This tip replaces version 2126 originally released on the Discussions Feedback forum.

Find the serial number on:

On September 1, 2010, Apple released a completely redesigned Apple TV running on an iOS variant and discontinued the older model, which ran on a Mac OS X variant. The new device is one-fourth the size, runs quieter, and replaces the need for a hard drive with media streaming from any iTunes library on the network along with 8 GB of flash memory. Your iMac comes with 90 days of complimentary technical support and a one-year limited warranty. Purchase AppleCare+ for Mac to extend your coverage to three years from your AppleCare+ purchase date and add up to two incidents of accidental damage coverage every 12 months, each subject to a service fee of $99 for screen damage or external enclosure damage, or $299 for other repairable damage. The 'Original/Mid-2007,' 'Early 2008,' 'Early 2009' and 'Mid-2009' Aluminum iMac models - all Aluminum iMacs with a 20-Inch or 24-Inch display - each have a 3 Gb/s SATA connector for a 3.5' hard drive and different models have a variety of different hard drives installed by default. Photo Credit: Apple, Inc. (20-Inch & 24-Inch Aluminum iMac).

Plug your serial number in at this link:

Do not use third party links as they may not be secure.

Do not post the serial number on this board, as that is your key to any support you may have left.

Use this tip also to help figure out which portion of the Support Community to post in, as this tip explains:

When you have no serial number, use one of these third party sites to find your model, production year, time in year

(early, middle, late, summer, fall, winter, spring):

Note:

PowerMac, PowerPC, eMac, iMac PPC, iBook (Apple recycled the name iBook for its eBook application on new Macs and iOS devices), Powerbook, Classic all refer to Macs that are older than the present series

of Macs. Posting in those forums about a current Mac, shows you have not researched your Mac sufficiently to get a succinct answer to your query. Apple menu -> About This Mac will tell you the Mac OS version or System version you are running. The X in the version is important, and so is the preceding 10 in the version if it exists.

Imac Mid 2010 Latest Os

Questions saying X.1 could refer to Mac OS X 10.13.1, 10.1. Don't truncate the version you see.

Imac 2010 Latest Os 10.12

There are no iOS forums specific to the operating system found on iPads, iPod Touch, AppleTV, Apple Watch, and iPhones. Figure out the type of portable device you are running to ask a question about that device specifically.

Apple has these identifying articles as well:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3255 - MacBook Air

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1635 - MacBook

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4132 - MacBook Pro

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3476 - Mac Mini

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6069 - Mac Pro

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1758 - iMac
http://support.apple.com/kb/sp96 and http://support.apple.com/kb/sp37 - PowerMac G5

http://support.apple.com/kb/TA25585 and http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3082 - PowerMac G4

http://support.apple.com/kb/TA22033 - PowerMac G3

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3065 - Powerbook G4

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2395 - eMac

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2287 - Powerbook G3

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1772 - iBook

Macs generally will not run an older Mac OS X operating system than shipped with them.

The one exception is virtualizing 10.6 Server on 10.7 or later, which is described later.

Also important to note is that the Apple App Store only has 10.7, 10.8, and 10.12, except for those who purchased in between systems, and have a Mac that shipped with in between systems. For all others if you need an in between system, and your Mac is older, contact the App Store tech support.

A quick upgrade guide has been posted on

These dates are important for recognizing what Mac OS X will run on Macs. Macs released on or after (including their model #s or name

where known):

September 30, 2018 will only run 10.14 or later

• MacBook Air 8,x

• Mac Mini 8,x

September 25, 2017 will only run 10.13 or later.

• iMac Pro 1,1
• MacBook Pro 15,x (2018 model)

June 5, 2017 Mac models (all 2017 Models except iMac Pro) will only run 10.12.5 or later

• MacBook Pro 14,x

• MacBook Air 7,2

• iMac 18,x

September 20, 2016 will only run 10.12 or later.

• MacBook Pro with touchbar (instead of physical F keys)
• MacBook Pro 13,x
• iMac 18,x
• MacBook Air 7,2 see this article on which ones could only run 10.12 or later.

