Access problems

[vindunn]

Hi,


I have two questions I could use help with.

1. I just replaced my old iMac with a new one. I didn’t want to just load everything from the old one onto the new one using TimeMachine. There’s much less storage on the new one. So I copied (not migrated) everything onto a blank external drive. I want to access my mail and my contacts from the old one but I don’t know where to look.
2. I have another external drive that I bought on eBay with an older system on it that I wanted to use to run some software and peripherals not compatible with the current OSs. When I go to Startup Disk in System preferences, the external is recognized along with my new computer, but when it I select and try to restart I get the message “You can’t change the startup disk to the selected disk. This startup disk could not be verified. Select another startup disk.” How can I verify it?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Vin

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello,

1:

• Which exact model is the old iMac?
• Which version of OS X/macOS?
• It may be tough to import your email and contacts manually, as the storage file types are probably different because of the two versions of OS X/macOS. Also, it depends on what/how you copied your data to the external drive.
• Who are the email providers and is the mail you want to copy in mailboxes that were in On My Mac mailboxes, or are they still stored on the email providers servers? Can you see the email if you use webmail for those accounts?
• Were you using iCloud to sync your Contacts previously and can you still see them if you login to iCloud?

2:

• Which exact model is the new iMac?
• Which version of macOS is on it?
• What is the old version of OS X/macOS on the external you are trying to startup the new iMac from?

C

 

[vindunn]

Hi. Thanks for your reply.



1. The old iMac was a 2013 27 inch, running Mojave. I selected the latest backup of the entire disk from TimeMachine and dragged it onto the external.

The email provider is Earthlink, and the mailboxes were On My Mac .

When I go onto iCloud, I do see the contacts, but they hadn’t been updated for a while, so I wanted to get my mail data which would have people’s latest email addresses.



2. The new iMac is a Retina 5k, 27 inch, 2020, running Catalina (10.15.7). The external, which I got on eBay, came with El Capitan installed. I wanted that so that I could access software and peripherals that are no longer compatible with the latest OS.

Best,

Vin

 

[TonyAguila]

1. The old iMac was a 2013 27 inch, running Mojave. I selected the latest backup of the entire disk from TimeMachine and dragged it onto the external.

You cannot simply drag-copy data from a Time Machine backup because it will not be a bootable copy. If you want to restore a system that you backed up with Time Machine, you will need to install macOS onto the external drive, preferably freshly formatted using Disk Utility, which you can do from Recovery, after which you can install a fresh copy of macOS. On reboot, you will be asked for a source for migration. Choose the Time Machine drive and when it comes up with a list of items to be migrated, you can select the ones you want to copy over.

If Recovery doesn’t give you an option for the macOS version of your choice, you will have to perform the installation from a downloaded installer instead. I can provide information on how to do this if you need help.

 

[vindunn]

Thanks for your reply, Tony. The problem is getting the installer for Mojave. Apple seems determined to make it impossible. It's unavailable on the AppStore. I've erased the external and formatted it as MacOS Extended (Journaled). Now I need to put Mojave on it, if I understand correctly.

 

[Lufbrarunner]

This link should allow you to access ols versions of macos

 

[TonyAguila]

Thanks for your reply, Tony. The problem is getting the installer for Mojave. Apple seems determined to make it impossible. It's unavailable on the AppStore. I've erased the external and formatted it as MacOS Extended (Journaled). Now I need to put Mojave on it, if I understand correctly.

The link from Lufbrarunner is the correct source for older versions of macOS. If you need instructions on how to create macOS installers on USB thumb drives, let me know.

 

[vindunn]

I appreciate the suggestions, but I went to that page and tried to get Mojave and just got the message that that version of macOS was no longer available. This is the obstacle I keep butting up against. Apple won't allow anyone access to anything but the latest OS. What can I do to get working installers for Mojave and El Capitan to make external drives bootable? Clearly not from Apple.

