El Capitan Before It's Too Late

Babz · Post by **Babz** » Fri Sep 16, 2016 8:32 pm

Sierra is about to hit any day and El Capitan will become unavailable at that point.

Didn't someone once mention a way you can download a Mac OS update without actually installing it so that you can install it at a later date? Can someone tell me the steps on how to do that?

Thanks,
Babz

stubbsonic · Post by **stubbsonic** » Fri Sep 16, 2016 8:43 pm

Thanks for the reminder, Babz.

I'm going to boot from an external and install it now.

MIDI Life Crisis · Post by **MIDI Life Crisis** » Fri Sep 16, 2016 8:44 pm

Downloaded the installer and save it somewhere. The OS will delete it after installing.

Babz · Post by **Babz** » Sat Sep 17, 2016 5:00 am

MIDI Life Crisis wrote:Downloaded ad the installer and save it somewhere. The OS will delete it after installing.

Huh? Whatchu talkin' about, Willis?

Does anyone know how to download and save the El Capitan updater?

kgdrum · Post by **kgdrum** » Sat Sep 17, 2016 6:22 am

Maybe someone can explain this better, you don't need to actually install El Capitan, you just need to start the process so the Apple site sees you initiated the installation, then it's available for the user in your account moving forward.
Just start the procedure and quit before you start the actual install and Apple will show it as part of the users dl history and it will be available if you decide to install it later,is that clear?
All previously downloaded OS versions are available in your user account whether you installed or not, they will show as "purchased".

mikehalloran · Post by **mikehalloran** » Sat Sep 17, 2016 8:56 am

Download the installer. When the install screen pops up, don't install. Quit and reboot instead.

The installer will now be found in your Applications folder. You can delete it if you want since it's about 6G—it deletes automatically only if you run the installer.

El Cap will now always be available in the App Store if you want to download later—same as every OS you have installed after 10.6.8.

mikehalloran · Post by **mikehalloran** » Sat Sep 17, 2016 9:04 am

You can also get a copy from anyone who has ever installed. Have them download, compress and put onto a DVD-DL, a thumb drive, SDHC card, FTP server or Dropbox.

It is very important that the file be zipped first before installing on removable media or uploading to Dropbox, otherwise the new computer will not have permissions to open the installer.

Babz · Post by **Babz** » Sat Sep 17, 2016 10:36 am

Thanks, Mike! I guess I'll give it a try. Hopefully the right moment to quit the process will be obvious.

I don't know why they have to prevent you from manually downloading the 10.11.0 update. Seems like you CAN download all the 10.11.x updates, which I found here:

https://support.apple.com/downloads/El%2520Capitan

But not any 10.x updates.

Re: getting it from someone else who has downloaded it ... I wonder if it is a universal enough installer. That is, will an installer downloaded by someone with, say, Mavericks on a MBP work for someone updating from Mountain Lion on a desktop, etc.

Best,
Babz

MIDI Life Crisis · Post by **MIDI Life Crisis** » Sat Sep 17, 2016 11:14 am

10.11.5 is as far as I'll go. It's solid and with 10.11.6 and beyond, versions of Finale prior to F2014.5 won't work.

mikehalloran · Post by **mikehalloran** » Sat Sep 17, 2016 2:03 pm

The App Store only lets you download the latest version, currently 10.11.6. The updaters do not work to make the latest version an older version.

The only way to get 10.11.0 is from someone who has archived it—that can be updated using the combo updaters. I do not save the older versions for more than a month after the latest updates.

bayswater · Post by **bayswater** » Sat Sep 17, 2016 4:21 pm

As mentioned, once you've downloaded, it shows up as a purchase at the App Store under your account. So you can always download it again. But there are at least two caveats:

1) Keeping the download hoping to run it later or again, doesn't seem to work consistently for me. I sometimes get a message saying the installer cannot be used, and I have to download it again. Perhaps Apple is checking to see that I am installing the latest version and refusing to allow anything but.

2) Apple is currently purging the App Store of old apps that it thinks are no longer supported. I don't think they've done this before. Presumably, they may start purging some of their own stuff they no longer consider supported.

I've always made sure I have the last update of any OS X version I might want to use again.

Babz · Post by **Babz** » Sun Sep 18, 2016 7:53 am

I did the download last night. Just as described, it pauses after the download and waits for you to click Continue. I simply quit at that point, and the 6GB installer is now saved in my Applications folder. Now I have the installer for the final version of El Cap, and can do the upgrade whenever I find time to get around to it, and don't have to worry about Sierra for a while.

Thanks everyone!

Babz

MIDI Life Crisis · Post by **MIDI Life Crisis** » Sun Sep 18, 2016 10:14 am

Save the download somewhere else. The OS will probably delete it after installation.

mikehalloran · Post by **mikehalloran** » Sun Sep 18, 2016 11:27 am

MIDI Life Crisis wrote:Save the download somewhere else. The OS will probably delete it after installation.

True. Moving to a different folder prevents that.

If saving it, I would zip (compress) it first and burn to a DVD-DL.

I would just delete it, however. Once downloaded, it's in the App Store and you can always do so again.

Don't be positive it's the last build of El Cap, however. Sometimes Apple will release a bug fix after the next OS has been released or right before to make the upgrade easier. 10.6.8, released after Lion, comes to mind but there were others.

bayswater · Post by **bayswater** » Sun Sep 18, 2016 11:40 am

mikehalloran wrote:Sometimes Apple will release a bug fix after the next OS has been released or right before to make the upgrade easier.

There will be security updates too. They still come for Yosemite.

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