I want El Capitan but it says I have High Sierra???

[Black Diesel]

My Mid 2012 13" MBP has Yosemite 10.9.5 and I wanted to upgrade to El Capitan so I can use a new Magic Mouse 2. When I clicked the link to upgrade to El Capitan it says it cannot upgrade this computer. I'm seeing the App store shows High Sierra as "installed" but it's definitely not. The High Sierra installer app is located in my applications folder but it never proceeded with the install. Is there a way to delete the High Sierra Installer App and somehow get this machine upgraded to El Capitan? I do not want High Sierra, just El Capitan....

 

[jbarley]

Several things to try that might solve your problem.
Drag the app t the trash, or move it to another drive, or even just renaming the install app all might work.

 

[Black Diesel]

I put the High Sierra Installer app in the trash and tried again and it doesn't work. I'm getting this message:

 

[NoBoMac]

I believe you need to empty trash, as it sees the installer still on the machine.

 

[Black Diesel]

I emptied the trash and it still does't work. Maybe El Capitan is not available from the app store anymore? I'm clicking the link below to get there:

Get OS X El Capitan

 

[CoastalOR]

I emptied the trash and it still does't work. Maybe El Capitan is not available from the app store anymore? I'm clicking the link below to get there:
Get OS X El Capitan

You don't satisfy the listed App store conditions to download El Capitan from that link. You do not have Snow Leopard or Lion installed and need El Capitan to install High Sierra. Your MBP does support High Sierra and El Capitan is not the maximum OS for you MBP.

 

[Black Diesel]

You don't satisfy the listed App store conditions to download El Capitan from that link. You do not have Snow Leopard or Lion installed and need El Capitan to install High Sierra. Your MBP does support High Sierra and El Capitan is not the maximum OS for you MBP.

is there a workaround to get El Capitan somehow?

 

[CoastalOR]

is there a workaround to get El Capitan somehow?

The only official way is to get it from Apple. Unfortunately they remove the old OS from the App Store once a new OS is released.

The full installer app can be downloaded from the App store Purchased tab if El Capitan was previously downloaded. Try a local friend that might have access to the El Capitan installer (have it archived, previously downloaded it, or have a Mac that meets the link download requirements). Some people have purchased a El Capitan USB installer from eBay.

I did a test to verify that you can't use the link you tried in a previous post:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/how-to-acquire-osx-el-capitan-install.2101629/#post-25721507

 

[Black Diesel]

The only official way is to get it from Apple. Unfortunately they remove the old OS from the App Store once a new OS is released.

The full installer app can be downloaded from the App store Purchased tab if El Capitan was previously downloaded. Try a local friend that might have access to the El Capitan installer (have it archived, previously downloaded it, or have a Mac that meets the link download requirements). Some people have purchased a El Capitan USB installer from eBay.

I did a test to verify that you can't use the link you tried in a previous post:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/how-to-acquire-osx-el-capitan-install.2101629/#post-25721507

Okay, thanks for the information. I'll find someone with the El Capitan installer.

 

[anodibu]

Look in your Purchased tab for El Capitan and install it from there. I had the same problem on a 2012 iMac and could install it from the link under Purchased.