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I know that all modern Macs support internet recovery, but I'm not quite sure how far back that started. How can I tell if internet recovery is supported on a specific model? And when was this feature introduced for each computer in Apple's product lineup?

I'm specifically asking about internet recovery that does not depend on the built-in recovery partition.

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  • Great question and Apple is not likely to have this easily documented. I think it was Yosemite release and then EFI / firmware updates rolled it back to some older hardware over time. So 2014 debut and some older HW now supports. This could be crowd sourced if no one has the records or done the work already.
    – bmike
    Mar 10, 2020 at 0:07
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    @bmike I did just find this tech note also support.apple.com/en-us/HT202313
    – Nic
    Mar 10, 2020 at 0:09
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    Well done! So glad Apple isn’t burying the archived posts like those.
    – bmike
    Mar 10, 2020 at 0:46

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Mac computers have had this ability since around 2012.

Works out of box

One of the earliest Mac laptops to support this by default was the MacBook Pro Mid-2012 (MacBookPro9,2).

With a firmware upgrade

A few Macs from 2010 and 2011 can have their firmware upgraded so that they gain support for internet recovery.

  • MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011)
  • MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011)
  • MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2011)
  • iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2011)
  • iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011)
  • MacBook (13-inch, Mid 2010)
  • MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2010)
  • Mac mini (Mid 2010)
  • MacBook Pro (15-inch and 17-inch, Mid 2010)
  • iMac (21.5-inch and 27-inch, Mid 2010)
  • MacBook Air (11-inch and 13-inch, Late 2010)

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