Good morning, SF. I put a new solid-state drive in the MacBook yesterday, and figured it would be a smooth event. (I've done this before without issues.) After getting the drive in and the OS installed, I wanted to upgrade to current OS. Every attempt brings me a message: "cannot connect to the app store" or something like that. I wondered if maybe the root of it was the internet connection (was using a wired connection) so I turned on the hotspot on my phone and gave it another shot. No bueno.

I tried all I knew to do, including wiping the drive and starting over a couple of times... still can't get a connection to get the newest OS.

This morning I figured I'd try the link from the [Windows] PC on the desk -- same error.

I just received an iPad from member LincolnSixEcho, and set to getting it set up. Same issue -- can't connect to Apple's servers.

Is this the product of a kazillion people getting new Apple devices over the holidays, and everybody's trying to get them set up now? Is there something else going on? I'm not immune to doing things wrong, but I don't think I've gotten it wrong over and over for two days now....

I'm having an issue with text message forwarding from my iphone to my Mac and sending imessage/text messages from my Mac. Just started today.

I just signed back on to iCloud with my (computer) browser. No problem.

I don't use any other Apple services. I used to use Apple/iCloud email, but too many times had trouble establishing a connection, getting mailbox updates, etc. So when they came along with their on-device CSAM-scanning nonsense I was only too happy to drop that--along with several other Apple things.

Not here. I just updated a couple of apps on my phone and it connected right away.

I'm having iCloud issues with my MacBook Pro. Yesterday I lost all updates on a file since Nov. 5. I update that file every day and nothing after Nov. 5 was showing. Today my OwnCloud is no longer showing on the left side of my Finder. I have to go into iCloud to find it now.

Any time you're having issues use this link to check the status of Apple's services:

https://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/

It will help keep you from chasing your tail troubleshooting your devices when Apple itself is the issue.

Thank you for the link, Audioholic. Apple says its services are up... dunno why I can't get any other sense out of them.

Anyway... about a half-hour ago I found what might be the key to my goal: put the new drive in and hold down Option, Command, and R when powering up. I'd been just using Command-R; evidently Option-Command-R prompts an internet startup rather than a local (?) startup. What this means for me is that it does finally offer me the option to format the drive as APFS, which is a prerequisite for MacOS Catalina, which was the upgrade I was trying to make in the first place.

Now a new question arises: once this Catalina install is done, I should be able to restore my programs and files via Time Machine (on a jump drive) without any conflict between former and new OS versions, right?

Sure enough! The migration was easy, once I found the trick to getting the drive set up right to start.

I don't figure myself an Apple fanboy (I hate my iPhone), but I do like this old MacBook....

I have a mid-2012 MacBook Pro and due to its age I can’t get it quite synchronized to the iPhone and iPad iOS. It works okay, just not perfectly intergrated. I cannot update to a suitable OS. I am not interested in paying Apple’s high prices to replace it, and may return to a maxed out Samsung Chromebook.

4MUL8R, this one is a mid-2012 Pro as well. I don't know much about the integration part (yet), but I think I have a handle on OS updates now.

Aiming to go to Catalina? That's where I started this past weekend's adventure. I did the "half-chicken" method, buying a new solid-state drive for the job, so as to not screw up badly enough to lose existing work.

The summary of what I learned today is this:
* make a full Time Machine backup.
* put the new SSD in place
* connect to your router by cable, rather than wireless
* hold down Option, Command, and R when powering up. Keep holding 'til the globe image shows up.
* Disk Utilities will come up. Erase the new drive and format it APFS, then do the OS install from that menu.
* get all the OS updates after that initial install, then
* restore your information from that Time Machine backup you made.

I went a little more geeky and put a new jump drive in place for new Time Machine backups. My logic there was that I can put the previous SSD and its related Time Machine jump drive in a ESD bag together in case I need to revert. A hundred bucks spent on new SSD and jump drive is far less expensive than a new machine.