September 30, 2015 will only run 10.11 or later. These Macs are the first Macs that can be upgraded directly to

Mac OS 10.14 without installing any other software.

• iMac 16,x and 17,x
• Macbook 9,x (these Macbooks came with the USB-C, instead of the USB 2 or USB 3 connector. USB 3 and 2 look identical on the outside, use System Profiler to determine which you have)

October 16, 2014 will only run 10.10 or later (10.10 is only available for Macs that shipped with it).

• MacBook Air 7,1 and 7,2 (some models could only run 10.12 or later).
• Mac Mini 7,x
• iMac MF885LL/A came with 10.10.2. All other 15,x came with 10.10.0
• MacBook 8,x - the oldest that can run Mac OS 10.14 with this model name after installing 10.11 or later.
• MacBook Pro 11,4 and 11,5

October 22, 2013 will only run 10.9 or later (10.9 is only available for Macs that shipped with it).

• Macbook Pro 11,1 through 11,3
• Mac Pro 6,x
• MacBook Air Early 2014
• Mac Mini 6,x
• iMac 14,4

June 25, 2012 will only run 10.8 or later. 10.8 through 10.11 are supported by these Macs [indicate machine ID found in profiler], and newer models may run some variety of 10.9, 10.10, or 10.11):

• MacBook Pro with Retina EMC 2557 from 2012 and 2013 and later models.
• MacBook Air (2013 or newer) [6,1]
• MacBook Air (Mid 2013 or newer) [6,1]
• Mac mini (Late 2012 or newer) [6,1] - the oldest that can run 10.14 after installing 10.11 or later.
• iMac (Late 2012 or newer) [13,1]
• Mac Pro (Late 2013) [6,1]

These models above are the first models that can be upgraded directly to High Sierra 10.13 without other prior upgrades.

The oldest MacBook Air and iMac that can run Mac OS 10.14 after installing 10.11.

• MacBook Air 5,1

• iMac 12,1

These Macs which are older can also be upgraded to 10.12 by upgrading to 10.7.5 first, and 10.13 by upgrading to 10.8 first:

• MacBook (Late 2009 or newer) 6,1
• MacBook Pro (Mid 2010 or newer) 6,1
• MacBook Air (Late 2010 or newer) 3,1.
• Mac mini (Mid 2010 or newer) 4,1
• iMac (Late 2009 or newer) 10,1
• Mac Pro (Mid 2010 or newer) 5,1

The Macs are compatible with 10.8 and later from prior 10.8's release

• Mac Pro (Early 2008 with AirPort Extreme card, or Mid 2012) [3,1]-[5,1] (Earlier Mac Pros are discussed on the 10.8 upgrade tip).
• MacBook Late 2008 [5,1] to mid 2010 [7,1] with no Pro or Air in the name.
• iMac (Early 2009 to mid-2011) [9,1] to [12,1]
• Mac mini (Mid 2010 to mid 2011) [4,1] to [5.1]
• MacBook Air (Late 2010 to mid-2012 [3,1]-[5,2]
• MacBook Pro Late 2008 [5,1] to Retina 2012 that are not EMC 2557.

July 20, 2011 will only run 10.7 or later. The model IDs (x,x) and EMC that fit this description until June 25, 2012 release of 10.8 (excluding the ones which will run only 10.8 or later earlier mentioned) :

iMac of an EMC of 2496; 13,x and later.

Mac Mini 5,x and later.

Macbook Air 4,x and later.

MacBook 8,x and later (no Pro no Air in the name)

Mac Pro 5,1 with EMC 2629 - the oldest that can be have Mac OS 10.14 installed after installing 10.11 or later, those without that EMC number came with 10.6 and can also be updated to 10.14 the same manner; 6,x and later.

MacBook Pro with EMC 2555, 2563; 9,x and later.

