Success with loading old version of Numbers

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Level 1

12 points

Success with loading old version of Numbers

If this helps anyone out, great. I was unable to find a workable suggestion online, and the Apple Store employee who tried to help me was only able to suggest that I buy a new laptop. I just had success with a workaround though...

I was given a hand-me-down MacBook Air 6,2 running OS X. I wiped it, and updated to Big Sur. The laptop is so old, that it is not possible to update beyond Big Sur 11.7.10. When I tried to load Numbers, I got an error message saying that OS 14 or greater is required, and there was no option to load an older version of Numbers. (For a little backstory...I have never owned a MacBook. I have an iPad, but I use PC's for my laptops. I do have Numbers on my iPad...but when I am on the MacBook and I login to my App Store account, Numbers does not show up as a previous purchase, so there is no option to download a previous version).

I logged out of my App Store account, but remained logged into the MacBook. I had my sister log into her App Store account on my MacBook (she did have an older laptop with Numbers installed). At that point, the App Store did show that there is a previous version of Numbers to be downloaded/installed on the MacBook...which we did. She then logged out of her App Store account, and I logged back in. Numbers now is installed and running on my MacBook.

Good luck everybody. Hopefully this will help someone else get past this ridiculous hurdle.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 11.7

Posted on Sep 18, 2024 2:06 PM

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Answer 1

Badunit

Level 7

27,982 points

Sep 18, 2024 2:41 PM in response to ryaninak

For others who need to do the same thing, Peggy has another method outlined another thread. So far it is untested but it is similar to what you did.

Where can I find a version of Numbers tha… - Apple Community

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Answer 2

ryaninak Author

Level 1

12 points

Sep 18, 2024 6:48 PM in response to Badunit

Thanks! I just tried Peggy's idea (I wish I would have stumbled upon that thread before trying my method!). I can confirm her method works, and you are correct...it is better than my version. FWIW, this is what I did:

On my MacBook, logged out of App Store account, but remained logged in on MacBook
On my sister's MacBook, she deleted the Numbers app and then logged out of her App Store account, but remained logged in on her MacBook
On my sister's MacBook, I logged into my App Store account.
I clicked "Get" on the Numbers app in the App Store, and then it successfully loaded.
I signed out of my App Store account on my sister's MacBook, and back into the account on my MacBook
When I clicked on my username at the bottom left corner on the App Store window, Numbers appeared in my purchase history, with the "download from cloud" icon. When I clicked that, it asked me if I wanted to download an older version...and voila!

One quirk is that I went through this same process 3 times. The first 2 times, it didn't work...but on the 3rd attempt, Numbers did appear in my purchase history. I'm not sure why that is...but...in the end...I now have Numbers running on my MacBook and the app is not tied to another person.

Thanks to Peggy for the idea, and thanks to Badunit for pointing me in that direction. Cheers everyone.

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