1. Patched Sur Download
  2. Install Macos Big Sur On Unsupported Macbook Pro
  3. Imac Late 2013 Big Sur
  4. Big Sur On Imac 2011
  5. Install Macos 11 Big Sur On Unsupported Macs

Catalina (10.15) is the latest stable release of Apple's macOS. You will see some of the recent apps can only work on this version. And you have to upgrade macOS accordingly. However, only a small portion of Mac models are eligible for direct upgrade offered by Apple. What 's to do if you want to use Catalina on an unsupported Mac? This tutorial will show you how to install macOS Catalina on an unsupported Mac model.

Nov 15, 2020 Install macOS Big Sur on unsupported Macs with this Big Sur Patcher. A new tool called ‘Patched Sur’, currently in beta, allows users to download and install macOS Big Sur on unsupported Macs. MacOS Big Sur is compatible with the following computers. If your Mac isn't compatible, you might be able to install an old version of macOS instead. MacBook introduced in 2015 or later MacBook Air introduced in 2013 or later MacBook Pro introduced in late 2013 or later Mac mini introduced in 2014 or later iMac introduced in 2014 or later iMac Pro. The guide to install macOS Big Sur on Mac not supported. Here are the steps to follow: Start the InstallAssistant.pkg package. Connect the USB stick. Use Disk Utility to initialize the key as “extended macOS (Journaled)” by creating a partition like “GUID”. Open the Terminal and write: sudo / Applications / Install macOS Beta.app. The latest macOS update is already here and Big Sur arrives with important features, unfortunately, several Mac models aren’t compatible. Can you install Big Sur MacOS on an unsupported Mac? You should know that this is something you must do at your own risk, your Mac may not work properly and various problems may occur in this. If the above is a general occurrence, it means there is no way for a Mac user who has Big Sur unsupported Mac computer and plan to use BenSova’s Patched Sur and creating install USB media for Big Sur installation using Catalina environment (not yet created USB stick installer). Used Big Sur ver 11.2.2 external connected.

1. Why macOS Catalina?

macOS Catalina is the last iteration of the macOS series, after which Apple has now moved to macOS 11 Big Sur. Not all Mac users will install Big Sur so soon after its release because they'll be waiting for all the major bugs to be fixed in an 11.x update. But there's also another reason: Big Sur is only meant for certain models of MacBooks and iMacs.

And some of the apps can not work on an old version of macOS, such as High Serria or Serria. You will receive the following messages if you try to run an app that only supports Catalina and later versions. You have to upgrade macOS to Catalina in such a case if the app is very important for you.

The same is true of Catalina as well, but Catalina is a more mature version and brings a lot of features to the table, such as the improved Siri, customizable smart lists, the new AI-based Photos app, better Notes search, refreshed Safari, and so on. Probably the most important change is the deprecation of iTunes into three separate entities for Music, TV, and Podcasts. That's why a large portion of users still prefer Catalina even if their device is compatible with Big Sur.

2. Official Support List by Catalina

Unfortunately, as in the case of Big Sur, macOS Catalina also does not support very old models of Apple devices. Here is the official support list. If your device is from an older year, you cannot upgrade to macOS Catalina the usual way.

  • MacBook (Early 2015 or newer)
  • MacBook Air (Mid 2012 or newer)
  • MacBook Pro (Mid 2012 or newer)
  • Mac mini (Late 2012 or newer)
  • iMac (Late 2012 or newer)
  • iMac Pro (2017)
Mac

In addition, your video card will need to be pre-metal, and it works with specific series of GeForce, Radeon, and Intel graphics cards.

3. Unofficial Support List by Catalina

Thankfully, there's a way to patch macOS Catalina on your older system, which extends the list of supported devices. However, you will need to download macOS Catalina dmg file, burn it to a USB drive, and then install Catalina on your Mac by booting from the USB installer. The process is shown below and it works with the following unsupported Mac models.

  • MacBook Pro Early 2008 or newer
  • MacBook Air Late 2008 or newer
  • Mac Mini Early 2009 or newer
  • MacBook Early 2009 or newer
  • iMac Early 2008 or newer

4. How to Create a macOS Catalina Bootable USB

UUByte DMG Editor is a fantastic disk image management utility for Apple's DMG files. Not only can you burn a DMG to a range of media storage devices but you can also extract files without having to mount the DMG as a virtual drive. Besides, it is a cross-platform application that works well on both Windows and macOS. This means you can create a bootable Catalina USB installer on a Windows PC.

Although it is meant for experienced users, the user interface, navigation, and feature layout have been simplified so even beginners can jump right in and get comfortable with the software. Here's the process in the form of steps you can duplicate on your Mac.

