Issues updating OS - App Store not working correctly

[Ben Kei]

Hello all,

I need to update a music system from 10.12.6 to 10.14.x in order to keep up with latest software updates.
When I try to use the App Store, it doesn't display correctly. It just shows "Apps & Games we love" and "Editor's Choice" and on the top, there's only 4 options now. Featured, Top Charts, Purchased, Updates. It's been like this for ages but I've never really needed to use the App Store before so it didn't bother me.

I can't search for Mojave, I just see a bunch of apps, about 15 of them in total which have nothing to do with OS updates.
If I go to the article on the Apple website and click the link to download Mojave, it opens the App Store and just displays the same front page.

I've done a live chat with Apple support and they were pretty useless, they just said "try in safe mode" which I've done and it's the same. I spoke with them again and they said to create a new user with admin privileges and try that, also no go.

So now I'm stuck with no way to download the new OS.

I've googled issues around the App Store not working and seen a few posts with people with the same issue as I'm having and none of those posts have any resolution.

Any ideas? Thanks

 

[Apple_Robert]

If you need to update your Mac, tap on the Apple icon (top left cover on the Mac screen) go to "about this Mac," and then tap on software update on that screen. That should work.

 

[chrfr]

Hello all,

I need to update a music system from 10.12.6 to 10.14.x in order to keep up with latest software updates.
When I try to use the App Store, it doesn't display correctly. It just shows "Apps & Games we love" and "Editor's Choice" and on the top, there's only 4 options now. Featured, Top Charts, Purchased, Updates. It's been like this for ages but I've never really needed to use the App Store before so it didn't bother me.

I can't search for Mojave, I just see a bunch of apps, about 15 of them in total which have nothing to do with OS updates.
If I go to the article on the Apple website and click the link to download Mojave, it opens the App Store and just displays the same front page.

I've done a live chat with Apple support and they were pretty useless, they just said "try in safe mode" which I've done and it's the same. I spoke with them again and they said to create a new user with admin privileges and try that, also no go.

So now I'm stuck with no way to download the new OS.

I've googled issues around the App Store not working and seen a few posts with people with the same issue as I'm having and none of those posts have any resolution.

Any ideas? Thanks

Use this page:

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

Mojave is not available through searching on the App Store, so you need to follow the steps on the page above. Mojave is also 2 major versions old so if your computer supports either Big Sur or Catalina you might consider updating to one of those instead.

 

[Ben Kei]

Thanks for the replies but they're not what I need.

I know how to update, that's not the issue here - The actual App Store isn't working. I have no categories view etc..
I have gone through lots of hoops and it will now let me use the App Store a bit. The update via the system info panel does nothing.

Regarding those links, that's what I as trying to do. They were all just presenting me with the front page of the App Store, not taking me to the download page.

After doing some Disk Utility repairs via Recovery mode I can now access the Catalina update via those old OS links but not Mojave. That still just launches the App Store on the main page. No product page.

The reason I wanted Mojave is because this is for a music studio machine and I need access to certain apps. I still need a couple of legacy things which run in a wrapper in 32-bit mode, which was removed in Catalina.

Could someone else confirm that the Mojave link actually works? It seems to be a dead link.. 10.13 and 10.14 lead to nowhere. Only 10.15 works.

 

[Ben Kei]

OK, so it's still not working via any of the links on the Apple support page but I found a link which does work via an apple support page.

In case anyone else has this issue in future and finds this post, there's a link posted by "Old Toad" which works fine as long as you're on Safari. I tried via Firefox first and it didn't work but Safari is fine.