. $30 bucks is no big deal, but saving $30 bucks is even better, and worth a shot.
 
thecause007 said:
So, if you went out and bought Windows 7 for one of your computers, would you expect to be able to install it on your other PC's? Oh wait, I guess not, since the Windows license is for one PC.

The Lion license is for all of your Macs, not just the one that you buy it for. That is the difference with 10.7, that you did not get before. It is new for this release, and does not compare to Win 7 or 10.6 or anything else in the past.

My point is, if you buy it in the MAS, $29 bucks and you get it for all your Macs. If you bought a new mac in the past month and a half, you get it for all of your macs. If you bought a new mac with it preinstalled, suddenly it is only good for that Mac and nothing else.

This argument is getting old. I asked the question because I figured if I shelled out $1750 for a new mac with Lion, I would get the same liberty as everyone else with Lion, and be able to upgrade my other Macs as well. Apparently this isn't the case. I asked the question cause I figured I might be doing something wrong since the Lion license specifically says that once you purchase Lion, you can install on all your Macs. I purchased Lion, and figured this to be the case.

Before I went and shelled out another $30 bucks, I figured I would ask the holier than thou guys on macrumors if there was a way to accomplish this. $30 bucks is no big deal, but saving $30 bucks is even better, and worth a shot.
Click to expand...

And after all your complaining, you didn't bother looking at the one place that could have answered your question.

Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Software License Agreement

The relevant paragraph is Section 2, Subsection A. Same licensing terms as every version of OS X since at least 10.4.0.

Your logic about it being available in the MAS is flawed. Being available in the MAS is no different than purchasing a family pack before. Just something to be aware of as you fight everyone who is trying to answer your questions.
 
So much arguing on the internet over something so silly.

I Googled around just a little to see if there might be some way to burn a boot disc from Lion's recovery partition (wherever/however that's stored), but I didn't see anything helpful.

I say just torrent it if you think it's justified. Buying it on the Mac App Store is obviously the good option as well. Let people continue to be angry on MacRumors and have your problem solved.

Either way though -- I'm recommending to people to burn a bootable disc (or flash storage device) with their Lion image before they use it to install.
http://www.macworld.com/article/161069/2011/07/make_a_bootable_lion_installer.html So now you'll still have that if you need it in the future. :)
 
If I remember correctly, even previously with other brand new systems out of the box that came with a copy of leopard or snow leopard were only able to be used with that particular machine type. In other words, you couldn't take the osx disc that came with an iMac and install it on your mini (old style), mbp, air (remote disc), etc. So it really doesn't shock me that we don't get access to a free download copy for use on other machines. I was hoping for it, but it makes sense that it's not an option.
 
Why are all of you guys so hostile?

When my brother bought a MBA with Snow Leopard I used his install disk to upgrade my MBP to Snow Leopard so it's not that outrageous for the OP to think there might be a way to do it since you could in the past
 
I installed Lion by restoring the base DMG to a FW800 external and then booting to that to install it. I subsequently booted to the recovery partition to repair disk permissions on my drives. It just pops up as another disk.

Given what I've seen so far, I have no reason to think the following would not work
* Boot your Lion Mac in target disk mode by holding T at startup
* Connect Lion Mac to SL Mac with FW
* Boot SL Mac while holding Option key
* Select Lion recovery partition as boot disk
* Run Lion installer and point it to the appropriate disk on SL Mac

Would test this bit my MBP has been defragging for like 6 hours and I'm not going to stop it.

*EDIT* Ok I just tries this and it totally works. Just use your Lion Mac recovery partition as the install disk - done.
 
Last edited:
I'm curious too. I'll save $30 if I can as I'm going to get a 2nd Mac soon.

I will be using my iTunes login for my new Mac and thus won't Lion be tied to that login and good for my current Mac as well?
 
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