Note all the Macs that can only run 10.7 and later, may be able to run 10.6 Server with Parallels, if you need compatibility with an older operating system:

Beyond this point Macs released during certain date ranges also have a maximum operating system, and/or

minimum retail operating system and system specific operating system requirement (when I say up to 10.9 that includes all incremental updates):

Note: images shown below for retail operating system are those that have no 'Update, Dropin, or OEM' wording on them.

March 15, 2010-July 19, 2011 will only run prebundled 10.6 installer disc, and not retail, but also able to be upgraded to 10.9. Note this tip

if upgrading to 10.7 or later: https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6271

August 28, 2009-March 14, 2010 will only 10.6 or later up to 10.9. And will at minimum be able to use

10.6.3 retailto install 10.6. Note this tip if upgrading to 10.7 or later: https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6271

During 2000 to 2009, the serial number also made it easier to identify the Macs, as the 3rd, 4th, and 5th character of the serial number referred to the week

and year of the shipment date. Thus for serial numbers where x can be any letter or number, xxABCxxxxx serial numbers would refer to an A which is the last digit of the year, and BC=week of the year. xx905xxxx is the fifth week of 2009. You can then use Wikipedia to figure out what date the release was, and if it was after a specific retail release of an operating system to determine which pre bundled disc it came with, and which later retail discs the Mac could work with.

December 15, 2008-August 28, 2009 will only run prebundled 10.5 installer disc, and 10.6 retail https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/43236040snow.jpg, and if on https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3761

will also run up to Mac OS X 10.11 if you follow this tip: https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6271

October 28, 2007 -December 14, 2008 will at minimum be able to use the 10.5.6 retail, and install up to 10.9 if included on https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3761 if you follow this tip https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6271

January 10, 2006-October 27, 2007 will at minimum be able to 10.5 retail, and if

on Which 10.5 systems can upgrade to 10.8 or 10.9?or Are there 10.4 systems that can upgrade to 10.8 or 10.9? are

able to run 10.9. Core2Duo and Xeon can upgrade to a minimum of 10.7.5. Otherwise if they only have a CoreDuo, CoreSolo Intel

processor only be able to upgrade to Mac OS X 10.6.8. G5, G4, and G3 processors are not Intel.

Earlier dates are covered on this tip:Can I download my Mac OS upgrade?

Using the dates from the above documents, and the dates according to Wikipedia when specific retail

operating system systems were released, you can find which retail releases were newer than the Macs and the ones immediately older.

i.e.:

An October 24, 2011 Macbook Pro will only run 10.8 retail, and 10.9 retail downloads, but needs an

AppleCare requested 10.7 installer to install 10.7. An exception exists in 10.6 Server, as indicated here:

A pre-October 26, 2007 MacBook Pro will only run the system specific Mac OS X 10.4 installer

that shipped with it, which can be ordered from AppleCare, or newer retail installer versions

of 10.5, 10.6 compatible with its hardware, and 10.7 if it is at least a Core2Duo.

CoreDuo, nor is CoreSolo is not compatible with 10.7.

For PowerPC Macs, Mac OS X 10.4.11 and earlier offer Classic compatibility, and on certain 2003 and earlier Macs dual booting on Mac OS X 10.5 & Mac OS 9:

No Mac may run an older version of Mac OS 9 than was prebundled with it.

A more precise timeline of Mac OS X follows (in U.S. date notation. Links to relevant articles up to 10.7 are included, as 10.7 drops PowerPC applications on Intel):

4/8/2015 10.10.3 (with supplemental on 4/16/2015)

1/27/2015 10.10.2

11/17/2014 10.10.1

10/16/2014 10.10 Yosemite

9/17/2014 10.9.5

6/30/2014 10.9.4

5/15/2014 10.9.3

2/25/2014 10.9.2

10/22/2013 10.9 (10.9 & 10.9.1 should be skipped due to security issues) Mavericks

