Click “Tools” and then click “Download macOS Mojave” in the dropdown menu when it appears. Click continue, and then select where you will save the installer. Once the Mojave installer has finished downloading, select the Mojave icon in the macOS Mojave Patcher window. Select your Mojave installer and click open. Mojave Patcher allows you to create a custom Mojave installer disk for installing Mojave on a unsupported Mac. It is available here. There is also a list of Macs that it works with, so check that out first. It includes a list of known bugs, which is not necessarily complete (see below regarding my own experience).
Want to install macOS Big Sur, but your Mac is not on the supported list? In this detailed guide, we will learn how to install macOS Big Sur on unsupported Mac models. Installing macOS Big Sur on unsupported Mac can be achieved with macOS Patcher file. We have a detailed guide ahead that will help you install macOS Big Sur on unsupported MAC.
You can also read our guide- How to Install macOS Catalina on Unsupported Mac: 9 Easy Steps and How To Install macOS Catalina On Virtualbox On AMD Systems: 2 Step Ultimate Guide.
Last year’s most significant WWDC event was a new version of macOS, Big Sur, and the announcement of the move to its own ARM processors. In macOS 11 (instead of the expected 10.16), Apple has massively redesigned the interface, added many new features and tools to move to new application architecture. We tell you which Mac models will be able to install macOS Big Sur.
The “Today” widgets in MacOS Big Sur are similar to the updated widgets in iOS 14. Other changes include an updated widget-enabled notification center, significantly improved messages, a powerful Safari upgrade, and more. Apple will release macOS Big Sur for all compatible Macs this fall.
Which Mac models will be supported by macOS Big Sur?
Supported devices that will receive MacOS Big Sur support:
- MacBook 2015 and newer
- MacBook Air 2013 and newer
- MacBook Pro 2013 and newer
- Mac mini 2014 and newer
- iMac 2014 and newer
- iMac Pro 2017 and newer
- Mac Pro 2013 and newer
How to install macOS Big Sur on unsupported Mac models? Step 1: Create a Backup. Step 2: Download Big Sur Patcher File. Step 3: Open the macOS Big Sur Patcher file. Step 4: Insert USB Drive. Step 5: Install macOS Bir Sur on Unsupported Mac. Install macOS Big Sur on unsupported Mac: Some common errors and their fix. If you don’t have Mojave supported Mac, you can download the Mojave Installer App using patcher tool. Open the macOS Mojave patcher tool. If it doesn’t open and says it is from an unidentified developer, right click on the tool’s icon and click on “Open” from sub-menu and then enter your Mac’s Admin name and password.
Because macOS Big Sur is a major update, Apple has given up support for several outdated Macs. The transition to new Apple Silicon processors will take several years, so the current Macs running at Intel will be updated for a long time.
Apple also unveiled updated iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS. The new WatchOS 7 won’t support the Apple Watch Series 1 and 2, but iPhone and iPad users who support iOS and iPadOS 13 will be able to upgrade their devices to the next generation of OS seamlessly.
How to install macOS Big Sur on unsupported Mac models?
If you are an experienced user who is ready to install unsupported software on unsupported technology, then you are at the right place as we have prepared the easiest solution to install macOS Big Sur on unsupported Mac models. This is the only working method so far on the internet.
The process of Installing macOS Big Sur on an unsupported Mac is to use the macOS Big Sur patch file, which will be applied to the primary USB boot. NOTE: The method is not suitable for ordinary users. You should also avoid using Mac models without Metal GPU. On older models, performance will be deficient.
Step 1: Create a Backup
First, save a copy of your Mac with Time Machine, and then move on to the instructions.
Step 2: Download Big Sur Patcher File
To install macOS Big Sur on unsupported Mac models, you need to download Big Sur Patcher file. This will trick the installation files of the macOS version you want to install and convince it that the Mac is compatible. You can download Big Sur Patcher file below.
You can download the latest version of the macOS Big Sur Patcher as seen in the snapshot above.
