Reset my MacBook; somehow I downgraded to OSX Mountain Lion! Why?

I have a “Vintage” MacBook Air mid-2013; whenever it’s acted up in the past 10 years, I’d go into recovery mode and factory reset the machine. It always spruced it up to feel new again, and always kept the MacOS I had installed.

I’ve been on MacOS Mojave- and although a bit antique, it’s worked fine for me until today. Things just kept crashing over and over, so I tried my reset to factory setting trick.

However instead of resetting to Mojave, it reset to Mountain Lion!

it looks fun and old; but nothing works now! The old App Store is completely dead; and safari won’t let me open most pages.

I’m wondering WHY did this happen, and how do I get a useable macOS back on again?

(a new machine IS in the foreseeable future; but I need something more instant for now.)

thanks

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Sep 11, 2023 03:12 PM

Top-ranking reply

John Galt

Level 10

153,520 points

Posted on Sep 11, 2023 03:30 PM

The reason is that "factory resetting" a Mac causes it to be reverted to its original, "as shipped from Apple" condition. That would have resulted in Mountain Lion.

Most websites or anything else requiring secure, encrypted communications won't work because they require installing an updated operating system along with its updated apps... as you have probably been doing for the past decade.

Upgrade that Mac to the latest compatible macOS version (Big Sur, probably) by following these instructions: How to download and install macOS - Apple Support. Scroll down to Big Sur 11 assuming that's what you want. You need to use Safari for that link to work.

View in context

Reset my MacBook; somehow I downgraded to OSX Mountain Lion! Why?

Similar questions