10/3/2013 10.8.5 supplemental update

9/25/2013 10.8.4 iMac Late 2013

6/10/2013 10.8.4 MacBook Air mid 2013

6/4/2013 10.8.4

3/14/2013 10.8.3

11/29/2012 10.8.2 Mac MIni Late 2012

10/4/2012 10.8.2 supplemental update

10/4/2012 10.7.5 supplemental update

8/23/2012 10.8.1

7/25/2012 10.8 Mountain Lion

5/9/2012 10.7.4

2/1/2012 10.7.3

10/12/2011 10.7.2

8/16/2011 10.7.1

7/25/2011 10.6.8 v1.1

5/4/2011 10.6.7 Early 2011 MacBook Pro

3/21/2011 10.6.7

1/6/2011 10.6.6

11/10/2010 10.6.5

6/15/2010 10.6.4

4/13/2010 10.6.3 v1.1

4/1/2010 10.6.3 retail installer presently sold at the online Apple Store.

8/28/2009 10.6 retail installer (Snow Leopard)

12/15/2008 10.5.6 retail installer (Last PowerPC installer)

6/30/2008 10.5.4 retail installer

11/15/2007 10.5.1 retail installer

10/26/2007 10.5 retail installer (Leopard)

8/7/2006 Mac Pro (Intel, first Snow Leopard compatible professional desktop) replaces PowerMac G5 (the last PowerPC Mac and Mac capable of running Classic)

5/16/2006 The MacBook replaces the iBook (the last consumer notebook capable of running Classic)

4/3/2006 10.4.6 retail PowerPC only.

2/28/2006 First Intel Mac Mini (not capable of running Classic, first Mac)

1/10/2006 First Intel iMacs, MacBook Pro replaces Powerbook (first Macs not capable of running Classic, first Mac capable of running Snow Leopard)

10/31/2005 10.4.3 retail PowerPC only.

8/9/2004 10.3.5 retail

12/17/2003 10.3.2 retail

12/19/2002 10.2.3

Some hints about operating systems:

- Mac OS X 10.8 or later are required to sync with iOS 9.2 or 9.2.1.

- No PowerPC Mac can run Mac OS X 10.5.8 or higher, or sync with iOS 6 or higher.

- No PowerPC Mac can run Boot Camp

- No Mac can run Classic (side by side Mac OS 9 with Mac OS X without reboot) on the same partition as Mac OS X 10.5 or higher.

- No Intel Mac can run Classic.

- All Intel Macs can run at least Mac OS X 10.6.8 as long as they are older than Mac OS X 10.7's release.

- PowerPC applications need Mac OS X 10.6.8 or earlier to run on Intel Macs.

- Boot Camp needs Mac OS X 10.5 or later on Intel Macs. Note other virtualization tools are available for Mac OS X 10.4.11 or earlier on Intel Macs.

- Mac OS X 10.7.3 is needed for the latest Java and minimum iCloud.

- The same minimum system requirements exist for Mac OS X 10.8, 10.9, 10.10, and 10.11.

- 10.6.6 is the minimum for the Mac App Store, and upgrading to 10.7 without erasing the drive you install 10.7 on if the hardware supports it.

- 10.6.8 is the minimum for 10.8 or later upgrades if the hardware supports it.

- Apple has a 10.6.8 to 10.11 updateon the App Store.

- Some Macs that shipped with 10.6 can install up to 10.12 if they are upgraded to 10.7.5 first.

Aluminum iMac Q&A - Updated July 15, 2016

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How do you upgrade the hard drive in the 'Original/Mid-2007,' 'Early 2008,' 'Early 2009' and 'Mid-2009' (20-Inch and 24-Inch) Aluminum iMac models? What type of hard drive do they support? Can you swap the hard drive for an SSD?

Please note that this Q&A covers Aluminum iMac models with 20-Inch and 24-Inch displays. EveryMac.com also provides instructions to upgrade the hard drive and SSD storage in more recent 'Flat Edge' 21.5-Inch and 27-Inch aluminum models as well as the latest 'Tapered Edge' 21.5-Inch and 27-Inch aluminum line.

