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I have a macbook that is running OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion); for various compatibility-related reasons I would like to upgrade the system, but not to El Capitan. Yosemite (OS X 10.10) would be dandy. The App Store, of course, only offers an upgrade to El Capitan, currently the newest OS X version.

I know that it is possible to restore a computer to the OS it had prior to an upgrade, but is it possible to upgrade to a (never-seen before) OS version that is not the latest available?

Edit: This question is related (but only if Yosemite had been downloaded via the App Store in the past).

Community
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alexis
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    In the future, I'd recommend downloading each update, but not installing it. Instead, quit the installer and wait until you are ready. If you don't want it left on your HD, you can redownload it from the App Store, even if there's a new version. – At0micMutex Nov 19 '15 at 14:19
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    Good idea. I actually always download them & move to another drive. I have all OSes back to at least Tiger. [some early ones as ISOs.] – Tetsujin Nov 19 '15 at 14:22
  • @Tetsujin me too. Helps if you need to work on an old Mac. – At0micMutex Nov 19 '15 at 15:25

2 Answers2

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You can download old versions on the Apple website: https://support.apple.com/downloads/macos

Edit: This is where you will find installers (going back to El Capitan) https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

You can also install an older version through the Mac Store without the need to create a bootloader. You can find the links for the different versions here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211683

Johannes Deml
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BL1133
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    Where? I only see Updates available for download, not complete system versions. Can you describe how to find the Yosemite download, for example, or give its URL for the direct download? – alexis Apr 26 '20 at 21:50
  • https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372 On this page there is a download section. Find the version you want and find the link to download – BL1133 Apr 27 '20 at 03:38
  • Thanks, the link in the comment actually seems to provide installers ... though, ironically, only for OS X versions starting with El Capitan, which was the latest version back when I asked this question :-) – alexis Apr 27 '20 at 22:54
  • Hm. I'm not sure what you mean. If you look in the section it goes back to High Sierra – BL1133 Mar 25 '21 at 02:35
  • There's a separate bullet point for El Capitan (which comes before High Sierra) just below. Anyway, does it matter? Apple has clearly started supporting this use case since I asked this question back in 2015, which is good news. If you expand your answer with how to actually find an OS X installer in the download page, I can accept it and close the question. – alexis Mar 25 '21 at 11:40
  • But I woud advise anyone reading this to head over to the duplicate question (which was asked two years later, and has useful answers.) https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/309399/how-can-i-download-an-older-version-of-os-x-macos – alexis Mar 25 '21 at 11:41
  • Ohh. Ok. I didn't realize El Capitan was before High Sierra. I edited my answer with the link – BL1133 Mar 27 '21 at 23:59
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Only if you know someone who has it in their App Store Purchase History who would be willing to download it for you.

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Drop it in your Applications folder & run it; it will directly update to 10.10.5, the latest version.

Alternatively, if you have a Family Sharing account with anyone who has it in their history, you could download it directly.

Tetsujin
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