Mountain Lion available now, free upgrade codes not working for some

[Rick]

It's here -- Mac OS X 10.8 has officially launched. Many Mac owners will be able to snap up the Mountain Lion upgrade from the Mac App Store for a cool $19.99 -- that's actually $10 less than last year's Lion upgrade offer. The upgrade requires a compatible Mac and an existing, fully updated installation of Snow Leopard (10.6) or Lion (10.7).

As we mentioned yesterday, customers who purchased their shiny new Mac after June 10 are entitled to a free Mountain Lion upgrade. To qualify, your new Mac must have been purchased from an authorized reseller, like Apple, MacMall or Amazon. Users can verify whether or not they can take advantage of the deal at Apple's Up-to-Date page -- the same place where they can also redeem the offer. Qualifying Mac owners will only have until August 24 until the freebie expires, so grab it while you can.

According to Cnet though, some users are reporting problems redeeming their free upgrade codes. Apple is said to be issuing new codes to affected customers.

Here is the Mountain Lion compatibility list. If you don't see your Mac here, you may be out of luck. There have been, however, reports of Mountain Lion installing on supposedly incompatible Mac Pros. Your mileage may vary.

• iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)
• MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)
• MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
• MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
• Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
• Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
• Xserve (Early 2009)

Mac OS X 10.8 adds a bevy of improvements and features. Users will discover the all-new addition of iMessage, Safari 6 with iCloud syncing, Power Nap, OS-wide dictation, automatic security updates and automatic Mac App Store updates. 10.8 also adds Notification and Gaming centers. A more exhaustive (and prettier) list of what's new can be found on Apple's website.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/49532-mountain-lion-available-now-free-upgrade-codes-not-working-for-some.html

 

[3DCGMODELER]

alot of people are having real bad issues with this new upgrade... bummer

 

[Guest]

Incredibly, the apple tech support (phone) said that it could take "up to 72 hours" for the code to arrive. This is HORRIBLE customer service, imo. I just spent $3k+ on a new retina macbook pro and have to wait at the back of the line for an OS upgrade that was promised for free? Apple is clearly prioritizing the $20 upgrade customers ahead of hardware upgraders ... WTF

 

[SNGX1275]

I would doubt it takes 72 hours despite what they are telling you. And yes, that sucks that you aren't getting it as fast as the $20 people.

But let me get this straight you are complaining about not getting a free OS upgrade as fast as someone that paid $20 for it just because you spent over $3000 a few weeks ago? You do realize that $20 is 0.67% of $3000, right? If you have that kind of money to drop on a notebook computer, then surely you can cough up another $20 to get your upgrade right away. Pretty sure you can also put that $20 upgrade on 4 other Macs (provided they meet the requirements).

alot of people are having real bad issues with this new upgrade... bummer

Really? I haven't spent a whole lot of time looking, but I've been through a few pages of comments on a Mac forum concerning the OS and didn't see anything like a 'real bad issue'. Or did you mean the 'up-to-date' thing with the recently purchased Macs as mentioned by the guest?

 

[Röyksopp]

Incredibly, the apple tech support (phone) said that it could take "up to 72 hours" for the code to arrive. This is HORRIBLE customer service, imo. I just spent $3k+ on a new retina macbook pro and have to wait at the back of the line for an OS upgrade that was promised for free? Apple is clearly prioritizing the $20 upgrade customers ahead of hardware upgraders ... WTF

I payed more than $3k for my Macbook Retina here in Norway, and I´m really pissed off to find out that the free upgrade needs to go through a verification process before I can actually download it. I´ll most likely end up purchasing it off the app store. The Mountain Lion update is very cheap, but I´m far from satisfied by apple´s customer service, in this particular case.

SNGX: It´s not about the money, it´s the principle. Besides, as far as I know, Apple never informed anyone about their tedious verification process for people who intend to make use of the free voucher they got with their recently acquired Macs. They´ve been advertising this free offer on their official site, yet, they somehow didn´t bother to include that little piece of relevant info on their ads.

 

[Lurker101]

If you have that kind of money to drop on a notebook computer, then surely you can cough up another $20 to get your upgrade right away.

And you should have to fork out money for something that's already been promised to you for free?

 

[Guest]

It's crazy that those who just bough a Mac have to wait .... Totally unacceptable

 

[mevans336]

alot of people are having real bad issues with this new upgrade... bummer

I'm having severe battery issues with it on my mid-2011 Macbook Air. I'd say battery life is half to 3/4 what is was with Lion, which was 3/4 what it was with Snow Leopard.

 

[Guest]

Don't you just love torrents? I been using it on my makbook pro 15" for months now. First was developer preview 3 than 4 and now golden master about one month ago. For free. Did not have to stand in line and did not have to wait 72 hours. It took about 2 hours to download at school t1 line. Awesome. It works well. It has been stable since developer preview 3. I don't see why you guys are complaining and are being sheep. Be cause over this just download it from a torrent site. It is guaranteed for free for new hardware so what is the problem?

 

[SNGX1275]

And you should have to fork out money for something that's already been promised to you for free?

