iFixit - Answers With Device "Mac OS X"

Mac OS X: How to download Mac OS El Capitan

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 15:58:47 -0700

I need to download the El Capitan to install on my Mac computer. What is the best place to download the El Capitan dmg or El Capitan iso.

⟐ Answered April 23, 2025 at 15:58 MST

Mac OS X: Can I install a hard drive from a mac that contains mac os to a pc?

Sun, 03 Nov 2024 07:44:41 -0700

Hey i was wondering if i can take my hard drive from my broken MAC and install it on a normal windows pc?? will it boot with mac os?

⟐ Commented November 03, 2024 at 7:44 MST

Mac OS X: macOS on unsupported Macs - legal or not? OpenCore

Fri, 11 Oct 2024 20:53:47 -0700

Hi guys,

I have question if is legal to have macOS on unsupported Macs. As I have Mac Pro 3.1 what have latest macOS (actually OS X) El Capitan. This machine is still powerful to run macOS Monterey (with OpenCore Legacy Patcher - upgrade to 32GB RAM with RX 560 and SSD). I even have it and running nice and smooth. Also can run apps what are no longer supported under El Capitan - specially Adobe Photoshop and Premiere.

But my question is - it is legal from Apple side ? Thanks a lot for any advice/ideas.

According to Apple Customer Support it is not illegal :) so I will say I am on the safe site :) (and if Apple will contact me about that I have proof that I asked :) )

⟐ Commented October 11, 2024 at 20:53 MST

Mac OS X: Photos app is not scanning Faces.

Wed, 31 Jul 2024 09:43:39 -0700

Hey everyone at iFixit. I've got a strange problem happening with my MacBook. The photos app will not scan faces. I have always been able to scan faces until just recently. It simply says "0 Photos Scanned / Photos will continue scanning your remaining 736 photos when you're not using the app and your Mac is connected to power." It has said that for weeks, and it still won't work.

I have always been able to open Photos while on battery power, plug in the MacBook, open Finder, activate the screen saver, and let it run for a few hours. Normally, it works fine after that.

So far, I have tried:

Rebuilding the Library

Reinstalling macOS

Restoring pictures with Time Machine

Nest Cache folders "https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252...

Boot in Safe Mode

Reset NVRAM/PRAM

Reset SMC

Repair Library.

I have noticed, judging by the support online, that photoanalysisd is the program that scans photos. According to Activity Monitor, that program is never running, which means that the photos are not scanning.

I have been looking for a solution for about two weeks now, and I still can't find anything. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

⟐ Answered July 31, 2024 at 9:43 MST

Mac OS X: macOS Monterey and touch screen

Tue, 22 Aug 2023 08:15:53 -0700

Hi guys,

I'm happy to trade my PC for a Mac, but this one has a touch screen - no keyboard or mouse - just a PC and a touch screen. I'm trying to connect this touch screen to my Mac, but I'm having some trouble "using" it (it doesn't work like Windows touch, so no on-screen keyboard, can't figure out how to open a folder or app, etc..)

Am I so stupid that I can't find the right setting or is there no touchscreen setting on macOS Monterey?

Thanks so much for any ideas/advice.

⟐ Commented August 22, 2023 at 8:15 MST

Mac OS X: How long will Rosetta 2 be supported?

Wed, 03 May 2023 23:44:14 -0700

I am working on my Apple Silicon transition, and there are a few pieces of troubled hardware I need to rely on Rosetta 2 with -- thankfully it's minor, but the "troubled, can't replace it" list is rough, to put it nicely.

For Silhouette Studio, there's no clear answer on what to do and the Cameo 3 I have doesn't have the BT module to run it on an iPad (optional, used discount). They have given me zero help besides "install Rosetta" -- THIS IS APPLE, ROSETTA IS A BRIDGE; NOT A CRUTCH. I know we got screwed on PPC>Intel, but we know that was due to IBM dropping the product Apple used.

