A friend put a copy of 10.10 on a thumb drive for me to install but when I try, it tells me the installation was successful but the update never occurred as About This Mac still shows the old 10.9.5. One red flag is that the update process takes less than 30 seconds. That was my first red flag. I also “tricked” the MBP (per recommendation) by turning back the date to about 6 months after the release date of Yosemite FWIW.
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MBP won’t update from 10.9.5 to 10.10
- Thread starter boynigel
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If your Mac is still working ( I suppose so, since you mentioned "About This Mac" etc) , there's no need to use a thumb drive.
However, if you prefer to install a Mac OS through a USB, the installer should not be "copied" but made on a Mac device with e.g. createinstallmedia .
Personally I would install 10.11 El Capitan instead of 10.10 , it's known as a very stable OS version.
The only reasons I can think of to use a bootable USB installer :
- There's no OS installed on the internal drive
- You prefer to erase the OS installed and start with a clean install
Unfortunately you didnt give any details about your MBP (exact model and year) , so it's hard to guess which OS is supported or not on your machine....
Generally people choose an OS version based on compatibilty with apps and/or the last version supported for security reasons....
support.apple.com
support.apple.com
However, if you prefer to install a Mac OS through a USB, the installer should not be "copied" but made on a Mac device with e.g. createinstallmedia .
Personally I would install 10.11 El Capitan instead of 10.10 , it's known as a very stable OS version.
The only reasons I can think of to use a bootable USB installer :
- There's no OS installed on the internal drive
- You prefer to erase the OS installed and start with a clean install
Unfortunately you didnt give any details about your MBP (exact model and year) , so it's hard to guess which OS is supported or not on your machine....
Generally people choose an OS version based on compatibilty with apps and/or the last version supported for security reasons....
Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support
You can use a USB flash drive or other secondary volume as a startup disk from which to install the Mac operating system.
How to download and install macOS - Apple Support
Download and install current or previous versions of the Mac operating system on compatible Mac computers.
Yes still working. I got the installer via usb because the online download did the exact same thing outlined on my original post. Person I got it from is very Mac-savvy so I’d like to think he got the details correct as to how he created it on the thumb drive.If your Mac is still working ( I suppose so, since you mentioned "About This Mac" etc) , there's no need to use a thumb drive.
However, if you prefer to install a Mac OS through a USB, the installer should not be "copied" but made on a Mac device with e.g. createinstallmedia .
Personally I would install 10.11 El Capitan instead of 10.10 , it's known as a very stable OS version.
The only reasons I can think of to use a bootable USB installer :
- There's no OS installed on the internal drive
- You prefer to erase the OS installed and start with a clean install
Unfortunately you didnt give any details about your MBP (exact model and year) , so it's hard to guess which OS is supported or not on your machine....
Generally people choose an OS version based on compatibilty with apps and/or the last version supported for security reasons....
Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support
You can use a USB flash drive or other secondary volume as a startup disk from which to install the Mac operating system.
How to download and install macOS - Apple Support
Download and install current or previous versions of the Mac operating system on compatible Mac computers.
reason for Yosemite vs El Capitan is so I don’t lose a couple of applications that I would with other OS versions
MBP is 15 inch, mid 2010, 2.8 GHz Intel Core 7, 1067 MHz DDR3, 8GB ram, 10.9.5
trying to update in order to run a new app that won’t run on current OS, without losing an existing app that would be expensive to repurchase. Thanks for responding
Thx for the info ,makes the issue a bit clearer, nevertheless:
Known issues especially with older OS versions are that e.g. RAM and/or internal drive have been replaced/upgraded by non-OEM parts , but commonly the installer just refuses to install.
If that's the case I'd reinstall the OEM parts , run the installer (USB or downloaded on the internal drive as there's absolutely no difference whatsoever) and after a successful install reinstall the upgraded parts.
This is something I've never ever seen .
Known issues especially with older OS versions are that e.g. RAM and/or internal drive have been replaced/upgraded by non-OEM parts , but commonly the installer just refuses to install.
If that's the case I'd reinstall the OEM parts , run the installer (USB or downloaded on the internal drive as there's absolutely no difference whatsoever) and after a successful install reinstall the upgraded parts.
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