Longstanding owners have to pay $31.99 to upgrade to Lion, but if you’ve purchased a Mac since June 7 you’re entitled to a free upgrade. Here’s how to get it.
Don’t make the mistake of going directly to the Mac App Store, as that will hit you up for the $31.99. Instead, follow these steps, as tested by our art director Ben:
- Go to www.apple.com/au/macosx/uptodate/ and select the appropriate upgrade path.
- You’ll be asked for date/place of purchase, then asked to log into the Apple ID you purchased the machine with.
- You’ll then need to confirm the security code on the credit card that is attached to the Apple ID.
- You are then taken back to the Apple store, with no confirmation screen.
- You should then get an Order Acknowledgement email within 5-10 minutes containing a redemption/content code for the OS X App Store and a direct link to the store.
- When the code is entered, Lion starts downloading automatically (so make sure you’re not wasting bandwidth).
You need to complete this process before August 21. Thanks Ben!
Steven
Thursday, July 21, 2011 at 4:33 PMExcellent! thanks, i was close to purchasing a copy.
Monte B
Thursday, July 21, 2011 at 11:56 PMThanks for the head’s up. Worked like a charm…
Chris Z
Monday, July 25, 2011 at 12:53 AMDOESN’T WORK for Free Lion Server Upgrade! I wished it worked after have just purchasing a new Mac Mini server. Website says that serial number does not qualify!! It took 45 minutes on the phone to Apple Support to find out it will be “server days” before they get their computer system up to day to be able to accept the the required serial numbers. Obviously some team at Apple was not ready to fulfill this program.
cynthia
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 5:23 AMHow long must one wait to get their free update – have claim number and am waiting for the app code —7 days now?????
Bruce
Saturday, August 13, 2011 at 7:11 PMThank u so much. Worked like a charm.