- If you’re running High Sierra (10.13), Sierra (10.12), or El Capitan (10.11), upgrade to macOS Catalina from the App Store. If you’re running Lion (10.7) or Mountain Lion (10.8), you will need to upgrade to El Capitan (10.11) first. If you don’t have broadband access, you can upgrade your Mac at any Apple Store.
- Apple today (July 25, 2012) announced that OS X Mountain Lion, the ninth major release of the world’s most advanced desktop operating system, is available as a download from the Mac App Store. With more than 200 innovative new features, Mountain Lion includes iCloud integration, the all new Messages app, Notification Center, system-wide Sharing, Facebook integration, Dictation, AirPlay Mirroring and Game Center.
When you upgrade to macOS Catalina, you get more of everything you love about Mac. Experience dedicated apps for music, TV, and podcasts. Smart new features in the apps you use every day. And Sidecar, which lets you use iPad as a second Mac display. Best of all, upgrading is free and easy.
Chances are, your Mac can run macOS Catalina.
Mac computers with Metal-capable graphics processors (GPUs) can upgrade to macOS Catalina.
Make sure you’re ready to upgrade.
Before you upgrade, we recommend that you back up your Mac. Then, if your Mac is running OS X Mavericks 10.9 or later, you can upgrade directly to macOS Catalina.
Upgrading is free. And easier than you think.
Apr 04, 2012 Mac OS X Mountain Lion: The method used by this guide requires that you have a copy of the Mountain Lion installation app. It's available from Apple's Developer Program, which has a membership fee of $99 a year. Of course, you could always download it from bittorrent, too.
Upgrading from macOS Mojave?
Go to Software Update in System Preferences to find the macOS Catalina upgrade. Click Upgrade Now and follow the onscreen instructions to begin your upgrade. If you don’t have broadband access, you can upgrade your Mac at any Apple Store.
Upgrading from an older version of macOS?
If you’re running High Sierra (10.13), Sierra (10.12), or El Capitan (10.11), upgrade to macOS Catalina from the App Store. If you’re running Lion (10.7) or Mountain Lion (10.8), you will need to upgrade to El Capitan (10.11) first. If you don’t have broadband access, you can upgrade your Mac at any Apple Store.
- OS X 10.9 or later
- 4GB of memory
- 12.5GB of available storage (OS X El Capitan 10.11.5 or later)*
- Some features require an Apple ID; terms apply.
- Some features require a compatible internet service provider; fees may apply.
For details about your Mac model, click the Apple icon at the top left of your screen and choose About This Mac. These Mac models are compatible with macOS Catalina:
- MacBook (Early 2015 or newer)
- MacBook Air (Mid 2012 or newer)
- MacBook Pro (Mid 2012 or newer)
- Mac mini (Late 2012 or newer)
- iMac (Late 2012 or newer)
- iMac Pro (2017)
- Mac Pro (Late 2013 or newer)
Siri
Requires a broadband internet connection and microphone (built-in or external).
Hey Siri
Supported by the following Mac models:
- MacBook Pro (2018 or newer)
- MacBook Air (2018 or newer)
- iMac Pro
Dictation, Voice Control, and Voice Memos
Requires a microphone (built-in or external).
Spotlight Suggestions
Requires a broadband internet connection.
Gestures
Requires a Multi-Touch trackpad, Force Touch trackpad, Magic Trackpad, or Magic Mouse.
Force Touch gestures require a Force Touch trackpad.
VoiceOver gestures require a Multi-Touch trackpad, Force Touch trackpad, or Magic Trackpad.
Photo Booth
Requires a FaceTime or iSight camera (built-in or external), or USB video class (UVC) camera.
FaceTime
Audio calls require a microphone (built-in or external) and broadband internet connection.
Video calls require a built-in FaceTime camera, an iSight camera (built-in or external), or a USB video class (UVC) camera; and broadband internet connection.
