Upgrading Sierra 10.12.6

A Mac mini 2012 can support up to macOS 10.15.7. Please note, that is no longer a supported operating system. macOS 15, 14, and 13 are the currently supported OSes. Apple has a helpful Kbase article here, providing the process of obtaining older OSes. You could take the unit from 10.12 to 10.15. But...

If your Mac mini has a rotational drive (this includes Fusion Drive models), you really might want to consider replacement. Assuming you've had the unit since retail availability, it is at least 10 years old. That is a long time for a rotational drive. And, as Apple's OSes advanced (particularly with the adoption of APFS, the file system is tuned for SSD drives. Units with rotational drive will feel very sluggish. For example, your Mac mini running 10.12 may still be on HFS+. Once you go to 10.13, the drive format will be converted to APFS. Make sure you have a good backup. And expect slower performance.

Next, I must encourage you to at least consider a new Mac mini. The M4 (particularly the M4 Pro Mac mini) is a exceptional product. Excellent performance. Reasonable price. Now, I don't know what type of peripherals you have, so there could be the extra cost of a new compatible display. However, even the M1 Mac mini from 2020 would run circles around your 2012. Sure the 2012 had the extra cores, and we used those models extensively to build render clusters back in the day. But there is no comparison to today's M-class processors. What we have today is so superior to any Intel model that is pains me to think how we suffered for all those years.

And as for Adobe (angry eyes), they are only providing the current and the previous releases. This is CC 2025 and 2024. If you are on a subscription, you will need a new machine to run these tools. If you are still on older versions, you will not be able to reinstall unless you kept the installers. If you are not on the subscription, seriously look at what Affinity has to offer. Unless you are a creative pro (I suspect you are more hobbyist as you are on the old versions) and need to be engulfed in the Adobe workflow stream, look at a more affordable, better integrated solution.

Hope this is helpful. Make sure you have a good backup. Decade old gear sends shivers up my spine.

Back up your data, check the application compatibility table, click here, and then on the download link for a newer OS. Your computer's maximum one is Catalina.

Catalina and above won't run 32-bit software and split the functions of iTunes up; if you choose one of them, use Go64 as well.

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I use Photoshop CS6, which does most of what Photoshop CC offers. It seems to be available on the Internet Archive:

https://archive.org/details/adobe_photoshop_cs6_portable

Strontium90 wrote:

And as for Adobe (angry eyes), they are only providing the current and the previous releases. This is CC 2025 and 2024. If you are on a subscription, you will need a new machine to run these tools. If you are still on older versions, you will not be able to reinstall unless you kept the installers.

Sometimes not even then.

Adobe – Creative Suite archive

"You can no longer reinstall Creative Suite 2, 3, 4, or 5, even if you have the original installation disks. The aging activation servers for those apps had to be retired."

We all have to become schizophrenic to live in today's world. We are bombarded about concerns with respect to climate-change, the new environmentalism of sorts, but we have to pack away our own concerns about the environment in a drawer apart to accept that we should buy a new device even though the old one is still doing a perfect job for what we use it, and all this just because big corporations are eager to make yet another buck... It is a perfect storm shaking me so much I feel nauseated!

ondatropical wrote:

Thank you. CS6 is not supporting my MACOS.

Oh but it does! My iMac 2011 runs CS6 in 10.6.8, Mavericks, and 10.13