High Sierra on a mid 2012 MacBook Pro

mrjimmy · Jul 15, 2022

Hey all,

My trusty Macbook Pro 9,2 is in need of an OS update. Its been humming along on EL Capitan for a while, but Firefox is no longer supported and, it's time.

I know it can't go further than High Sierra, but I'm worried it might be too much and become even less functional. It has an upgraded 2TB Seagate Barracuda drive and 16gb of RAM.

Thoughts? Experiences?

lclev · Jul 15, 2022

Actually you can upgrade to Catalina but I do believe most here will say stopping at Mojave would be better. I had issues with Catalina but others can chime in with their input.

As for less functional - I doubt upgrading will create slowdown issues. If you really want to "speed" up your MBP installing an SSD as the main drive would give it new life and increase the speed and responsiveness.

Lisa

pm-r · Jul 15, 2022

mrjimmy said:
Its been humming along on EL Capitan for a while, but Firefox is no longer supported and, it's time.

You might want to check in your about Firefox window and select any option to update.

I am running Mac OS Mavericks 10.9.5 and my Firefox says it is up to date:

You should end up with something like this after the update downloads and Firefox restarts.

- Patrick
=======

Rod · Jul 15, 2022

Great advice Patrick, Firefox has always been good on the extended support front and mrjimmy, if you do decide to upgrade, and there are plenty of reasons to do so, Iclev is right, Mojave is a popular choice. Mostly because it's a pretty good OS and it's is the last macOS to support 32bit applications and it's likely you will have a few of these.
Mojave will let you know which ones as you launch them with a "warning" that this application is not optimised for the upcoming macOS. It only does that once and the app will continue to operate normally but it suggests checking with the developer for a 64bit version which, should you want to upgrade further, is good advice. You can update to the 64bit version and continue to use the app as normal on Mojave.

Here is the Apple web site for downloading and upgrading your OS to older versions. How to get old versions of macOS

If you want any further advice on the topic youre welcome to get back to us on this thread.

pm-r · Jul 15, 2022

Rod said:
Great advice Patrick, Firefox has always been good on the extended support front and mrjimmy, if you do decide to upgrade, and there are plenty of reasons to do so, Iclev is right, Mojave is a popular choice.

Thanks Rod, but I can guarantee you that probably ain't going to happen, besides which my 2011 27" iMac can only run Maximum MacOS X 10.13.x High Sierra, and I like a lot of the extra features of Mavericks and the user freedom it provides. Besides which, there are very few if any new Mac OS features that I could or want to use, even if I could.

- Patrick
=======

mrjimmy · Jul 16, 2022

pm-r said:
You might want to check in your about Firefox window and select any option to update.

I am running Mac OS Mavericks 10.9.5 and my Firefox says it is up to date:

View attachment 36591

You should end up with something like this after the update downloads and Firefox restarts.

- Patrick
=======

Hi Patrick,

Yes, it's up-to-date, but it is no longer supported. There will be no further updates to thr esr update channel. The last update was October 2021. I've already began to notice loss of functionality.

pm-r · Jul 16, 2022

mrjimmy said:
Hi Patrick,

Yes, it's up-to-date, but it is no longer supported. There will be no further updates to thr esr update channel. The last update was October 2021. I've already began to notice loss of functionality.

That is a bit odd mr. Jimmy, I am sure my ESR version of Firefox last updated itself just a few months ago, but regardless I have not encountered a single site where it does not work or I get any sort of notice that it is unsupported.

I would double-check with their site again:

Switch to Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR) for personal use | Firefox Help

How to switch to Firefox ESR as a workaround for issues with the newest version of Firefox.

support.mozilla.org

But if you are stuck and having lots of troubles I guess you could update to Mac OS Mojave as some suggested.

- Patrick
=======

mrjimmy · Jul 16, 2022

pm-r said:
That is a bit odd mr. Jimmy, I am sure my ESR version of Firefox last updated itself just a few months ago, but regardless I have not encountered a single site where it does not work or I get any sort of notice that it is unsupported.

I would double-check with their site again:

Switch to Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR) for personal use | Firefox Help

How to switch to Firefox ESR as a workaround for issues with the newest version of Firefox.

support.mozilla.org

But if you are stuck and having lots of troubles I guess you could update to Mac OS Mojave as some suggested.

- Patrick
=======

We are both using the same version 78.15. From what I see, this is it for anything under 10.12. If I'm missing something, please show me the way!

Also, I think Mojave might be a bit risky. I've seen others update their OS on older machines and basically just brick the device. High Sierra seems within reach. If anyone has any experience with that, I'd love to hear.

Thanks all!

IWT · Jul 16, 2022

mrjimmy said:
High Sierra seems within reach. If anyone has any experience with that, I'd love to hear.

For complicated reasons, I have two iMacs - one, bang up to date and the other on High Sierra.

High Sierra works well and is/was a good OS. It is stable and if that is as far as you can go, then you won't be disappointed. But do remember that security is not as good as the latest and there are limitations re some apps. But, if you're careful and a wise user, you will find that it does most things you might want.

That's what you asked and I replied; but Mojave is a sound & reliable OS. Don't be put off going for that.

Ian

pm-r · Jul 16, 2022

mrjimmy said:
Also, I think Mojave might be a bit risky. I've seen others update their OS on older machines and basically just brick the device. High Sierra seems within reach. If anyone has any experience with that, I'd love to hear.

A friend I believe is using High Sierra, or maybe just Sierra, on his I believe 2015 MacBook Pro and hasn't had any problems that I am aware of.

Regardless of which Mac OS version you upgrade to, I would definitely make a backup clone or maybe two, then update one of the backups to whichever OS version you want to use, and see how you like it and how it behaves.

If you run into trouble, then you can easily go back to using your previous original backup version and try using another different update version.

- Patrick
=======

krs · Jul 16, 2022

mrjimmy said:
Also, I think Mojave might be a bit risky. I've seen others update their OS on older machines and basically just brick the device. High Sierra seems within reach. If anyone has any experience with that, I'd love to hear.

I think you need to look into these "brick the device" claims in more detail.
Make sure they are not talking about a Hackintosh or a Mac that is not officially supported on Mojave and the user installed some hack/patch to run Mojave.
I run a 2012 Mac Mini on Mojave, have for years and it runs just fine