If you try to start up your Mac from a hard disk, network volume, or Time Machine backup that contains an incompatible version or build of macOS, you might experience one or more of these symptoms:
- Your Mac doesn't finish starting up, or displays a prohibitory symbol at startup.
- You see a message that you're using an unsupported or incorrect version of the Mac operating system.
- Your Mac doesn't respond to your trackpad, mouse, or keyboard.
- Apps unexpectedly quit.
- Your Mac doesn't sleep or wake.
- You don't hear any sound from your Mac.
- The fans in your Mac are louder, because they're spinning faster.
- The image on your display appears to shrink, has black bars around it, or appears tinted.
- You can't use Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.
Which Mac operating systems are compatible?
![Operating systems for macbook Operating systems for macbook](/uploads/1/1/8/2/118267327/781923737.png)
![Mac Mac](/uploads/1/1/8/2/118267327/636309336.jpg)
Macintosh Operating System: The Macintosh Operating System (Mac OS) is an operating system (OS) designed by Apple Inc. To be installed and operated on the Apple Macintosh series of computers. Introduced in 1984, it is a graphical user interface (GUI) based OS that has since been released as multiple different versions. Initially, Mac OS was. Choose OS while starting up. You can select which operating system to use during startup by holding down the Option key. This displays icons for all available startup disks, and lets you override the default setting for the startup disk in Startup Disk preferences (Mac OS X) or the Startup Disk control panel (Windows) without changing that setting. DOS: Disk Operating System. DOS was the computer operating system used in the early days of.
The version of macOS that came with your Mac is the earliest version compatible with that Mac. To find out whether your Mac is compatible with a later version of macOS, check the system requirements:
Current Operating System For Mac
If your Mac won't start up from a compatible version of macOS, it might require a specific build of that version. To get the correct build, reinstall macOS or upgrade to a later version of macOS.
Operating Systems For Mac Air
Learn more
Operating Systems For Macbook Pro
- To restore a Time Machine backup that was created on a different Mac, use Migration Assistant.