Step 3: Open the macOS Big Sur Patcher file
Once you’ve retrieved the archive from the downloaded file, you’ll find the Patcher-Sur.dmg file.
Now simply right click the Patcher-Sur.dmg file to open it and follow the steps.
Click Start.
Click Continue.
Select Release. You can also use the Public Beta version if you want to test it.
Click Continue.
You can simple Update or proceed with a Clean installation. If you are coming from a different OS version say Catalina, you need to select Clean installation,
Download Big Sur files.
Wait for the download to finish. It might take up to 20 minutes, depending upon the speed of your wifi.
If you are facing any issues with patching, you can see this detailed guide.
Step 4: Insert USB Drive.
After inserting the USB Drive, you will be asked to enter your password. (remember this password and avoid using any special characters) and click Continue.
Now it will start installing packages onto your USB drive.
Now, select your USB disk (in my case its Install macOS Big Sur). This will completely erase your USB disk. Click Continue.
Click Continue.
Now it will start creating your macOS Big Sur installation media. It will take around 35-50 minutes to create an installation media on your USB drive.
Step 5: Install macOS Bir Sur on Unsupported Mac
Restart your MAC and continue to press option key to continue with the installation.
Now, boot from “Install macOS Big Sur.” If there is no USB device found, try to unplug and replug your USB device.
You can also use the Disk Utility if you are planning to format your drive and create a new partition and continue with the installation.
The installation may take several hours. In our case, it sometimes looked as if the installer had flown out during the upgrade. In this case, you should wait, as the installation is usually still ongoing. Over time, better ways to upgrade the machine can be found. Currently, the safest approach is to upgrade with a USB boot.
After the installation is complete, you will see that your Wi-fi is not working. So go to applications and search for Patcher file.
Right click and click to force open the file. And click on Patch Kexts. Click Continue.
Make sure the USB is still plugged-in. Click Force Skip check and enter the same password that you entered in step 4.
Now it will continue to patch the files and you can simply reboot your MAC.
Click Restart to Finish.
After you have successfully restarted your mac, you can find that everything is working perfectly.
Install macOS Big Sur on unsupported Mac: Some common errors and their fix.
1. Wi-fi still not working
After patching, if your Wi-Fi it still not working. Follow the steps-
- Download and extract this file.
- Go to Payloads folder and select patch-kexts.sh file and drag it on your terminal. It will help you fix the wi-fi issue.
2. Big Sur is very slow. How to speed up macOS Big Sur.
We have been testing macOS Big Sur for a while now. Over time, you tend to see a decreased speed of your macOS Big Sur. So, we personally tested these 7 methods to Speed Up macOS Big Sur. Read this guide- How to Speed Up macOS Big Sur? 7 Easy Methods.
If you are using macOS Catalina you can read this guide: How to Speed Up macOS Catalina? 7 Easy Methods
Mac Os On Unsupported Mac
3. I’m not happy with Big Sur and want to roll-back.
There are several issues with Big Sur, so you might want to roll back to the older version. Here is a complete guide that can help- How to rollback from the macOS Big Sur on Mojave? 5 Steps Steps
Some other guides that might help-
How to manage widgets on macOS Big Sur?
Best Widgets for macOS Big Sur: Top 20 for Everyday Use
How to Convert macOS Big Sur Installer to ISO: 4 Step Easy Guide
How To Create macOS Big Sur Bootable USB on Windows: 4 Easy Steps (+Video Tutorial)
How to Fix macOS Big Sur Screen Resolution on VirtualBox: 5 Step Guide
How to Install macOS Big Sur on VMware on Windows? 8 Step Guide
How to Install macOS Big Sur on VirtualBox on Windows? 8 Step Guide
How to Create macOS Big Sur Bootable Installer for Clean Installation: 2 Easy Steps (MAC only)
Install Osx Mojave On Unsupported Mac
Conclusion: Install macOS Big Sur on unsupported Mac
I hope this guide on how to Install macOS Big Sur on unsupported Mac was useful for you. You can simply Install macOS Big Sur on unsupported Mac by using the macOS Big Sur Patch file. I have shared all the download links above. If you are still facing any issues, you can comment down your query.
