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Run V5 in El Capitan?

edited July 2019 in SecuritySpy
Upgraded to V5 with excitement then found out it won't even install on El Capitan. Reading past forums I had the impression that GPU performance is not that important for SS in the background.

Is there any particular reason that V5 need the latest MacOS? I really don't want to buy new hardware when my old desktop has been runing SS with 16 cameras in the background just fine.

Comments

  • I'm in the same situation, running El Capitan on an old iMac 2008 that can't be upgraded to Mac OS 10.13 or later. SecuritySpy v.4xx works just great. From reading this forum, I think there are many users who are running SecuritySpy on old Macs.

    I wanted to buy the new version at the reduced price, just to get the discount and to support your development efforts with the hope of using it later if and when I upgrade hardware. But I saw that once I get a new license, it inactivates my older license. So I'm stuck. I'm sure there are countless reasons and system changes that prevent it working on an older system version.

    I've seen hacks online that allows one to install a later version of MacOS on a Mac that ordinarily couldn't be upgraded to 10.13. I imagine you wouldn't recommend that route(?)

  • edited July 2019
    I bought the V5 upgrade, already got a new license code, my v4 license still works. Are you saying my v4 will no longer work when Ben finds out?

    Please don't inactivate my old v4 license because I'd rather shelf my brand spanking new v5 than to buy new hardware at this time.
  • Unfortunately due to the advanced features in version 5 we can't support anything below macOS 10.13.

    Specifically, H.265 encoding/decoding isn't available in earlier system versions, nor is Apple's CoreML framework, which SecuritySpy uses for its AI features. As these are the main two big new features in version 5, we didn't think there would be much point in making version 5 available for earlier system versions where these two important features would be non-functional.

    We do always try to support earlier systems where possible (SecuritySpy version 4 works all the way back to 10.7) but it simply wasn't possible for version 5.

    Rest assured that if you purchase the upgrade now, your old license won't stop working. The restriction is simply that you won't be able to use your old v4 license at the same time as your upgraded v5 license (i.e. you can't run two instances of SecuritySpy concurrently with the same license name). I have updated the wording in our online store to make this clear.
  • Thanks for the OS level clarification, Ben. I was poking around last night looking for that spec.
  • Is v4 compatible with v5 when v4 is used just as a viewer for the v5 server? Any issues to watch out for?
  • Yes, v4 can act as a viewer for v5 - there shouldn't be any problems with this.
  • edited July 2019
    Wanting to try the new SecuritySpy version 5, I did install the patch for older Macs to bring my El Capitan 10.11 machine up to 10.13.6 (High Sierra). Actually, I did a clean install and then restored with Time Machine.

    (I'm using an old 2008 iMac version 8,1 for SecuritySpy 4.xx which Apple had prevented from being upgraded due to an incompatible 32 bit wireless card.) The new system seems to be working well, although I understand that upgrades and security updates can be difficult with a patched system. I was able to install Security Spy V 5.0 and it's working as well. (This machine had a prior upgrade to a SSD.)

    Anyone wanting to try this should first make a good back up of their machine with Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner/SuperDuper. The MacOS upgrade patch is available for free on http://dosdude1.com/highsierra/ Full instructions are on the site.

    There is also a patch to bring it up to Mojave, but I didn't want to push this 2008 iMac too far into the future.
  • Hi @weatherguy this is great, thanks for posting, I'm sure this will be useful for other users.
  • edited July 2019
    Thanks @weatherguy. Can the patch be done in place without reinstalling every app? How long is the whole process?

    Still on my trusty reliable 2008 Mac Pro 3,1 8-core. 11 years without a single hiccup!
  • I was able to do the upgrade in a few hours. You can do it with everything in place, but when I tried this first I ran into some glitches and it wouldn’t boot. So I tried again as a clean install. (I probably wasn’t fully understanding the instructions, so this first attempt was the learning experience. Since you really should have a recent backup, I would recommend following the instructions for a clean install, then when it boots up, select to restore from your backup.). Everything is on “dosdude’s” site. I think what’s important is to carefully follow the instructions. After you install, you need to reboot from the USB installer that you created to run special scripts to patch and boot. You must also make sure that you’re trying to do this on one of the older Macs that are listed as being able to be patched. Some can’t. For instance, I have another old iMac that I bought in Jan 2008 but it’s a Mac 7,1 and is not able to be patched.

    One thing...your Mac will probably not work with wireless after the patch. You’ll need an Ethernet connection for Internet and your cameras going forward.

    There’s an entire forum on this on MacRumors.com. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macos-high-sierra-10-13-unsupported-macs-thread.2048478/

    I used the instructions on this MacRumors forum today to install recent security updates to High Sierra. It takes some time with Terminal, but it works. (Automatic updates won’t work after the patch; they must be done manually with some Terminal tricks.)

    Incredibly, I would say my old iMac 2008 is running faster and better than with El Capitan.

    And it looks like Ben has done a great job with SecuritySpy version 5. With my restore with Time Machine, I installed the new Version 5 and replaced my Version 4. All settings worked as before.

    As for Version 5- My one camera that records my front door area used get false positive motion detection from shadows from trees moving in the afternoon. Today, with the AI selection for people, I didn’t have my usual false positives from these shadows.

    I’ve been on the fence about trying this Mac OS patch for my old machine for some time. The ability to run the new SecuritySpy was the incentive to take the plunge. So far, so good.

  • edited July 2019
    Thanks for the details. I'll definitely go for a try. Over the weekend I installed macOS 10.15 Catalina in Virtualbox on a Windows PC, then installed sS V5 and everything works! This is at a different site that runs Axis Camera Station and SS is obviously better!

    Now Axis Camera Station and SS v5 are running in the same box, how cool is that!
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