Downloaded El Capitan to upgrade 10.5 Yosemite - did not show up

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Downloaded El Capitan to upgrade 10.5 Yosemite - did not show up

I have a min-mac and MacBook Pro with Yosemite 10.5. Downloaded El Capitan from support page. Download successful, installation successful (according to the message that showed up after the whole process). But when I restarted the mini-mac the system was not upgraded - still 10.10.5. What did I do wrong.

I did notice that the installation seemed awfully fast for a whole system upgrade (less than 5 minutes after a 15 to 20 minute download which seemed right).

The process seemed fool proofed and I have upgraded systems in the past (10 years ago for my job) and I never had problems. So I am a bit baffled - but admit that I have been out of the computer loop for a while and may have missed a step?

I tried the same thing with 10.10.12 to see if there was something wrong with the download but the same thing happened - long download time (which seemed appropriate) short installation time with the "successful installation message" at the end - but no upgrade when restarting mini-mac, no upgrade.

Any help is appreciated - if I can get the mini-mac to work, I will try with the laptop. Hate to have to buy a new laptop just to get a new system..........

Posted on Feb 5, 2021 9:24 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,602 points

Feb 5, 2021 9:36 PM in response to daphy

Ok did you download the InstallMacOSX.dmg.

Did you open the InstallMacOSX.dmg to get the InstallMacOSX.pkg.

Did you open the InstallMacOSX.pkg to get an installation window.

Did you know that this does not install Mac OS X El Capitan.

If you read the window it says it will take 7Mb of disk space.

No operating system only takes up 7MBs of disk space and only

5 seconds to install.

What actually happens is the install pkg is creating the Install OS X El Capitan.app

in your Applications folder, you use this to install El Capitan.

To start the installation of El Capitan double click on the Install OS X El Capitan.app.

The copy of the install app self deletes after installing El Capitan, so make sure you keep a copy of the

InstallMacOSX.dmg if you need it in future, or you could just make a copy of the Install OS X El Capitan.app

prior to installing and moving it to an external drive for safe keeping.

It is also possible to create a bootable USB installer disk using the Install OS X El Capitan.app in the Applications

folder and the createinstallmedia command in the Terminal app.

Read the instructions here,

How to create a bootable installer for macOS – Apple Support

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Answer 2

daphy Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 6, 2021 1:20 PM in response to Eau Rouge

Thanks for the heads-up: I knew I was missing a step and couldn't remember what it was. It has been a decade since I worked on computer upgrades and it is true that if you don't use it you lose it. I am installing sierra now on the mini-mac and will see how that ends up. If it works smoothly will try with the laptop.

I am truly amazed that the apple group members really respond to inquiries. a pleasant surprise. And all of the advice over the years has solved my problems!

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Downloaded El Capitan to upgrade 10.5 Yosemite - did not show up

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