Apple TV
High Dynamic Range (HDR) video playback is supported by the following Mac models:
- MacBook Pro (2018 or newer)
- iMac Pro (2017)
- Mac Pro (2019) with Pro Display XDR
Dolby Atmos soundtrack playback is supported by the following Mac models:
- MacBook Air (2018 or newer)
- MacBook Pro (2018 or newer)
Sidecar
Supported by the following Mac models:
- MacBook (2016 or newer)
- MacBook Air (2018 or newer)
- MacBook Pro (2016 or newer)
- Mac mini (2018 or newer)
- iMac (late 2015 or newer)
- iMac Pro (2017 or newer)
- Mac Pro (2019)
Supported by all iPad models with Apple Pencil support:
- 12.9-inch iPad Pro
- 11-inch iPad Pro
- 10.5-inch iPad Pro
- 9.7-inch iPad Pro
- iPad (6th generation or later)
- iPad mini (5th generation)
- iPad Air (3rd generation)
Continuity Camera
Requires an iPhone or iPad with a Lightning connector and iOS 12 or later.
Continuity Sketch and Continuity Markup
Requires an iPhone with iOS 13 or an iPad with iPadOS.
Handoff
Requires an iPhone or iPad with a Lightning connector and iOS 8 or later.
Instant Hotspot
Requires an iPhone or iPad with cellular connectivity, a Lightning connector, and iOS 8.1 or later. Requires Personal Hotspot service through your carrier.
Universal Clipboard
Requires an iPhone or iPad with a Lightning connector and iOS 10 or later.
Auto Unlock
Supported by Mac models introduced in mid 2013 or later.
Requires an Apple Watch with watchOS 3 or later or an iPhone 5 or later.
Approve with Apple Watch
Supported by Mac models introduced in mid 2013 or later.
Requires an Apple Watch with watchOS 6 or later or an iPhone 6s or later with iOS 13.
Apple Pay on the Web
Requires MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, an iPhone 6 or later with iOS 10 or later, or an Apple Watch with watchOS 3 or later.
Phone Calling
Requires an iPhone with iOS 8 or later and an activated carrier plan.
SMS
Requires an iPhone with iOS 8.1 or later and an activated carrier plan.
Home
Requires an iPhone with iOS 12 or later and a configured Home app.
AirDrop
AirDrop to iOS and iPadOS devices requires an iPhone or iPad with a Lightning connector and iOS 7 or later.
AirPlay
AirPlay Mirroring requires an Apple TV (2nd generation or later).
AirPlay for web video requires an Apple TV (2nd generation or later).
Peer-to-peer AirPlay requires a Mac (2012 or later) and an Apple TV (3rd generation rev A, model A1469 or later) with Apple TV software 7.0 or later.
Time Machine
Requires an external storage device (sold separately).
Power Nap
Supported by the following Mac models:
- MacBook (Early 2015 or newer)
- MacBook Air (Mid 2012 or newer)
- MacBook Pro with Retina display (Mid 2012 or newer)
- Mac mini (Late 2012 or newer)
- iMac (Late 2012 or newer)
- iMac Pro (2017)
- Mac Pro (Late 2013 or newer)
Boot Camp
Allows Boot Camp installations of Windows 10 on supported Mac models.
Exchange Support
Requires Microsoft Office 365, Exchange 2016, Exchange 2013, or Exchange Server 2010. Installing the latest Service Packs is recommended.
Windows Migration
Supports OS X 10.7 or later and Windows 7 or later.
App Store
Available only to persons age 13 or older in the U.S. and many other countries and regions.
- Apple Books
- Apple News
- App Store
- Automator
- Calculator
- Calendar
- Chess
- Contacts
- Dictionary
- DVD Player
- FaceTime
- Find My
- Font Book
- Home
- Image Capture
- Launchpad
- Maps
- Messages
- Mission Control
- Music
- Notes
- Photo Booth
- Photos
- Podcasts
- Preview
- QuickTime Player
- Reminders
- Safari
- Siri
- Stickies
- Stocks
- System Preferences
- TextEdit
- Time Machine
- TV
- Voice Memos
- Activity Monitor
- AirPort Utility
- Audio MIDI Setup
- Bluetooth File Exchange
- Boot Camp Assistant
- ColorSync Utility
- Console
- Digital Color Meter
- Disk Utility
- Grapher
- Keychain Access
- Migration Assistant
- Screenshot
- Screen Time
- Script Editor
- Sidecar
- System Information
- Terminal
- VoiceOver Utility
- Arabic
- Catalan
- Croatian
- Simplified Chinese
- Traditional Chinese
- Traditional Chinese (Hong Kong)
- Czech
- Danish
- Dutch
- English (Australia)
- English (UK)
- English (U.S.)
