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Upgrade late 2012 Mac from Mojave to Catalina?

B

baxlobs

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 21, 2012
238
14
Suffolk UK
I have a late 2012 Mac running Mojave, I have been happy not to upgrade to Catalina until fairly recently when I found some applications will not run, such as Numbers which needs an upgrade which is incompatible. It now seems that I would have to upgrade to Big Sur, and a late 2012 Mac is not listed as compatible!! Is it still possible to upgrade to Catalina?
TIA
 
Numbers will still run if you install a somewhat older version, which you might have in a TimeMachine backup. If you install Catalina, legacy 32 bit apps will no longer work, for example Adobe CS6.
 
baxlobs said:
I have a late 2012 Mac running Mojave, I have been happy not to upgrade to Catalina until fairly recently when I found some applications will not run, such as Numbers which needs an upgrade which is incompatible. It now seems that I would have to upgrade to Big Sur, and a late 2012 Mac is not listed as compatible!! Is it still possible to upgrade to Catalina?
TIA
Click to expand...
Catalina is still available.

How to download and install macOS - Apple Support

Download and install current or previous versions of the Mac operating system on compatible Mac computers.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
Click on the "macOS Catalina 10.15" link which will open the Catalina page in the App Store.

I'm curious as to why you need to upgrade Numbers. Would you tell me more about the problems?
I'm running Mojave with Numbers v10.1. I can launch Numbers fine.
If you are having problems launching applications you may need to reinstall Mojave.

Have you tried creating a new User to see if the new account has the same problems?
 
CoastalOR said:
Catalina is still available.

How to download and install macOS - Apple Support

Download and install current or previous versions of the Mac operating system on compatible Mac computers.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
Click on the "macOS Catalina 10.15" link which will open the Catalina page in the App Store.

I'm curious as to why you need to upgrade Numbers. Would you tell me more about the problems?
I'm running Mojave with Numbers v10.1. I can launch Numbers fine.
If you are having problems launching applications you may need to reinstall Mojave.

Have you tried creating a new User to see if the new account has the same problems?
Click to expand...
Thanks, I can run numbers on the Mac, but I cannot work on Numbers files created on my iPad. If I try to open them I get a message saying an update is needed. I then go to the App Store and try to download the update, but get the message Could not complete as MacOS 10.15 or later is needed. This is frustrating as I often work on the iPad as well as the Mac.
 
baxlobs said:
Thanks, I can run numbers on the Mac, but I cannot work on Numbers files created on my iPad. If I try to open them I get a message saying an update is needed. I then go to the App Store and try to download the update, but get the message Could not complete as MacOS 10.15 or later is needed. This is frustrating as I often work on the iPad as well as the Mac.
Click to expand...
I see, if you don't depend on legacy apps, you should be able to install Catalina on a 2012 Mac.
 
baxlobs said:
Thanks, I can run numbers on the Mac, but I cannot work on Numbers files created on my iPad. If I try to open them I get a message saying an update is needed. I then go to the App Store and try to download the update, but get the message Could not complete as MacOS 10.15 or later is needed. This is frustrating as I often work on the iPad as well as the Mac.
Click to expand...
I understand.

I do not normally use Numbers on my iOS devices (iPhone). As a test I created a simple Numbers sheet (just the word Test in a cell) on my iPhone (iOS 14.4), AirDroped it to my Mac (using Mojave 10.14.6) and I was able to open the sheet using the Mac Numbers.

It works for me, so you may not need to upgrade to Catalina to have it work for you.

What version/build of Mojave are you using. I'm on 10.14.6/build 18G7016 (the latest build).
 
I have Mojave 10.14.6, not sure how to find a build number though. Interesting that you can open a Numbers sheet on your iPad, and then view it on your Mac, my current Numbers version is 3.6.2, but I can't upgrade it. I will probably upgrade to Catalina, after checking some other things. I use Parallels to run some old Office programs occasionally, but I believe the version I have is OK with Catalina.
 
It is a Late 2012 21" iMac

I have taken the plunge and upgraded to Catalina, all went fine, except it would not allow me to install it on the SSD drive I have been running Mojave on, instead I had to use the internal Macintosh HDD. Now I will have to transfer Catalina over to the SSD, but will wait a while to make sure everything runs OK.
 
After a bit of fiddling about, I finally got Numbers to update, it seemed reluctant at first saying it was already up to date!, and can now edit a file created on my iPad. All I need to do now is transfer everything back to the SSD external drive, as it is woefully slow on the HDD.
 
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