Apple often removes support for newer macOS version for older hardware. Even if this hardware would be perfectly capable of running the new version, you are out of luck and will not be able to install that new version in a supported way. Fortunately in most cases there is a workaround or patch available to get that version up and running. In this article, I’ll go through the process of creating a bootable USB drive which allows installation of macOS Big Sur on unsupported models. This allows for both a fresh installation or an upgrade.
It is unsupported, but I would like to install Mavericks on it. Current OS is Mac OS X 10.7.2 (11C74). (Except for the model my Mac is compatible with. If you prefer to select Mac OS Extended (Journaled), you won't get any system updates. APFS will work on the End 2009 models and later as with High Sierra. If your device doesn't support originally High Sierra (and therefore isn't able do start with APFS), you won't have any recovery partitions and the reboot display will be different. If you want HDR content from the web to display properly on a retina display, use a Chromium-based browser. My Mac is super slow. It has been for a long time. I restarted it and it took 25 minutes to open up Google Chrome and allow me to type in the search bar.
YouTube Video
If you are interested, I also created a YouTube video from this blogpost. If you prefer classic text, you can just follow the rest of this article:
It’s never nice to hear that a new version of macOS will not longer be supported on your Mac. Especially if the system specifications clearly show that it has plenty of resources to run that unsupported version. Apple has its reasons to stop support for older models. It simply requires quite a lot of extra work and it also motivates people to buy new hardware.
In some cases there are genuine hardware limitations. For example, since Mojave there is a requirement to have a Metal-supported video card. Or you might simply not have enough RAM or a CPU which is too slow. In that case, even though it’s still possible to install the unsupported version, you will not be happy with the results.
To end up with a patched Big Sur installation, there are a few possible options. For this article, I will use MicroPatcher, made by BarryKN (https://github.com/barrykn/big-sur-micropatcher). Alternatively there is also Big Mac (https://github.com/StarPlayrX/bigmac).
These patchers require quite a lot of reading and consideration in order to end up with a proper USB drive for installation. Fortunately, there is also MicroPatcherAutomator (https://github.com/moosethegoose2213/automator-for-barrykn-micropatcher). This project greatly simplifies the work and introduces a GUI that can be used to create the media.
The installation will require a USB drive of 16GB or larger. So start by inserting the drive and start Disk Utility. In Disk Utility, choose to show all devices:
Select your USB drive on the left side, then click erase in the top menu:
Choose a name for the drive, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as file systen and GUID as partition scheme. Then click Erase.
If all goes well, your USB drive should be prepared and you are ready for the next step.
Now that the USB drive is prepared, we can download the tool which we will use for the rest of the process.
Download the latest version of the tool using the following link: https://github.com/moosethegoose2213/automator-for-barrykn-micropatcher/releases/download/v2.0/MicropatcherAutomator.dmg and once downloaded, open the DMG file.
When the DMG opens, you will see a singel icon/program in it with a hedgehog as logo. Right click on it and choose open.
Click Open on the warning regarding an unverified developer and click Continue to go to the next screen in the tool:
Here you basically get to choose if you want to use a pre-downloaded installer or just download a fresh copy of the Big Sur installer. I chose for the second option: “Download Installer App”. Click Continue and enter your password in order to continue with the download:
It can take quite some time to complete. After all, it’s a ~12,5GB download. Once done, the tool will ask if you want to use this downloaded installer to create a patched USB drive. Which we obviously do want:
In the next screen, select the volume to use for the installer. Here its important to select the name of the volume which we used when preparing the USB drive in the first step (with Disk Utility). In my case this was “bigsurinstall”:
Continue with the process and enter your password again when requested. MicroPatcherAutomator will now copy all files to the USB drive and make the necessary changes related to the patching process. In my case this took around 50 minutes to complete:
If all goes well, and you were patient enough, you should end with the following screen:
Now that we should have a working USB drive, it is time to test it. As suggested in the last step of MicroPatcherAutomator, we need to restart our Mac (or at least the Mac where you want to install Big Sur) and boot it while holding the Option/Alt key.
After the chime, the bootloader should show up and you should be able to see the following:
The first icon (1TB) is my currently installed macOS instance. The other two, the icon with the hedgehog and the USB-drive icon are coming from our patched USB drive.
Here it is important to first launch the last icon (EFI Boot). Once you do this, the system will immediately power off. This is expected and prepares for the next step. If you skip this step, you will end up with a forbidden sign at boot in the next step.
Repeat the process and hold the Alt/Option key while powering on your system again. This time, instead of selecting the EFI Boot option, choose the middle one: “Install macOS Big Sur”.
This will boot the installer from the USB drive and once completed you end up in Recovery:
Unfortunately it’s not very visible on the screenshot but as you can see there is an additional option to be found here: Post-InstallAutomator. This is one of the things that were done by the Automator tool and once Big Sur is installed, we will need to execute this as well.