«12»Comments
Install Mojave On Unsupported Mac Without Usb
- Hi William; Ref: The Mojave Patcher Tool for Unsupported Macs is available for download from DosDude. This is the same guy that did this for High Sierra, and has supplied a series of other hacks and workarounds for fans of older Apple hardware. The guy's name is dosdude1.
- In addition: i habe a very good experience with running High Sierra on two officially unsupported MBPs, one from 2011 and one from 2009. Also Mojave PB is Running pretty stable on another MBP - which is, however, officially supported. I will do the same like with HS, which is skipping the early versions of DosDude’s tool and hen go for it
- Yes, the High Sierra version for unsupported Macs is smooth on my upgraded 2008 unibody. I’ve had no problems running it, and the experience sure beats being stuck on El Capitan.
- So, is the UI really slow without Metal support?
- Re: 'One more thing. If you do use this patch tool to install macOS Mojave on your main Mac, please remember that you can still read AppleInsider on your iPhone if things go awry.'
Priceless. - I’m using DosDude’s High Sierra patcher on the 2008 MacBook Pro I use for live performance, and it runs flawlessly. It’s perky, too! I consider myself very much in his debt.
I’m definitely going to be making the step to Mojave. I wrote him a while back hoping he would be providing a new patcher, and it sure looks like he resolved the issues he mentioned he was having.
I won’t be installing the beta, but once the Gold Master release has been out for 2 or 3 weeks and the first round of fixes have been made, I’m going for it. I should note that I’ve got two much more recent desktop Macs I’ll be updating the old-fashioned, Apple-approved way… I would not recommend running the patcher on your primary lose-it-and-die computer. There’s too much at stake.
Still, everything’s gone smoothly on the High Sierra version. Kudos to DosDude! - Do not tell it outloud. Apple will make all effort to kill that tool to sell more new hardware. It made all effort on the past hardware to make almost impossible to install systems like Linux on their hardware to reuse it. Yes system that in basic form (an many times in competitive form of Ubuntu desktop) can be installed on almost anything you can find in PC scrap. I do not believe it was for perofrmance reasons purely. Also before we jump on conclusion that Apple modern solutions require hardware I have just found out from a freind who just left them that there is a lot to be desired in their system quality area... especially on Macs. Time to listen to expereinced engineers rather than having cocky programmers who do not understand where all it goes and how it always ends.
- While this article is informative, I think there is information you are leaving out.
I'd give proper attribution to conversation about Mojave on Unsupported Macs being an active discussion hosted by Dosdude on Macrumors.com. Yes, it's a competitor but much of the information needed to be successful about doing this patch is found in the pages and pages of discussion amongst the users as bugs are crushed and more machines are added to the compatibility (or partial compatibility) list. It's no different than when you attribute a store broken by another website or news outlet. Just referring to Dosdude's own download page doesn't get around that fact. - This is probably a good thing. I'm not sure I will venture to Mojave on my MacBook Pro 5,5 or iMac 12,2, though. I put Sierra on the MacBook Pro to keep it aligned with the iMac, and only because Logic X 10.4 demanded Sierra. I might run it on a test hard drive to see what it's like. Sierra works very well on my machine that Apple arbitrarily dumped.
Apple keeps shortening the support time. Logic's demand of Sierra or High Sierra was an annoyance to many Logic users.
This pressure to upgrade has been getting worse because of iOS devices and iOS has an incredibly annoying nag to upgrade. I'm not happy about Apple's choices and it makes it very difficult for their customers to maintain a functioning 'Apple ecosystem' unless they're wealthy enough to repeatedly re-buy effectively the same devices every two or three years. It didn't used to be the case that you had to be wealthy to be an Apple user (just judicious spending and saving), but Apple's ecosystem is exactly designed to encourage, or push, people into multiple Apple devices, and upgrade each one more often. This is bad for consumers and they're too arrogant and too big to notice this. Eventually it will lose them customers and they don't care to watch out for this at this time.
