> Should have said mid-2014 like OP, sorry
I don't want to belabor the point, but just to be clear—I am referring to a mid-2014 MBA, anything newer and Mavericks wouldn't work! (There is no "late 2014" MBA as far as I'm aware.) Mine offers to install Yosemite in recovery mode.
It may indeed be based on when that specific computer came off of the assembly line or something, I have no idea, but for that exact model of computer you can get different results in recovery mode!
There are multiple boot-time recovery options, but you might not have a required firmware update to use them. Per everymac, all 2014 MBA’s should be able to run up to Big Sur?
What is offered to install when you do this?
https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/use-macos-recovery-...
> Option-Command-R: Start up from macOS Recovery over the internet. Use this key combination to reinstall macOS and upgrade to the latest version of macOS that’s compatible with your Mac.
https://everymac.com/systems/by_capability/maximum-macos-sup...
> MacBook Air "Core i5" 1.4 11" (Early 2014)11 (Big Sur)
> MacBook Air "Core i7" 1.7 11" (Early 2014)11 (Big Sur)
> MacBook Air "Core i5" 1.4 13" (Early 2014)11 (Big Sur)
> MacBook Air "Core i7" 1.7 13" (Early 2014)11 (Big Sur)
When updating to the new macOS, firmware updates that govern the pre-boot and recovery environment are changed/updated, and you can downgrade macOS again afterwards. You can usually install the firmware updates without updating macOS, but finding them is usually the harder part. You could probably swap hard drives to a scratch SSD if you wanted to update your firmware via updating macOS entirely without affecting your live install, or install macOS on a USB drive, which should not affect your internal SSD install, but like all upgrades, have a backup or pull the internal SSD.
I don’t know, I’ve performed numerous updates from the pre-installed Mavericks (Yosemite, El Capitan, High Sierra, Big Sur are the ones I remember, might be more), but the default recovery still goes into Mavericks for me
You might need to update the firmware for your Mac in order for the Internet Recovery to support updating to Big Sur. The firmware updates are installed at upgrade time usually, but you may be able to install them separately.
> About EFI and SMC firmware updates for Intel-based Mac computers
https://support.apple.com/en-us/101198
I would see if you can access this:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/macos-big-sur/id1526878132
Download it, then you can make a bootable flash drive if you want, or just install it from under macOS.
> How to download and install macOS
https://support.apple.com/en-us/102662
> Create a bootable installer for macOS
https://support.apple.com/en-us/101578
Big Sur Recovery mode works for me with Option+Cmd+R, so if needed I can install that. What I meant is that the other goes into Mavericks Recovery mode. And I’m happy about that actually :-)
Edit: if you were referring to Option+Cmd+R anyway, I guess I misread
Edit2: by other one I meant Shift+Option+Cmd+R, just Cmd+R actually goes into Big Sur, you are right!
Yeah, there are a few keyboard combinations that do different things.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/102655
> On an Intel-based Mac:
> If you used Command-R to start up from the local Recovery system, you get the current version of the most recently installed macOS.
> If you used Option-Command-R to start up from Internet Recovery, you might get the latest macOS that is compatible with your Mac.
> If you used Shift-Option-Command-R to start up from Internet Recovery, you might get the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available.
There is another one, you can hold Option while booting and it will show disks to boot from. But there is also a SSID dropdown to do internet recovery like Shift+Option+Command+R.
Yes, Option is boot menu iirc.
You can even boot to Linux or Windows if you have the patience to set it up. I made a hackintosh for hard drive data recovery that would dual boot Windows 10 and macOS. It’s a fun ecosystem.
Yeah I remember using BootCamp back then. FreeBSD also works quite well on the MacBook Air mid-2014, but without WiFi.
Edit: I didn’t bother to look into wifibox which is a FreeBSD package that runs a Linux VM for the WiFi driver, that could work. Also didn’t bother to check the webcam. However both WiFi and webcam work under various Linux distributions, but it’s typically a third-party Broadcom driver that has to be added outside of regular package repos.
I guess I was also confused about the different recovery modes as pointed out by aspenmayer below.
I used Shift+Option+Command+R (or hold Option and choose WiFi instead of disk) which is internet recovery using the macOS version that came pre-installed (or closest)
Whereas Command+R is local recovery which might be any macOS version that last changed the local recovery environment.
Good to know. Mine is from June 2014 (assembly, since it’s a custom configuration). Sorry for missing your point.