Upgrading from Yosemite to El Capitan, but not Sierra

Question

We have an older iMac (Model A1311, Mid 2011). It has been running Yosemite. We have run into some of the WIFI issues associated with Yosemite.

Is it possible to upgrade to El Capitan but not Sierra?

El Cap has been out longer. Its my wife's computer, its older, and I really don't want to be debugging Sierra until a few more "dot" releases come out.

In our case, we had a computer that had originally come with El Capitan, that we had downgraded to Yosemite. To get it back to El Capitan (instead of Sierra), we needed to do an internet recovery. This resets it to the OS that was originally used. — S.L. Barth is on codidact.com, Jan 17 '17 at 15:08

score 5 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 15 '20 at 08:04

5

You don't have to upgrade to macOS Sierra if you don't want to.

Already "Own" El Capitan

If you have already "purchased" El Capitan, then it will show up under the "Purchased" tab of the App Store. By "purchased" I mean the "free download" that Apple provided.

Download from the AppStore

Per Apple Support, you can download El Capitan directly from the AppStore

Go to an Apple Store

If you still can't download, you can take a visit to an Apple Store near you, or you could have a friend download it (if they already purchased it) and make a USB installer.

edited Jun 15 '20 at 08:04

Community

1

answered Oct 15 '16 at 21:14

Allan

101,432

I thought El Cap was free? – BentChainRing Oct 15 '16 at 21:16
@BentChainRing, It is, but you sill have to had downloaded it from the App Store and it shows under Purchased. – user3439894 Oct 15 '16 at 21:17
Are you saying that if I don't want to "auto upgrade" to Sierra, my only option is to go to the Apple Store and have them upgrade the iMac with El Cap? – BentChainRing Oct 15 '16 at 21:20
oops our comments crossed... – BentChainRing Oct 15 '16 at 21:20
1

Actually, El Capitan is an exception to that rule. Apple has left it available for machines that can't run Sierra. There's a QA on here already regarding this, but on iPhone right now & can't track it down. – Tetsujin Oct 16 '16 at 04:25
Thanks Tetsujin for pointing this out; the relevant QA ha code HT206886 – Riccardo Cossu Oct 19 '16 at 13:08

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 18 '16 at 17:31

1

Apple has a support document specifically for this: Upgrade to OS X El Capitan

edited Dec 18 '16 at 17:31

nohillside

100,768

answered Oct 19 '16 at 13:10

Riccardo Cossu

218

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 31 '17 at 01:10

1

None of this works if your machine CAN upgrade to Sierra. There is no path for people who need El Capitan but haven't already got it.

answered Jan 31 '17 at 01:10

RSaunders

11

Upgrading from Yosemite to El Capitan, but not Sierra

3 Answers3

Already "Own" El Capitan

Download from the AppStore

Go to an Apple Store

Linked

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