- Finnish
- French
- French (Canada)
- German
- Greek
- Hebrew
- Hindi
- Hungarian
- Indonesian
- Italian
- Japanese
- Korean
- Malay
- Norwegian
- Polish
- Brazilian Portuguese
- Portuguese
- Romanian
- Russian
- Slovak
- Spanish
- Spanish (Latin America)
- Swedish
- Thai
- Turkish
- Ukrainian
- Vietnamese
If you own a Mac, chances are you already know that the new version of OS X — Mountain Lion, is now available in the Mac App Store. Here’s how to do an upgrade install from Lion to Mountain Lion.
Can My Mac Run Mountain Lion?
If you’re Mac is already running Lion, chances are it’s going to run Mountain Lion too. But if you’re not sure, here’s a list of models from apple.com that support Mountain Lion.
- iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)
- MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)
- MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
- MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
- Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
- Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
- Xserve (Early 2009)
General Requirements
OS X 10.6.8 or later, 2GB RAM or higher, 8GB of Hard Drive Space or more, Apple ID and Internet connection. You can find more details by checking out the OS X Mountain Lion Tech Specs.
Get Your Mac Ready for Upgrade
Mac Os X Mountain Lion Iso Download
First, make sure you’re Mac is up to date and running OS X 10.7.4 Lion. Click the Apple icon and About This Mac. You’ll get a screen that lists the basic information about your system.
Click More Info to get detailed information about your Mac. Here you can see I have a Mac Mini Mid 2010 with an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, 8GB of RAM and OS X Lion 10.7.4 (11E23). While you’re on this screen, go ahead and click Check for Updates.
Then install any updates for your Mac’s software that are available.
After you’re OS is all up to date, open the Mac App Store and check for updates for the apps you have installed. The only app that has an update on my system is iPhoto.
This update will take several minutes to update because it’s over 1GB.
When everything is up to date, back up your important data if you don’t already have a solid backup strategy.
Install OS X Mountain Lion
After your OS and apps are up to date, launch the Mac App Store and download OS X Mountain Lion ($19.99 for Upgrade).
A Mountain Lion icon will display on the Launchpad while it’s downloaded. The amount of time it takes will vary. Mine took a couple of hours because I upgraded the same day it became available. I also recommend you plug in an Ethernet cable versus upgrading over WiFi.
Installation is straight forward. Agree to the EULA and your system will restart automatically and complete the install process.
After the reboot, you’ll see an Install OS X screen with a progress bar at the bottom. On my Mac Mini, the install took about an hour.
After Mountain Lion was installed, I found a message letting me know I had some incompatible software installed.
The incompatible software was also shown from icons on the Dock. For example, here I’m running Parallels Desktop 6.0 and cannot run it on Mountain Lion.
The software is moved into a folder called Incompatible Software on your drive.
I had a few programs that weren’t compatible with the new version of OS X including Avast, Parallels and VirtualBox. Keep this in mind before upgrading your Mac to Mountain Lion. Check to make sure any “mission critical” programs you use are compatible with it.
Often times, third party software developers need time to catch up to the latest OS. It might take a few weeks, even months before there’s an upgrade for the programs to run…if they will at all. Some programs will just stop working, some you can update and some you’ll need to upgrade to the latest version. If this is your only Mac, I recommend waiting a few weeks or until the first update to Mountain Lion is released before doing an upgrade.
It’s also worth noting that Office for Mac 2011 works successfully, but there’s a couple critical updates available. If you have Microsoft AutoUpdate enabled, it will pop up so you can install the new version of AutoUpdate.
Os X Mountain Lion Download
You can check for updates manually too. Open an app like Word for Mac, click Help then Check for Updates.
After that it will check for updates again, and it will find the Office 2011 14.2.3 update.
Os X El Capitan
If you’re sure everything will work and you have a solid backup, then go ahead and do the upgrade and enjoy your new Mac OS.