No, and I agreed it sucks, but it is up to a 72 hour wait. I'm sure it will get resolved much quicker.

I'm having severe battery issues with it on my mid-2011 Macbook Air. I'd say battery life is half to 3/4 what is was with Lion, which was 3/4 what it was with Snow Leopard.

That may be an initial issue that 'resolves' itself in less than a day. The reason I say that is ML (as with any OS X upgrade) will re-index everything for Spotlight. Indexing sucks a lot more battery life than just idling.

SNGX: It´s not about the money, it´s the principle. Besides, as far as I know, Apple never informed anyone about their tedious verification process for people who intend to make use of the free voucher they got with their recently acquired Macs. They´ve been advertising this free offer on their official site, yet, they somehow didn´t bother to include that little piece of relevant info on their ads.

I understand. But I don't think Apple is intentionally misleading you here, this seems to be an unanticipated problem with their method of verifying new computers. It isn't like they said "oh, lets make these guys who just gave us a lot of money for a new Mac wait for 3 days before they can install our new OS". That would be stupid of them, this was an unexpected problem and I'm sure they aren't just sitting around laughing at you guys.

 

[Guest]

I've been waiting since 2 PM EST....over 10 hours and still no code.​

 

[Guest]

I'm surprised at the list of eligible MACs. Putting Mountain Lion on a 2007 Macbook pro is suicide. I tried running Lion on a 2008 Macbook pro (core duo with 4gb ram) and it was freezing up several times a day and performing dare I say like a crappy PC. I reformatted the drive and reloaded Snow Leopard and it's one smoking machine again. But since Time Machine backups aren't backward compatible (a TM made with Lion can't be used to restore a Snow Leopard machine). I had to buy a new MacBook. I know poor me. Can never have too many MACs. But seriously, Apple should get it together with their recommendations and warn users who try to run advanced OSX versions on older machines and about the issues you run into if you need to revert back.

 

[Guest]

You are all better off waiting anyway. Apple download servers are overloaded and will be for the next several days or possibly weeks, and jumping on a brand new version of OSX is asking for trouble. I wasn't thrilled that I had to "apply" for my free upgrade after spending serious money on a new MacBook pro, but then again, I'd rather wait until there is feedback about Mountain Lion itself. Apple is going to tout all the features and good stuff, but users will start posting if it's got issues soon and I'd rather wait for that instead of upgrading my brand new machine. I like Lion, (only can't stand the gray linen startup screen!) and there aren't any features in Mountain Lion I can't live without for the time being while everyone else tests it out for me! I just hope my upgrade code is good for more than 30 days!

 

[gwailo247]

Yeah, the Guest right before me is totally on the money. You really should wait until the bugs are ironed out. At this point only the most zealous are still toeing the "it just works" party line. Its an OS, and it has bugs, and it needs a large user base to report errors, which hopefully will be fixed at an other than glacial pace.

But at least since Cook took over Apple has moved towards some semblance of admitting that they're fallible, and stopped pretending that problems don't exist.

Now, forcing people to upgrade within 30 days is pretty shady. You should be able to redeem the code, but actually upload and upgrade at your convenience.

 

[3DCGMODELER]

Apple is getting MAJOR FLAK over this update.... hahaha

 

[Guest]

Weak OS for 19.99. Hurray.

 

[Guest]

36 hours and still no code....

 

[SNGX1275]

Apple is getting MAJOR FLAK over this update.... hahaha

Again, are you talking about the OS itself, or just the upgrade code for the up-to-date program users? I've seen almost nobody complaining about problems with the OS, just the update code issue.

You seem to just be posting because you want to laugh at Apple. You've done it twice and ignored my response, which was, originally, a serious question to find out if you knew of any major problems people were having with the OS itself.

 

[Guest]

I received my free upgrade code in roughly 12 hours. I did not complain or worry. It's free. I had been using my new Macbook Air for 5 days straight just fine WIHOUT Mountain Lion, so another day or two wait was not going to kill me. Some people posting here are fanatics, drama queens or simply too intense. Wow.

However, I did laugh at the new cloak-and-dagger type authorization from Apple - including password protected PDF for retrieving my valid serial number for Mountain Lion.

Back to the bitchy complainers... Some people are saying they will never buy Apple again or other type threats... Great news! Please leave. Go back to buying PCs or jump on Google's crappy browser OS. I've been using Apple since 1986 (loved my under-performing Apple IIGs) and miss the days when Apple was the underdog.

Elalleqa, Ahoj, Ja ne, Auf Wiedersehen, Arrivederci, Ciao, Adieu, Shalom, Adios, Farvel, Alvida, Do zobaczenia, Tot ziens, Yasou, Anyeonghi Gasyeo, La revedere, zai jian, Ha det bra, Chao, Adijo, and Do svidaniya!

 

[Technochicken]

I got the update for free (took about a day and a half to get my code), since I got a new mac recently, but I definitely would not have paid for the upgrade. I prefer gmail's web client to desktop email clients, and I don't use any social networks, so the notification center and built in sharing, have not been any use to me whatsoever. While Safari is greatly improved in the update, since I've updated, Chrome, which is my preferred browser, constantly has page crashes.