OS X El Capitan on Unsupported Macs. MacOS Extractor, OS X Patcher, and MacPostFactor are apps that guide you through patching and installing OS X El Capitan (10.11), Yosemite (10.10), Mavericks(10.9), or Mountain Lion (10.8) on your older Mac. Nov 16, 2020 How to Install Big Sur on Unsupported Mac Last week when Apple released the macOS Big Sur, some users reported that they weren’t able to download the latest operating system. But now, according to Apple, you can easily upgrade to the latest macOS Big Sur.
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
Because macOS Big Sur is a major update, Apple has given up support for several outdated Macs.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
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)
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.
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.
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.
Install Os X Yosemite Unsupported Mac
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.
Install Unsupported Mac Os X 2009
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.
Install Unsupported Mac Os Catalina
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.
Mac Os Versions
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:
Install Unsupported Mac Os X 2008
After patching, we can see that the model is now shown correctly and updates will be presented for installation: