I have an Old MacBook 4,1 and want Itunes 12.5 so i can connect to ios 10.3.1 iphone 7

[thes&mman]

Hello everyone, I have a MacBook 4,1 A1181 EMC no.2242 [which I got for free] currently running os x 10.6.8. I am in the process [haven't actually spent any money at this time] of upgrading my ram to 4G via two 2G PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM @ 667 MHz as I only have the 1G installed as two 512MB modules. What I am looking for is advice on the possibilities of achieving my ultimate goal of being able to sync my iPhone 7 to itunes. So I can restore, update, backup, jailbreak, etc. I have been doing a lot of research and am kind lost. Can I or cant I do what it takes to run itunes 12.5 and at what cost and or risk? Or is there other options available to be able to what I want to be able to do with itunes 12.5? Thanks in advance

 

[LotusLord]

I hate to say it but I believe you're going to be stuck. Your Mac can be upgraded officially to 10.7 aka Lion using the app store. However to support iOS 10.x devices you need something running OS X 10.9 Mavericks.

I'm sure I'm going to get a bit of grief for this, but honestly I wouldn't put any money into that machine. Set any funds aside you were going to use and put it toward a newer machine.

 

[DeltaMac]

I have a MacBook4,1 such as yours.
The extra RAM never hurts anything.
I have also upgraded to an SSD, which helps a lot with performance.
You are limited to Lion, which also limits you to iTunes ver 12.2.2
If you want iTunes 12.5 or higher, then you have to hack an install of a higher OS X.
I have played around some with Yosemite, which works OK, but you have to play around with some of the hardware drivers to get parts of the system to work, such as audio.
But, here's more about that (LONG thread, too!):
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/os-x-yosemite-on-unsupported-macs-guide.1761432/

 

[LotusLord]

I have a MacBook4,1 such as yours.
The extra RAM never hurts anything.
I have also upgraded to an SSD, which helps a lot with performance.
You are limited to Lion, which also limits you to iTunes ver 12.2.2
If you want iTunes 12.5 or higher, then you have to hack an install of a higher OS X.
I have played around some with Yosemite, which works OK, but you have to play around with some of the hardware drivers to get parts of the system to work, such as audio.
But, here's more about that (LONG thread, too!):
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/os-x-yosemite-on-unsupported-macs-guide.1761432/

Unless doing it for fun, it's not worth the hassle IMO.

 

[gooser]

not in all cases of course but generally speaking when you have two pieces of hardware and one is ten years older than the other one they usually don't play too nicely together. and that's the way apple wants it. a suitable solution might be to get an older iphone or maybe even an older ipod.

 

[JackieInCo]

I only keep my 2008 black MacBook around for the few times I have wanted to do some experimenting on my old 3GS. The only mac I could do anything on with the phone was my 4,1 black MacBook.

These things are way too old to do much else on anymore. I wanted a more upgraded MacBook with a burner in it so I bought a new 2012 1.5 years ago.