#How to update mac operating system to os x mavericks how to#
Learn how to set up Time Machine on your Mac. Apple has released OS X 10.9 Mavericks, and somewhat surprisingly it is a free upgrade for all existing OS X users. Thankfully, Macs include a tool that make backups easy: Time Machine. Should the installation go awry, you don't want to lose important documents along with your photo and music libraries. If you have determined that your Mac can run Yosemite, then (as always) your first move before upgrading should be to perform a system backup to protect your data. You can buy Snow Leopard for $19.99 here. Updating takes a little effort even if a user doesn’t erase her hard drive and start fresh, like some suggest. Now that you’ve prepared your USB drive and downloaded the needed macOS version, you are ready to move on to the most important part of the process. We downloaded it right away and started playing with it. To download these operating system versions, click the needed link: OS X Mavericks. If you have an ancient Mac with an OS predating Snow Leopard, you will need to install Snow Leopard before then moving to Yosemite. Apple changed their practice of charging for operating system updates when they released OSX 10.9 Mavericks in the Mac App Store for free. The softwares a free upgrade for all eligible Macs, the first time Apples done that with OS X since OS X 10. Mavericks loses the big cat moniker that had preceded each earlier version of OS X, along with a price tag. Apple announced the new operating system at WWDC 2013 and shipped it that October. You need be running one of the following: OS X Mavericks is the tenth major release of OS X. The About This Mac window will show which version of OS X you have. Its 10.6.6 update introduced the Mac App Store, which you'll need in order to download Yosemite. If you haven't updated your Mac's operating system in a number of years, then you need to check to see if you are running at least OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard, which was released way back in 2009. Or watch this video about how to upgrade the RAM on a MacBook Pro. You may wish to read our article on upgrading your Mac's memory.