The 'Original/Mid-2007,' 'Early 2008,' 'Early 2009' and 'Mid-2009' Aluminum iMac models -- all Aluminum iMacs with a 20-Inch or 24-Inch display -- each have a 3 Gb/s SATA connector for a 3.5' hard drive and different models have a variety of different hard drives installed by default.

Photo Credit: Apple, Inc. (20-Inch & 24-Inch Aluminum iMac)

Apple considers the memory in these models to be a 'customer installable part' but the hard drive is not intended to be upgraded by end users. Upgrading the memory is extremely easy -- there is a small removable 'door' on the bottom of each system for this purpose -- but upgrading the hard drive requires one to remove the display and effectively disassemble the entire computer.

Disasembling the computer is not simple, but the hard drive in these models also can be swapped out with a faster 3 Gb/s SATA-equipped SSD, and the swap is no more difficult than upgrading the hard drive.

Identification Help

All of the 20-Inch and 24-Inch Aluminum iMac models have the same hard drive support. However, specific upgrade instructions are a bit different -- particularly for 20-Inch models -- so it still is important to be able to identify your iMac precisely.

These models can be most readily identified in software by Model Identifier as well as externally via EMC number (located inconveniently under the 'foot' supporting the computer).

To locate the Model Identifier in software, select 'About This Mac' under the Apple Menu on your computer and click the 'More Info...' button. If the iMac is running OS X 10.7 'Lion' or later, you will need to click the 'System Report' button after clicking 'More Info...' as well. As always, EveryMac.com has carefully hand documented each EMC number and model identifier for your convenience.

These identifiers for each of the 20-Inch and 24-Inch iMac models follow:

EveryMac.com's Ultimate Mac Lookup feature -- as well as the EveryMac app -- also can uniquely identify these models by their Serial Number, which is listed on the underside of the foot along with the EMC number and within the operating system alongside the model identifier. More details about specific identifiers are provided in EveryMac.com's extensive Mac Identification section.

Latest Computer Os

Hard Drive or SSD Upgrade Instructions

For adventurous -- and highly skilled -- users interested in replacing or upgrading the hard drive in 20-Inch or 24-Inch models themselves, site sponsor Other World Computing provides helpful step-by-step video instructions of the complex procedure:

20' Original/Mid-2007 & Early 2008 iMac Hard Drive Upgrade Video

20' Early 2009 and Mid-2009 iMac Hard Drive Upgrade Video

24' Original/Mid-2007 through Early 2009 iMac Hard Drive Upgrade Video

From watching the videos, it should be clear that upgrading the hard drive or SSD in these models is complicated. If you do not feel comfortable -- or have the time -- to perform the upgrade yourself, it always is a good idea to hire a professional.

iMac Storage Purchase & Professional Installation Options

Quality storage is important. Be sure to buy from a quality vendor that sells storage with a reputation for reliability.

In the US (and many other countries), site sponsor Other World Computing sells SSDs for all iMac models (as well as hard drives) for do-it-yourself upgrades.

In the UK and Ireland, site sponsor Flexx sells Aluminum iMac compatible SSDs and hard drives with free shipping. The company provides flat rate shipping to France, Germany, and Switzerland and inexpensive shipping for all of Europe, too.

In Australia, site sponsors Macfixit and Upgradeable sell iMac compatible hard drives and SSDs with fast shipping, a money-back guarantee and more.

In New Zealand, site sponsor Upgradeable New Zealand sells iMac hard drives and SSDs with fast delivery to all corners of the country, precise compatibility, a lifetime warranty, and a money-back guarantee.

Also see:

• How do you upgrade the hard drive in the 'Late 2009,' 'Mid-2010,' 'Mid-2011' and 'Late 2011' (21.5-Inch and 27-Inch) Aluminum iMac models? What type of storage do they support? Is it even possible to upgrade these models?
• How do you upgrade the hard drive in the 'Tapered Edge' Aluminum iMac models? What type of storage do they support? Is it possible to upgrade the hard drive or SSD?

What Is The Latest Os For Imac 2011

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