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Lancero

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 23, 2023
1
1
Hi all, I have a late 2013 27” iMac with full memory bank. I teach Spanish and German and use my iMac to record and save lessons. I have just found out the hard way that my Mac is obsolete according to Apple and I can no longer use my iPhones to download my audio lessons. Much worse is that I can no longer back up or sync my phones. As a 77 year old pensioner Apple has denied me one of my few productive pleasures. I am furious. I have been speaking to an Apple adviser who has promised to ring me back butI am not hopeful as the last adviser gave me six hours work reinstalling Catalina and many other files to no avail. Question, can I get a late 2013 upgraded by Apple to make it compatible? I really should not have to do this. My first Apple was in 1986 for work, hence my severe disappointment. Help
 
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stradify

macrumors 6502
Jul 4, 2015
292
148
USA
What was the iMac's OS version and also the model iPhone and the iOS it was running before your troubles began.
Then let us know what you changed that prevented you from reconnecting your iPhone to your iMac.

Also, just in case you aren't aware, your iMac can be used as a display for an external computer such as a M1 Mac Mini,
which would probably see you through the next ten years.
 

chrfr

macrumors G5
Jul 11, 2009
13,520
7,047
Also, just in case you aren't aware, your iMac can be used as a display for an external computer such as a M1 Mac Mini,
which would probably see you through the next ten years.
Target Display mode is only supported on 2019 and older Macs; it does not work with Apple Silicon Macs at all.
 

BugeyeSTI

macrumors 604
Aug 19, 2017
6,858
8,712
Arizona/Illinois
I connect my 12.9 M1 iPad Pro to my 2010 27 iMac running High Sierra with no problems.. I can also connect my backup 6S and Air2 to a Macbook running the latest release of Mac OS.. Sounds like you need to expand on what exactly your doing and how your going about doing it
 

FreakinEurekan

macrumors 603
Sep 8, 2011
5,597
2,668
It’s a ten-year-old computer. Yes, it’ll probably do what you want. No, Apple probably won’t help to the degree you seem to need. They’ll make a “best effort” attempt but they’re not going to gather log files or get an engineer involved for an obsolete computer. As a result they’ll try things like having you reinstall for no particular reason, because there’s nothing else they can offer. Your best bet is to not talk to Apple about it, but post your SPECIFIC questions & issues at a user-controlled site (like, you know…. Here).
 

Cunir

macrumors regular
Nov 25, 2021
167
190
Can you use just your iPhone to record and save lessons instead? And save them to iCloud? I would imagine your Mac can then access them via iCloud. You might have to buy more storage space on icloud but that would be the cheapest way of doing it
 

Tagbert

macrumors 603
Jun 22, 2011
5,572
6,465
Seattle
Target Display mode is only supported on 2019 and older Macs; it does not work with Apple Silicon Macs at all.
The OP has a 2013 iMac which is the last year that target display mode was supported.
 

Tagbert

macrumors 603
Jun 22, 2011
5,572
6,465
Seattle
Hi all, I have a late 2013 27” iMac with full memory bank. I teach Spanish and German and use my iMac to record and save lessons. I have just found out the hard way that my Mac is obsolete according to Apple and I can no longer use my iPhones to download my audio lessons. Much worse is that I can no longer back up or sync my phones. As a 77 year old pensioner Apple has denied me one of my few productive pleasures. I am furious. I have been speaking to an Apple adviser who has promised to ring me back butI am not hopeful as the last adviser gave me six hours work reinstalling Catalina and many other files to no avail. Question, can I get a late 2013 upgraded by Apple to make it compatible? I really should not have to do this. My first Apple was in 1986 for work, hence my severe disappointment. Help
Are you recording your lesson on the phone and sending them to the iMac? You can still “share” those recording from the phone to your iMac by sending them in iMessage to yourself.

Otherwise, an iCloud subscription would let you backup your phone and would allow you to transfer your files.
 

chrfr

macrumors G5
Jul 11, 2009
13,520
7,047
The OP has a 2013 iMac which is the last year that target display mode was supported.
I was responding to the person who suggested that they should get a newer Mac and use the 2013 iMac as a display. 2020 and newer Macs don't support the use of Target Display mode, even if the iMac itself does support the feature.
 
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HDFan

Contributor
Jun 30, 2007
6,630
2,874
I have just found out the hard way that my Mac is obsolete according to Apple and I can no longer use my iPhones to download my audio lessons. Much worse is that I can no longer back up or sync my phones.

Which iPhones do you have? You are running Catalina?

If it has worked for almost 9 years that is pretty much a miracle. Rapid advances in hardware and software unfortunately make things obsolete. It is everywhere. My car, for example, no long shows google maps since google made changes that the cars' hardware doesn't understand.

Do you have access to iCloud or a cloud service? One workaround might be to upload the videos from the phone to such a service and download to your iMac. You can backup your phone to iCloud even if local backup or synching is not possible.

Can you find a more recent refurbished system from Apple or an Apple reseller at a decent price? Ultimately that would be the best solution if possible.
 

smoking monkey

macrumors 68020
Mar 5, 2008
2,339
1,469
I HUNGER
How about Airdrop?

As others have stated, a more precise description of what the OP is trying to do and what exactly is going wrong would help a bunch to get this solved. At worst I think something like Dropbox would work.

Actually rereading the OP, I’m even more confused. At first I assumed recorded on iPhone and moved to computer, but OP describes it as the opposite. But also OP has the issue of the phone no longer being recognized by the computer due to iMac being too old and can’t back up now???

Pretty certain the moving of data issue can and will be solved even if it takes a few extra steps each time. Not sure about the back up to computer though. May have to do iCloud back ups.
 
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monstermash

macrumors 6502a
Apr 21, 2020
822
884
Hi all, I have a late 2013 27” iMac with full memory bank. I teach Spanish and German and use my iMac to record and save lessons. I have just found out the hard way that my Mac is obsolete according to Apple and I can no longer use my iPhones to download my audio lessons. Much worse is that I can no longer back up or sync my phones. As a 77 year old pensioner Apple has denied me one of my few productive pleasures. I am furious. I have been speaking to an Apple adviser who has promised to ring me back butI am not hopeful as the last adviser gave me six hours work reinstalling Catalina and many other files to no avail. Question, can I get a late 2013 upgraded by Apple to make it compatible? I really should not have to do this. My first Apple was in 1986 for work, hence my severe disappointment. Help

Apple didn't deny you anything. Upgrade your TEN YEAR OLD computer to something newer.

Alternatively, get an older iPhone.
 

Paddle1

macrumors 601
May 1, 2013
4,816
3,136
Apple didn't deny you anything. Upgrade your TEN YEAR OLD computer to something newer.

Alternatively, get an older iPhone.
This is so strange to me, I have a newer iPhone that I could manage just fine on a 10 year old PC. Apple does a better job at supporting old Windows PCs with iTunes than their own computers.
 

Tagbert

macrumors 603
Jun 22, 2011
5,572
6,465
Seattle
This is so strange to me, I have a newer iPhone that I could manage just fine on a 10 year old PC. Apple does a better job at supporting old Windows PCs with iTunes than their own computers.
It’s not quite clear what the OP is trying to do and what isn’t working. They mention transferring audio file but also back. The solution for those things is not necessarily the same. If they are using a very old iTunes on an old computer, I suppose it is possible that it no longer works with the newest phone OS. If is the case others have suggested workarounds but we haven’t heard from the OP that that matches what they are trying to do.
 
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