⟐ Answer accepted May 03, 2023 at 23:44 MST

Mac OS X: Why won't my Air show a startup disk after formatting

Sun, 15 Aug 2021 19:19:41 -0700

After formatting my macintosh hd, I went to reinstall Mac OS X Lion. Won't load past beyond Apple needing to verify my computers eligibility, the time it has it prompt me for a "access key password" which I am unaware of. So I choose to select a starter disk, but it shows no disk to choose from. What do I do??

⟐ Answered August 15, 2021 at 19:19 MST

Mac OS X: Cloning 250 GB hard drive to 512 SSD with bootcamp partition

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 07:14:32 -0700

Hi,

First of all, sorry for my English but I'm not native!

Background: I just reached the capacity limit of my 250 GB HD intially bought with my MPB 15" (late 2008). The current HD is partitioned with 210GB for the Mac OS X Lion, and 40GB for Bootcamp with Windows 7.

My plan is to change the HD with a Crucial M4 512GB SDD and eventually allocate 450GB to OS X Lion, and 112GB to Bootcamp.

Of note, I do have a time machine back-up but I guess it only concern the files under OS X Lion.

I will need your view on the following:

1- In order not to reinstall everything, the quickiest way would be to clone the HD on the SDD, i.e. follow method #2 (from step 19).

a) How 250GB of data will be cloned on a 512GB volume space?

b) Is there as step during the cloning where we can decide to change the partition volume?

c) in summary, can I use cloning to reach my goal?

2- If the cloning does not allow me to reach my goal, I guess I will have to do a Fresh re-installation following your method #1?

3 - Finally, could you please confirm that I can replace the HD with the SDD using the following instruction guide.

Thanks a lot for your help and guides !

Cheers,

Emmanuel

⟐ Comment deleted April 21, 2021 at 7:14 MST

Mac OS X: Running MacOS in a virtual machine (VM) on a Windows Syst?

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 01:55:36 -0700

I'm trying to use MacOS (Sierra) in a VM space on my Windows Lenovo laptop using VirtualBox app.

Problem is, the installation is not going smoothly as it had on VirtualBox VM space on my MacBook Air Early 2014 running Windows.

@mayer seems really good at Macs and the like, so I suppose he could help. I am still very open to others answers though.

MacOS Sierra download I used on both Link removed, as that could send a copyright strike my way. Sorry for any inconveniences.

Guide I used for both

VirtualBox

Laptop Specs:

Windows Laptop

Windows 10 Home 64bit
8GB RAM
Pen and touch support with 10 touch points (anyway I can use that somehow in the macOS VM?)
Intel Core i5-8250U CPU at 1.6GHz
Manufactured by Lenovo, Model #720-13IKB
UEFI BIOS

Supports Hyper-V (which I had turned on in the BIOS, Because, you know, one of the first things people do with a new laptop is edit the BIOS [sarcasm])

Macbook Air

Specs: MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2014)

13”
1.4GHz
128GB

THANKS!

I'll post an image of the error soon currently reproducing it as I deleted the files for the Virtual machine accidently.

⟐ Answer edited April 21, 2021 at 1:55 MST

Mac OS X: Bootcamp crashes after continue

Mon, 15 Mar 2021 04:42:39 -0700

hi, bootcamp keeps crashing after i press the continue button. Here is system info

⟐ Answered March 15, 2021 at 4:42 MST

Mac OS X: Transferring time machine backup to secondary drive

Mon, 01 Feb 2021 15:54:28 -0700

I bought a new Mac mini m1. The drive sizes are ridiculously small. I bought a 1tb ssd external drive. How can I transfer my old time machine backup to the external drive. Migration assistant doesn’t have this option

⟐ Answered February 01, 2021 at 15:54 MST

Mac OS X: Office 2011 not opening.