Granted, they did just take some action to possibly pull back on this a bit, with promoting iOS 12 as being faster on older devices (I've avoided iOS 11 but I might go to iOS 12). They need to do more of this, on all platforms. - I bet Windows 10 runs perfectly on Boot Camp on a 2008 Mac without any hacks at all.
Runs perfectly on a 2009 (Mac Pro), at least. And you can even use the most modern Boot Camp drivers by bypassing Apple’s in-Windows compatibility check.I bet Windows 10 runs perfectly on Boot Camp on a 2008 Mac without any hacks at all.- edited July 2018
While I appreciate MR holding the conversation, they didn't break this. When appropriate, we give other sites credit -- including MR. This is a complicated situation for both MR and us, with a history and discussion about it going for pages and pages.While this article is informative, I think there is information you are leaving out.
I'd give proper attribution to conversation about Mojave on Unsupported Macs being an active discussion hosted by Dosdude on Macrumors.com. Yes, it's a competitor but much of the information needed to be successful about doing this patch is found in the pages and pages of discussion amongst the users as bugs are crushed and more machines are added to the compatibility (or partial compatibility) list. It's no different than when you attribute a store broken by another website or news outlet. Just referring to Dosdude's own download page doesn't get around that fact.
Users are welcome to -- and should -- use Google to seek information on any workaround we publish, or to seek amplifying information on tips. - edited July 2018
No, because macOS bases the general UI on the process 'WindowServer', and there was a usefulSo, is the UI really slow without Metal support?
discovery that Apple has not rewritten this using Metal, just preferring to delete the OpenGL drivers
for ye olde 'unsupported' Macs instead. (So far, to Public Beta 3, anyway.)
Turns out the OpenGL drivers and other kernel extensions (kexts) can be re-animated from older macOS releases
with the requisite incantations.
There are some issues with hardware acceleration for certain machines which use AMD GPUs,
but for stuff like the antique 2010 17' MacBookPro6,1 using Nvidia 330M, or even a garden-variety
2008 MacBook5,1 using Geforce 9400M it runs great!
It's amazing that a 10-year-old machine like my 2.4GHz 2008 MacBook using the mighty Intel Core 2 Duo
(with user-replaceable SSD and maxed-out 8GB memory) can run the new release perfectly fine!
Naw, I use DuckDuckGo as my search engine.
While I appreciate MR holding the conversation, they didn't break this. When appropriate, we give other sites credit -- including MR. This is a complicated situation for both MR and us, with a history and discussion about it going for pages and pages.While this article is informative, I think there is information you are leaving out.
I'd give proper attribution to conversation about Mojave on Unsupported Macs being an active discussion hosted by Dosdude on Macrumors.com. Yes, it's a competitor but much of the information needed to be successful about doing this patch is found in the pages and pages of discussion amongst the users as bugs are crushed and more machines are added to the compatibility (or partial compatibility) list. It's no different than when you attribute a store broken by another website or news outlet. Just referring to Dosdude's own download page doesn't get around that fact.
Users are welcome to -- and should -- use Google to seek information on any workaround we publish, or to seek amplifying information on tips.- This type of thing is for enthusiasts only, i.e., people that enjoy computer troubleshooting. People that just blithely say 'it works great' aren't telling the truth.
It’s two clicks more than a regular install and it works perfectly. Don’t say things you don’t understand.This type of thing is for enthusiasts only, i.e., people that enjoy computer troubleshooting. People that just blithely say 'it works great' aren't telling the truth.- edited July 2018
Cool, Good to know I have a spare old 2010 15' i7 MBP complete with SSD internal and maxed out RAM I thought was soon to be a doorstop. As the Boot-Camp work around that is fantastic, I can use it as another opensim server now
Runs perfectly on a 2009 (Mac Pro), at least. And you can even use the most modern Boot Camp drivers by bypassing Apple’s in-Windows compatibility check.I bet Windows 10 runs perfectly on Boot Camp on a 2008 Mac without any hacks at all.