Before we can install Big Sur, we can format the hard drive to prepare, so choose Disk Utility from the menu. In Disk Utility, choose to select all devices (similar as when preparing the USB drive), then select your hard drive (or SSD) on the left and click Erase. This time, after giving your disk a name, choose for AFPS as file system and click Erase to continue:
After the formatting is completed, close Disk Utility and select the Install macOS Big Sur option from the menu:
Click Continue, accept the license agreement and select the freshly formatted drive as destination on where to install macOS.
From here on, you can again take a coffee (or similar) as the installation can take quite some time. If all goes well, you should see the following screen after a series of reboots:
Navigate through the questions here to end up with the Big Sur desktop.
Having a look at About this Mac shows the following:
You might notice that the model is shown as a generic iMac. This will not really allow you to install any updates. Also, and probably more important: not all hardware is working as expected yet. In my experience mainly networking was not available right after the installation:
As mentioned earlier, if you remember, there was an added option in the recovery menu after booting from the USB drive. This is exactly what this is for.
So repeat the whole process to boot from the USB drive (restart, hold Alt/Option and select Install macOS Big Sur, no need to first choose the EFI Boot option). In the recovery menu, this time, select Post-install Automator.
This will start a dialog where you can select the Volume where you installed Big Sur. This is the name you chose when formatting your HD/SSD before installing. 1TB in my case:
Click Continue and let the tool make the necessary changes to your installation.
If all goes well, you will be asked to perform a reboot and after that, all hardware should be availableand you can connect to a network to visit your favorite website:
After patching, we can see that the model is now shown correctly and updates will be presented for installation:
Apple updates its macOS (previously Mac OS X) desktop and laptop operating system once a year, like clockwork, bringing new features and improvements. That’s all very well, but Apple’s most recent version of macOS – Big Sur – won’t run on any Mac older than 2013, and in some cases 2014. Which may well mean that your Mac can’t officially be updated – unless you follow this tutorial.
Before you go ahead and follow the advice below a word of warning: there is a reason why Apple chooses not to support the new Mac operating system on older Macs. Older Macs just don’t have the necessary components or power required to cope with the demands of the more modern systems. So if you do install Big Sur, Catalina, or any recent version of macOS on an unsupported Mac don’t expect it to run smoothly.
Is my Mac too old to update?
We have a macOS compatibility checker here, so you can see which versions of macOS your Mac should be able to run.
Here’s an overview of the Macs that will run Big Sur, according to Apple:
- MacBook models from early 2015 or later
- MacBook Air models from 2013 or later
- MacBook Pro models from 2013 or later
- Mac mini models from 2014 or later
- iMac models from 2014 or later
- iMac Pro (all models)
- Mac Pro models from 2013 or later
Apple advises that macOS Catalina will run on the following Macs:
- MacBook models from early 2015 or later
- MacBook Air models from mid-2012 or later
- MacBook Pro models from mid-2012 or later
- Mac mini models from late 2012 or later
- iMac models from late 2012 or later
- iMac Pro (all models)
- Mac Pro models from late 2013
Apple advises that macOS Mojave will run on the following Macs:
- Mac models from 2012 or later
- iMac Pro (from 2017)
- MacBook models from 2015 or later
- MacBook Pro models from 2012 or later
- MacBook Air models from 2012 or later
- Mac mini models from 2012 or later
- Mac Pro models from late 2013 (plus mid-2010 and mid-2012 models with recommended Metal-capable GPU)
The older macOS High Sierra had a little more scope. Apple said that would run happily on a late 2009 or later MacBook or iMac, or a 2010 or later MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac mini or Mac Pro.
If you Mac is supported read: How to update to Big Sur.
This means that if your Mac is older than 2012 it won’t officially be able to run Catalina or Mojave. In the case of Catalina that includes all the old-style Mac Pro models, pre-‘trash can’. If you want to run , but your Mac is older than 2013/2014, the new macOS just isn’t for you, as far as Apple is concerned anyway.
However, despite this it is possible to run newer macOS versions on older Macs thanks to a patcher.
Don’t expect things to be plain sailing though – in fact you should expect to encounter problems. Be prepared for the fact that your Mac will not function optimally and you could lose data. (For that reason we recommend doing a full backup of your Mac first).
For example, many older Macs have problems with the Wi-Fi connection after installing macOS Big Sur. If you need Wi-Fi, installing the preview version is not advisable.
Running Big Sur on another macOS on an unsupported Mac may also be considered against Apple’s terms and conditions. For information about Apple’s terms and conditions read: Should you agree to Apple’s terms and conditions.
Wondering if it’s worth updating your Mac? Read: macOS Big Sur vs Catalina.
How to install Big Sur on an unsupported Mac
If your Mac is more than a few years old and you try to install Big Sur on it you will hit a few hurdles – the first being the fact that Software Update simply won’t let you install the new version of macOS.
Mac Os Yosemite Patcher
However, this doesn’t mean that installing Big Sur on an older Mac isn’t possible. It is – you just need a patch. Luckily there’s a patcher for installing macOS Big Sur on older Macs available – the big-sur-micropatcher can be downloaded from GitHub.
Note that macOS patchers cannot perform magic and not all Macs will be compatible. Before installing Big Sur on an older Mac, make sure that your Mac is compatible with the patcher. On the patch page (linked above) you will find some notes indicating the various years of manufacture. Before you upgrade to macOS Big Sur review the compatibility notes.
The procedure for updating to a new version of macOS on incompatible Macs is as follows:
- First you will need to obtain the installation files for the operating system. You’ll have to obtain these using a compatible Mac. If they don’t show up in Software Update you can get the installation files from the Mac App Store.
- Now you need to load these installation files onto a USB stick and prepare the USB stick for installing macOS Big Sur. We explain how to create a bootable installer of macOS in a separate article.
- Next you need to obtain software that is able to trick the installation files of the version of macOS you want to install into believing that the Mac is compatible. You can download that patcher we mentioned above from GitHub. Click on the Code and Download Zip buttons.
- After extracting the archive from your download you will find the file “micropatcher.sh”.
- Open a terminal window and drag and drop the file into the terminal. Then run the command.
- Now install macOS from your bootable installer.
- In some cases, there are still tasks to be performed after the installation. These can be found in the instructions for big-sur-micropatcher. After preparing the Mac with the USB stick, start a terminal and enter “/ Volumes / Image Volume / set-vars.sh”. The script is part of the patch for macOS Big Sur and changes important settings for booting and system files.
The update can take several hours. In our case it sometimes looked like the installer had crashed during the update. In this case you should wait, as the installation is usually still in progress. Over time, better ways to update a machine may be found. Currently, the safest approach is to update using a bootable USB stick.
How to install Big Sur updates on an unsupported Mac
Once you have installed macOS Big Sur, updates will appear in Software Updates as soon as they are available. However, you should not install these, but ideally again create a USB stick with the current installation files and install the update in this way.
These steps were translated from an article by our colleagues at Macwelt.
How to run Catalina on an older Mac
You can download a macOS Catalina Patcher from a developer known as DOSDude1. The patch will enable you to install Catalina on an older Mac.
The Catalina hack doesn’t work with every Mac, but many are covered. You can see if your Mac is supported here.
DODDude1 offers a video tutorial on his website, here. We’ve simplified the steps below, but we recommend that you follow his tutorial.
- Download the latest version of the Catalina patch here. (You can make a donation).
- Open the Catalina Patcher app.
- Click Continue.
- Choose Download a Copy.
- The download (of Catalina) will start – since it’s almost 8GB it is likely to take a while.
- Plug in a flash drive.
- Choose ‘Create a bootable installer’ from the options.
- Plug the bootable installer into the Mac you wish to update.
- Restart the Mac while holding the Option/Alt key. This will cause the Mac open in Startup Manager.
- Choose the bootable installer drive and Enter.
- Now your Mac should open in Recovery.
- Choose Reinstall macOS and wait for the new version of macOS to install.
- After the installation has completed, you should restart the Mac in Recovery mode again, choosing the drive that contains the bootable installer.
- Now choose macOS Post Install and the required patches will be installed on your Mac so that Catalina can work.
- When the patches have been applied choose Force Cache Rebuild.
- Restart.
- When it reboots, your Mac should now boot into a fully working copy of macOS Catalina.
If you are running a version of macOS that predates High Sierra or Mojave, you will need to format your hard drive to APFS.
We have more advice about installing macOS via a Bootable Installer here.
How to run Mojave on an older Mac
As with Catalina, a patch tool was written DOSDude1 that enables you to install macOS Mojave on an older Mac.
You can download the Mojave Patch Tool here.
How to run High Sierra and older on an older Mac
DOSDude1 wrote a similar patch for High Sierra and prior to that Sierra. With the patch installed you can go back as far as early 2008 models. It’s unlikely to run like a dream, which is why Apple advises against this course of action. But you should be able to achieve tolerable performance.
Why you shouldn’t install new macOS on an old Mac
We’d advise tech beginners against attempting this workaround: it calls for a moderate degree of tech expertise.
Remember that we’re going against Apple’s official advice on this one, which means that if something goes wrong – and that’s always a possibility with an OS install, even if you’re using official software – your warranty is unlikely to save you. Of course, it’s unlikely that your 2008 Mac would be under any warranty so that may not worry you too much.
Back up your Mac before going any further. And bear in mind two more caveats.
Os X On Unsupported Mac
At some point Apple may patch this hack and prevent it working in future. So if you’re keen, and happy that the risks and difficulties are worth it for you, then jump in while you still can.
Otherwise, you might want to read How to sell an old Mac.
We’ve had a look at what’s coming in Big Sur – here’s our verdict: macOS Big Sur: should you update your Mac?