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I've acquired a MacBook MBA with this spec:

 > About This Mac

Version 10.14.2 Macbook Air (11-inch, Early 2014) Processor 1.4 GHz Intel Core i5 Memory 4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 Graphics Intel HD Graphics 5000 1536 MB Serial Number C17MW90MG083

I want to install the latest Xcode 10.3, which says it needs macOS 10.14.3 or higher. Not surprisingly the "GET" button is disabled in App Store.

System Prefs tells me my software is up to date (at 10.14.2) BUT the latest Mojave is 10.14.6.

What's happening here?

Can my MBA be fixed to upgrade to 10.14.6? If not (or too difficult) where can I get a back level of Xcode which will install under Mojave 10.14.2?

BTW... I've tried attaching an external USB drive and (discovering this link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/macos-mojave/id1398502828 -which fires up App Store showing Xcode 10.3) I can install Mojave 10.14.6 onto it, provided I reformat it as APFS, as the error messages instruct me. Now when I look at Xcode on App Store the GET button is enabled. But it would be nice to have Xcode on the MBA flash drive instead, even if it's a back version.

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  • "acquired" might be the keyword... Is it clean, wiped by the old owner, released from 'Find My Mac' & now fully registered to your own Apple ID? ref: support.apple.com/HT201065
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Jul 23, 2019 at 17:22
  • -which fires up App Store showing Xcode 10.3) That should have been: -which fires up App Store with Mohave 10.4.6)
    – Ian Clark
    Commented Jul 23, 2019 at 17:26
  • Tetsujin -- I'll double-check those interesting possibilities. It is fully registered to my own AppleID (AFAICT) and I can purchase other software. But I suspect the macos wasn't "out-of-the-box" from Apple. For a start, they pre-installed BullGuard...
    – Ian Clark
    Commented Jul 23, 2019 at 17:30
  • If anything was pre-installed, then they would have had to register the OS to their ID, which means the OS itself doesn't strictly 'belong to you' & therefore won't update without their credentials. So long as they've released it from Find My Mac, you can start over [minus Bullguard]
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Jul 23, 2019 at 17:36
  • Find My iPhone -behaves as if I have set it up, and lets me disable it and set it up again. It also correctly locates my MBA when signed in with my own appleid. Would it be able to do that if the MBA also belonged to some other appleID?
    – Ian Clark
    Commented Jul 23, 2019 at 19:25

1 Answer 1

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Success, but there are many gotchas and blind alleys on the way. I offer my own answer to report for others' benefit what finally worked for me.

Redux: I'd bought a reconditioned MBA (11-inch, Early 2014) in excellent physical condition but with its macOS (10.14.2) in poor shape. I knew this model would upgrade to the latest macOS (10.14.6). But…  > About This Mac [Software Update…] told me:

Your Mac is up to date – macOS Mojave 10.14.2

The disk was formatted with Mac OS Extended (Journalled), not APFS which is what macOS 10.14.6 needs. The latest Xcode 10.3 grayed-out "GET" from App Store because it needs 10.14.3 or higher, not 10.14.2.

Tetsujin gave me the answer with this link, which nails it down: What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your Mac https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201065

"The best way to restore your Mac to factory settings is to erase your hard drive and reinstall macOS"

The on-page links are must-reads. They corrected my false assumptions. Thus you really can do this without booting up from another disk. The trick is to shutdown the MBA then power up, IMMEDIATELY holding down ⌥⌘R [="Upgrade to the latest macOS that is compatible with your Mac"]. I mean IMMEDIATELY - my first go I missed my opportunity and the existing bad macOS launched instead. My 2nd go, in place of the familiar  silhouette I saw a crude rotating world to indicate it was starting from the internet. Then:

[1] Restore from Time Machine Backup

[2] Reinstall macOS

[3] Get Help Online

[4] Disk Utility

I chose [4] to erase the internal disk, ⌘Q to get back to the above menu without restarting, then [2] to reinstall the macOS version I'd chosen by holding down not ⌘R but ⌥⌘R. All explained in https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204904

Disk Utility was an old version, pre-APFS. I was forced to choose Mac OS Extended (Journalled). But this didn't matter because the Mojave installer converts the disk to APFS itself.

I now have a well-behaved out-of-the-box macOS that is not frozen at 10.14.2 plus the latest Xcode 10.3, and no sign (yet) of any more gotchas.

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