Mon, 01 Feb 2021 08:25:42 -0700

Hi, I was wondering if you could help, everytime i open Word, Powerpoint, or excel for mac (the rest work fine), It comes up with "The Office for mac installation did not complete successfully because there was a problem with the installer"

⟐ Answer edited February 01, 2021 at 8:25 MST

Mac OS X: Cant I load Puma 10.1 in vbox

Tue, 19 Jan 2021 10:19:57 -0700

Hello, Im trying to load OS X Puma 10.1 in virtualbox, but it just comes up with this:

⟐ Commented January 19, 2021 at 10:19 MST

Mac OS X: How to get to the apple store without first apple id

Thu, 03 Dec 2020 12:01:57 -0700

So i want to reinstall my mac but when i choose the disk apple asked me for the apple id to sign in to apple store, but the problem is that i don’t remeber my first apple id. Is there another way to make this reistall or to enter the another id? I would like to point out that I can’t do restart with a startup disk :)

⟐ Commented December 03, 2020 at 12:01 MST

Mac OS X: Transfer SSD to another MacBook Pro

Wed, 04 Nov 2020 03:54:16 -0700

Is it possible to take the SSD boot drive out from a MacBook Pro 13 inch Early 2011 running Mac High Sierra 10.13.6 and swap it physically into a MacBook Pro 15 inch Mid 2012 and then upgrade to Catalina?

Further research looking at how to do the swap on Youtube uncovered the information that the MBP 15” Mid 2012 retina takes an mSATA drive. It’s a smaller mSATA which also requires an adapter.

The just purchased MBP arrives tomorrow or day after. I’ll open it up and look. Assuming that an mSATA is required then I'm interested in finding out if anyone has knowledge of what is best brand of mSATA drive to install. Apparently some do not support being formatted as boot drives. I'm looking for 1Tb or 2Tb.

⟐ Edited by author November 04, 2020 at 3:54 MST

Mac OS X: Procedure to change the default application

Mon, 15 Jun 2020 05:19:09 -0700

Microsoft Excel happens to be my default application, I need the procedure to change it from numbers. Please guide me.

Thank you

Narayanan Lakshmanan India

⟐ Answer accepted June 15, 2020 at 5:19 MST

Mac OS X: Extract ISO File on Mac Catalina

Thu, 11 Jun 2020 04:21:47 -0700

I bought a new Mac and find out an issue that some of the ISO files can not opened, like linux ISO. However, when I double click the Windows ISO, it mounts automatically.

⟐ Answer edited June 11, 2020 at 4:21 MST

Mac OS X: Trying to install El Capitan on iMac

Sat, 22 Feb 2020 12:35:25 -0700

My MacBook is running Mojave and I need to instal El Capitan on my iMac (what was on it before I needed to replace a bad hard drive).

I can’t get it to download using my MacBook through legitimate Apple sources.

HELP! That link Aaron provided is from Apple and since I am running Mojave I can’t download it.

⟐ Answered February 22, 2020 at 12:35 MST

Mac OS X: How to download El capitan 10.11.6 os for free

Fri, 29 Apr 2022 06:58:22 -0700

can not create a bootable Os el Capitan to a USB, need a correct el Capitan image file. does have any download link?

⟐ Edited April 29, 2022 at 6:58 MST

Mac OS X: I can not restore devices after updating to Catalina.

Thu, 09 Jan 2020 20:25:08 -0700

I have restored phones before in iTunes, but the restoring process is now done through Finder in Catalina. I tried restoring both and iPhone 8 Plus and an SE, but each would get the the extracting stage and go out of recovery mode right as the process was about to finish. I tried restoring them through iTunes on a Windows computer, and I had the same problem with the error 4013. I used a genuine Apple cable that was in good condition, and I tried other cables as well. I also tried just restoring from an already download IPSW file, but this had the same result. I called Apple after my initial attempt in November, and the rep I spoke to told me the engineers were working on the problem and that I should update the OS when a new update comes out and try again. I updated the OS and just tried again this week, but I got the same result. I was wondering if anybody else had this problem or knows if there is a solution or if it is still an Apple issue. Thank you

⟐ Commented January 09, 2020 at 20:25 MST