Throover Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 Here's how to temporarily modify a system file in Mountain Lion if your computer is new enough to run El Capitan and Sierra, but you want El Capitan and missed the window for downloading from the Mac App Store. Upgrade Mountain Lion 10.8 to El Capitan 10.11 now that Sierra has been released. The SystemVersion.plist file can be temporarily altered to allow downloading a system installer for El Capitan that is no longer available for download at the Mac App Store in Mountain Lion. The technique only works if TextWrangler, Mac App Store, and Safari are launched before SystemVersion.plist is modified. If the previous systems installers were already downloaded through an available Apple ID from the MAS, they can be downloaded again by viewing the list of purchased software titles (OS X El Capitan for example), and this method isn't needed. This example describes the procedure for downloading the El Capitan installer intended for an upgrade from a Snow Leopard (10.6.8) to El Capitan (10.11) while booted into a Mountain Lion (10.8) system. Apply all updates to Mountain Lion before installing El Capitan. 1. Launch the needed software (TextWrangler, Mac App Store, Safari) 2. In Textwrangler, open the file /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist 3. Select the lines of text that appear between <dict> and </dict> and drag it to the desktop to create a text clipping that will be used to restore SystemVersion.plist to its original version after the MAS download starts. 4. Paste the following text into SystemVersion.plist open in TextWrangler so that it replaces the lines of text selected in step 3. If necessary, just replace individually each string between each occurrence of <key>, </key> and <string>, </string>. <key>ProductBuildVersion</key> <string>9L31a</string> <key>ProductCopyright</key> <string>1983-2009 Apple Inc.</string> <key>ProductName</key> <string>Mac OS X</string> <key>ProductUserVisibleVersion</key> <string>10.6.8</string> <key>ProductVersion</key> <string>10.6.8</string> 5. Save the SystemVersion.plist file using TextWrangler, confirming and entering administrator password when prompted. 6. In Safari, visit the link for accessing the Snow Leopard upgrade to El Capitan: https://itunes.apple.com/app/os-x-el-capitan/id1147835434?mt=12 7. Log into the MAS as required, meet financial configuration requirements (the download is free), and begin the download of El Capitan. 8. Begin the process of restoring the original version of SystemVersion.plist by opening and copying contents of the text clip previously saved. 9. Paste the contents of the clipboard into the SystemVersion.plist file open in TextWrangler, replacing the text that was previously changed with the version on your clipboard. 10. Leave MAS open to finish the download, and when it is complete, either complete the prompted installation, or restart. It might be a good idea to repair permissions for the boot volume before installing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BreBo Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 OS X El Capitan remains available for Mac computers that can't upgrade to macOS Sierra, or that need to upgrade to El Capitan first. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206886 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Throover Posted February 10, 2017 Author Share Posted February 10, 2017 Yes, but I saw a question at the Apple Communities from someone who had Mountain Lion and a Mac recent enough to use Sierra but wanted to try El Capitan, not Sierra. That link won't work if your hardware is Sierra compatible. It was so hard to figure out, I wanted to make it available somewhere. Maybe they depend on some of the apps that were disabled because of that Sierra obj-c garbage collection exclusion. Not acceptable to post hacks at Apple Communities. I modified the introduction to the original post in an attempt to make it more clear that it applies in situations where the hardware is compatible with both El Capitan and Sierra, but El Capitan is preferred but no longer available because of Apple's inconvenient App Store policy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
royalcrown Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 OS X El Capitan remains available for Mac computers that can't upgrade to macOS Sierra, or that need to upgrade to El Capitan first. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206886 True, but that's only an upgrade installer. Too bad there isn't a full installer available now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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