Is there ANY way for a 2019 iMac to run Mac OS 10.14 Mojave?

[macnicol]

Mac OS 10.15 Catalina is a disappointment and I spend more time debugging it and trying to configure it than I do using it. My 2014 iMac with 10.14 Mojave ran with not problems but unfortunately the HW gave up and it died. If I knew then what I know now I would have spent the money repairing it rather than buying a new 2019 27" iMac this past May. And now Apple has announced a new upgraded 2020 iMac that makes mine "old" after just 3 months! Is there ANY way to run macOS 10.14 Mojave on a 2019 iMac? I have an older external boot disk with Mojave installed but the new iMac will not boot from it.

 

[chrfr]

Mac OS 10.15 Catalina is a disappointment and I spend more time debugging it and trying to configure it than I do using it. My 2014 iMac with 10.14 Mojave ran with not problems but unfortunately the HW gave up and it died. If I knew then what I know now I would have spent the money repairing it rather than buying a new 2019 27" iMac this past May. And now Apple has announced a new upgraded 2020 iMac that makes mine "old" after just 3 months! Is there ANY way to run macOS 10.14 Mojave on a 2019 iMac? I have an older external boot disk with Mojave installed but the new iMac will not boot from it.

2019 iMacs can run 10.14. You need a special version of 10.14.4, or any version of 10.14.5 or 10.14.6.

 

[macnicol]

2019 iMacs can run 10.14. You need a special version of 10.14.4, or any version of 10.14.5 or 10.14.6.

Where do I get a "special" version of Mojave?

 

[MacBH928]

Mac OS 10.15 Catalina is a disappointment and I spend more time debugging it and trying to configure it than I do using it. My 2014 iMac with 10.14 Mojave ran with not problems but unfortunately the HW gave up and it died. If I knew then what I know now I would have spent the money repairing it rather than buying a new 2019 27" iMac this past May. And now Apple has announced a new upgraded 2020 iMac that makes mine "old" after just 3 months! Is there ANY way to run macOS 10.14 Mojave on a 2019 iMac? I have an older external boot disk with Mojave installed but the new iMac will not boot from it.

I don't think so, what I heard is that mac hardware will not run any OS older than the one shipped with it. What I think you can do is try MacOS Big Sur beta(no guarantees if it will work fine), or just wait few months as its nearing release.

Another thing you can do is sell your current imac and buy an older 2018-2017 imac that will run Mojave. Sometimes you can find them new if you look hard enough.

 

[Taz Mangus]

I have an older external boot disk with Mojave installed but the new iMac will not boot from it.

What version of Mojave do you have installed on the external drive?

 

[chrfr]

Where do I get a "special" version of Mojave?

You don't. You install the standard version of 10.14.6.

 

[Nermal]

I don't think so, what I heard is that mac hardware will not run any OS older than the one shipped with it.

Fortunately the 2019 iMac shipped with 10.14.

 

[flowrider]

From MacTracker:

Personally I had no issues with Catalina. I am now running Big Sur.

You may have trouble booting from an external drive on the USB bus.

Lou

 

[MacBH928]

Fortunately the 2019 iMac shipped with 10.14.

I think sometimes although the model is from a specific year, the shipped OS is different. For example if the iMac was a June 2019 model but manufactured in Dec.2019 after Catalina's release it might ship originally with Catalina.

 

[chrfr]

I think sometimes although the model is from a specific year, the shipped OS is different. For example if the iMac was a June 2019 model but manufactured in Dec.2019 after Catalina's release it might ship originally with Catalina.

It doesn't matter. The computer remains compatible with Mojave.

 

[Nermal]

Indeed. The hardware is almost always identical, regardless of the preinstalled software (the only exception I'm aware of is the 2011 MacBook Pro, where they changed the symbols on the keyboard's function keys... but even then both versions of the OS still worked).

 

[MacBH928]

Indeed. The hardware is almost always identical, regardless of the preinstalled software

I thought they block installation of older OS on the software level, like in the firmware, as the OS itself can run on any hardware including hackintosh...so I didn't think its hardware issue