Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

420benz

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 11, 2012
634
18
Can i get the latest version of Lion on my Mac.I am running Lion 10.7.5 now?
 
Which Mac model do you have?
That's what I have Lion. Can I download a different os?
It depends on which Mac model you have. Tell me the model (include the year) and I will try to help. Some Macs can not be updated past OS 10.7.5.

EDIT: You can get the Mac model information in the upper left Apple menu>About this Mac.
 
It depends on which Mac model you have. Tell me the model (include the year) and I will try to help. Some Macs can not be updated past OS 10.7.5.

EDIT: You can get the Mac model information in the upper left Apple menu>About this Mac.
 

Attachments

  • MAC.png
    MAC.png
    1.2 MB · Views: 210
You can upgrade to latest macOS Sierra. I think they recommend 8gb free disk space. It should be right on the main page of the mac store.

Sierra support goes back to 2009 iMacs. I have it installed on a 2010 and it runs just fine.
 
You have a iMac 21.5" mid 2011, exactly what I needed to know. You iMac will support the OS 10.8 to 10.12.
OS 10.8 (Mountain Lion) is available from Apple for $19.99:
http://www.apple.com/shop/product/D...a7dbf78fe3cfb8aebd8493ddc9dc6e6fb6a21e80dfe70
or
OS 10.11 (El Capitan) is available from Apple Mac App Store:
https://itunes.apple.com/app/os-x-el-capitan/id1147835434?mt=12
or
macOS 10.12 (Sierra) is available from Apple Mac App Store
OS 10.9 (Mavericks) and 10.10 (Yosemite) are no longer available from Apple.

Some people have complained about Yosemite and El Capitan having too much lag when used with a spinner HDD instead of a SSD. Sierra is very new and might be a little buggy yet to try to jump to from 10.7.5.

If you do upgrade make sure you do a good backup before the upgrade in case you have a problem and want to restore.
 
For a 2011 iMac with a platter-based HDD inside, you might get the best performance from Mountain Lion (10.8).

With the most recent releases (El Capitan and Sierra), you may find that the overall experience is that the OS seems to be "walking" instead of "running". These OS's seem to have been designed to run best on Macs with SSD's.

One way to get a LARGE performance improvement for a 2011 iMac (it has thunderbolt, right?):
Add an external thunderbolt drive with an SSD inside.
Let that serve as your "external booter". Leave the current HDD inside.
Not cheap, but "fast & easy", and it will breathe new life into an older Mac...
 
  • Like
Reactions: bernuli
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.