Dude, I have a machine that can't run Mojave, it's from 2011. That is not a short time for software updates. Does Windows run on some really old hardware? Sure but Apple can't be expected to keep your computer supported for more than 8 years. Now I might try to run Mojave on my old MacBook since I'm running it as a torrent server and heck why not. But the only thing I was pissed off about with the update was that there weren't compelling machines to upgrade to for people who's machines were at the end of being supported. Hopefully they'll have the whole line up upgraded in the fall. If you think about it the original iMac G3 was only supported for something like 4ish years, I remember because by the time I bought my new iBook my iMac was considered ancient.This is probably a good thing. I'm not sure I will venture to Mojave on my MacBook Pro 5,5 or iMac 12,2, though. I put Sierra on the MacBook Pro to keep it aligned with the iMac, and only because Logic X 10.4 demanded Sierra. I might run it on a test hard drive to see what it's like. Sierra works very well on my machine that Apple arbitrarily dumped.
Apple keeps shortening the support time. Logic's demand of Sierra or High Sierra was an annoyance to many Logic users.
This pressure to upgrade has been getting worse because of iOS devices and iOS has an incredibly annoying nag to upgrade. I'm not happy about Apple's choices and it makes it very difficult for their customers to maintain a functioning 'Apple ecosystem' unless they're wealthy enough to repeatedly re-buy effectively the same devices every two or three years. It didn't used to be the case that you had to be wealthy to be an Apple user (just judicious spending and saving), but Apple's ecosystem is exactly designed to encourage, or push, people into multiple Apple devices, and upgrade each one more often. This is bad for consumers and they're too arrogant and too big to notice this. Eventually it will lose them customers and they don't care to watch out for this at this time.
Granted, they did just take some action to possibly pull back on this a bit, with promoting iOS 12 as being faster on older devices (I've avoided iOS 11 but I might go to iOS 12). They need to do more of this, on all platforms.
...But the only thing I was pissed off about with the update was that there weren't compelling machines to upgrade to for people who's machines were at the end of being supported. Hopefully they'll have the whole line up upgraded in the fall...This is probably a good thing. I'm not sure I will venture to Mojave on my MacBook Pro 5,5 or iMac 12,2, though. I put Sierra on the MacBook Pro to keep it aligned with the iMac, and only because Logic X 10.4 demanded Sierra. I might run it on a test hard drive to see what it's like. Sierra works very well on my machine that Apple arbitrarily dumped.
Apple keeps shortening the support time. Logic's demand of Sierra or High Sierra was an annoyance to many Logic users.
This pressure to upgrade has been getting worse because of iOS devices and iOS has an incredibly annoying nag to upgrade. I'm not happy about Apple's choices and it makes it very difficult for their customers to maintain a functioning 'Apple ecosystem' unless they're wealthy enough to repeatedly re-buy effectively the same devices every two or three years. It didn't used to be the case that you had to be wealthy to be an Apple user (just judicious spending and saving), but Apple's ecosystem is exactly designed to encourage, or push, people into multiple Apple devices, and upgrade each one more often. This is bad for consumers and they're too arrogant and too big to notice this. Eventually it will lose them customers and they don't care to watch out for this at this time.
Granted, they did just take some action to possibly pull back on this a bit, with promoting iOS 12 as being faster on older devices (I've avoided iOS 11 but I might go to iOS 12). They need to do more of this, on all platforms.
This!
Ending support for my 2011 iMac will probably eventually put me on a new Windows machine. It’ll start with Boot Camp, and then, at some point, I’ll want to stay with what “I know” but will need something faster.
As long as it has a Metal-compatible GPU (or you use dosdude’s “add in the old drivers” utility), it should work perfectly.Dude, I have a machine that can't run Mojave, it's from 2011.But the only thing I was pissed off about with the update was that there weren't compelling machines to upgrade to for people who's machines were at the end of being supported.Wait, what do you mean here?