 

[TonyAguila]

I appreciate the suggestions, but I went to that page and tried to get Mojave and just got the message that that version of macOS was no longer available. This is the obstacle I keep butting up against. Apple won't allow anyone access to anything but the latest OS. What can I do to get working installers for Mojave and El Capitan to make external drives bootable? Clearly not from Apple.

Some factor in your setup (maybe VPN?) must be causing this failure to occur. Maybe you know someone who can try it from their Mac? I tried getting Mojave, and even High Sierra but not El Capitan, from my Monterey system and the links opened the App Store to the correct place. Click on GET and it will start the download into your Applications folder. Installation will start automatically but if you want to keep a copy of the installer, quit the installation, copy the file to another place on your Mac, and then launch the installer (in Applications) once more. If you did the download from your friend’s Mac, just abort the installation and make a copy of the file for yourself.

 

[vindunn]

Hi
So I did as Lufbrarunner and Tony suggested. I went onto my wife's iMac and went to the link https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211683. And yes, I was able to download the Mojave installer. That was encouraging.!! I then transferred it to my iMac and then onto the blank, formatted external. When I tried to run the program, here's what came up:

So Apple doesn't trust what comes from its own support page??!!

 

[Lufbrarunner]

Try right clicking and 'Open' on the app.

 

[TonyAguila]

Hi
So I did as Lufbrarunner and Tony suggested. I went onto my wife's iMac and went to the link https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211683. And yes, I was able to download the Mojave installer. That was encouraging.!! I then transferred it to my iMac and then onto the blank, formatted external. When I tried to run the program, here's what came up:View attachment 4249

So Apple doesn't trust what comes from its own support page??!!

Try launching the installer from your internal drive instead of the external, but before you do that, I suggest reformatting the external as APFS, whether it is a hard drive or SSD, and do the formatting in Recovery with Disk Utility. The version of Disk Utility in Catalina is an earlier version and I had a lot of problems with APFS/Catalina.

The location of the macOS installer is not an issue because it will give you the option of which drive to install it in. I’m also assuming that your version of Catalina is up-to-date with the latest security update (SecUpd2022-001, I think).

 

[vindunn]

Hi again. I made sure Catalina had the latest security update, went into recovery mode, went to disk utility in recovery mode and tried to reformat the external as APFS. Here are the options I was given:

Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)

MS-DOS (FAT)

ExFAT



No other options

 

[Lufbrarunner]

Format as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) then when you go to format again APFS will be an option.

 

[TonyAguila]

Hi again. I made sure Catalina had the latest security update, went into recovery mode, went to disk utility in recovery mode and tried to reformat the external as APFS. Here are the options I was given:

Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)

MS-DOS (FAT)

ExFAT



No other options

In Disk Utility, choose the device itself, not any of the containers or volumes (1). Then on the top toolbar, click on Erase (2), never on Partition, at least not for this purpose. Then check the pop-up window (3). It should default to “Untitled.” Then click on “Erase.” It’s important that you assign a name here. If you decide to choose another name later, you will have to do it in Disk Utility, never in the Finder even if it allows you to do so.

You may even be able to do this in normal mode, not Recovery, but the latter will be safest. Catalina’s version of Disk Utility had multiple flaws, which is why I suggested using the one in Recovery.

 

[vindunn]

Partial success. Thanks, Tony for the detailed walk-through. I was finally able to format it as APFS. But then, I'm back to the installer issue. Whether I try from the main drive or the external I only get the message

This came, via my wife's iMac, from Apple's own page.

 

[TonyAguila]

Partial success. Thanks, Tony for the detailed walk-through. I was finally able to format it as APFS. But then, I'm back to the installer issue. Whether I try from the main drive or the external I only get the message

This came, via my wife's iMac, from Apple's own page.

I think you mentioned that you want to install macOS Mojave due to compatibility issues. I suspect the problem with the download is due to your internet connection. Are you on VPN?

Your iMac is capable of running Monterey, which means that if you try to install the system with Recovery, it will offer to install macOS Monterey. Is there any other reason why you don’t want this? If it’s a matter of being able to run older apps, you can later install Mojave on an external volume, or if your internal disk space will allow it, install it on another volume of your internal. That’s the beauty of APFS in that you can create multiple volumes on a single device and the system will recognize them as independent volumes.

I understand the issue with running older, even 32-bit apps. I have external volumes on my Mac for Mojave, Catalina, and Big Sur, in addition to Monterey. Yes I have a couple of Monterey versions installed, beta and current release. As long as you have reliable Time Machine backups, you should be able to experiment with different configurations.

 

[vindunn]

Hi. Sorry to take so long with my reply. First, to answer your question, no it's not a VPN. Just a regular email account. My wife's computer and mine are on the same network, so I don't know how else I can get an installer.
Regarding upgrading to Monterey, I guess I am still super cautious since upgrading to Mojave from an older OS was the start of all my troubles. It caused me to lose access to 32 bit apps and a scanner that I really need. I know that Mojave is supposed to accommodate 32 bit, but that was not so for me once I did it. Could it be that the version of Mojave I loaded contained a later security update—one that no longer worked with 32 bit?
I wasn't sure whether you were suggesting that by moving to Monterey I could accomplish things that I couldn't with Catalina. If so, I'll gladly do it. So far, as I see it, until I can put a working version of Mojave on my APFS-formatted external, I can't retrieve the backup of my old iMac on TimeMachine.
But that wouldn't solve the 32 bit problem. For that, I have another external with ElCapitan installed, but when I tried to boot off that disk I got the message “You can’t change the startup disk to the selected disk. This startup disk could not be verified. Select another startup disk.” How can I verify it?
Lots of frustration, but I am grateful that you have been hanging in with me.

 

[TonyAguila]

Hi. Sorry to take so long with my reply. First, to answer your question, no it's not a VPN. Just a regular email account. My wife's computer and mine are on the same network, so I don't know how else I can get an installer.
Regarding upgrading to Monterey, I guess I am still super cautious since upgrading to Mojave from an older OS was the start of all my troubles. It caused me to lose access to 32 bit apps and a scanner that I really need. I know that Mojave is supposed to accommodate 32 bit, but that was not so for me once I did it. Could it be that the version of Mojave I loaded contained a later security update—one that no longer worked with 32 bit?
I wasn't sure whether you were suggesting that by moving to Monterey I could accomplish things that I couldn't with Catalina. If so, I'll gladly do it. So far, as I see it, until I can put a working version of Mojave on my APFS-formatted external, I can't retrieve the backup of my old iMac on TimeMachine.
But that wouldn't solve the 32 bit problem. For that, I have another external with ElCapitan installed, but when I tried to boot off that disk I got the message “You can’t change the startup disk to the selected disk. This startup disk could not be verified. Select another startup disk.” How can I verify it?
Lots of frustration, but I am grateful that you have been hanging in with me.

In my experience, aside from running 32-bit apps, there is nothing that neither Catalina nor Big Sur does that will not work better in Monterey. And my Mojave installation still runs a couple of 32-bit apps that gone extinct, on at least a weekly basis. I keep Catalina and Big Sur systems installed and updated… just because. With all the older systems, I keep copies of their latest installers and security updates so I can refresh them whenever they show signs of degradation. But honestly, all I have to have are Monterey and Mojave.

I probably mentioned earlier, the only version of Disk Utility I trust for reformatting APFS drives is the one in Recovery.

The biggest test of Mojave will come when my order for the Mac Studio arrives. Will it run on Silicon? I hope so, or I will have to hold onto my present Mac mini for that sole purpose.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hi,

Mojave is not supported on Apple Silicon. The minimum that runs on the latest M1Pro/Max family of Macs is macOS Monterey, but the original M1 Macs were shipped with macOS Big Sur. I would assume the Mac Studio will ship with a minimum of macOS Monterey 12.2.x. and possibly even a new version.

C