Warning: Please back up your Mac first before taking into real actions. This might brick your EFI chip with multiple EEPROM definitions.

Step 1: Download DMG file of macOS Catalina from the following sources. These site offer the latest version of the macOS Catalina, please download a copy to your Mac.

  • Download Link 1: https://themacgo.com/macdownload/
  • Download link 2: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/NW4r628CM

Patched Sur Download

Step 2: Insert a USB drive and install UUByte DMG Editor application on a Mac or PC.

Install Macos Big Sur On Unsupported Macbook Pro

Step 3: Launch UUByte DMG Editor and select the 'Burn' option on the main page.

Step 4: On the inside page, hit the 'Browse' button and select the DMG file from your local storage. Check if your USB drive is displayed in the field below the DMG image field. If not, click on 'Change' button to select the correct drive.

Macos big sur download

Step 5: All you need to do is name your drive and hit 'Burn' button. You will see the progress as the USB installer is created.

Imac Late 2013 Big Sur

When you see the success message, close UUByte DMG Editor and eject the drive. It is now ready for you to use in the macOS Catalina installation process described in the next section.

5. Install macOS Catalina on Unsupported Mac

Now, follow the steps shown below carefully to load the installer, erase your local disk, and install macOS Catalina from USB drive you created in above step.

Step 1: Boot Mac from USB Installer

To do this, insert the installer and hold down the Option key as you restart your Mac. In the Startup Manager, choose the drive name that you used in the installer creation process. You won't be able to use the mouse here so use the arrow key to select your drive and hit Enter.

Step 2: Wait Catalina Installer to Be Loaded

This could take a few minutes so be patient. Don't worry if the screen goes blank or if the progress bar looks like it's frozen. Don't do anything at this point.

Step 3: Erase Local Hard Drive

Big Sur On Imac 2011

When macOS Catalina installation wizard is loaded, you'll be able to see macOS Utilities window with several options. Choose Disk Utility option and then Continue. In Disk Utility, choose your hard drive (usually Macintosh HD) and hit Erase, which you will see in the top menu bar.

In the popup window, make sure the Format is set to APFS and hit Erase, leaving everything else as it is. You may want to change the name of the local HDD but you can leave it as Macintosh HD. Exit Disk Utility, which will take you back to the macOS Utilities window.

Step 4: Start Installing Catalina on Unsupported Mac

Install Macos 11 Big Sur On Unsupported Macs

This time, in macOS Utilities, please choose Install macOS and then hit Continue. Hit Continue again to confirm the operation. When you see the license terms, hit the Agree option. You may need to do this twice for confirmation. Choose Macintosh HD (or however you renamed your local hard drive) and hit Install.

Wait for the installation to complete. This may take up to an hour or more depending on your system configuration and other factors.

Frequently Ask Questions

There are several known issues when installing macOS Catalina on ansupported Mac. However, it has less impact on daily usage.

Mac

No Tab for All Photos in Photos App. You will find this minor issue when using Photos app on Catalina. To fix this, you should right click any photo in Photos app and select 'Show in All Photos' from pop-up menu.

GPU acceleration not available. You will see a performance downgrade when playing games because the full video accleration is not available in Radeon HD 5xxx or 6xxx series video card.

WiFi not working. If you could not join any WiFi network, then you should use this command to fix it manually: sudo networksetup -setairportnetwork en1 SSID PASSWORD

Summary

Definitely, it is not a simple task to install macOS Catalina on an unsupported Mac. You have to complete the task manually, which is more challenging than a direct update being pushed by Apple official. However, the above tutorial proves to be fine on most of unsupported Macs we listed in Section 3. Now, enjoy using macOS Catalina on an officially unsupported device!

  1. The official version of macOS Big Sur is released
    macOS Big Sur brings the combination of powerful strength and beautiful appearance to a new level. The carefully crafted new design allows you to fully experience the charm of the Mac; the Safari browser is ushered in a major update, waiting for you to enjoy; the map app and the information app are loaded with new functions for you to explore; more transparent privacy permissions, protection More thoughtful.
    macOS Big Sur 11 release date: 2020.11.12
  2. Unsupported models and problems
    According to the summary of macrumors, unsupported Macs can be divided into several situations:
    Mac models that officially support macOS Catalina but are not supported by macOS Big Sur:
    – These Macs can run Big Sur normally, but Wi-Fi cannot work normally. (This type of model is the easiest to run Big Sur perfectly through the patch, currently it is only a Wi-Fi problem.)
    You can follow the steps below, this article is mainly for this type of model.
    2012 and Early 2013 MacBook Pro
    Not officially supported in macOS Catalina, but are fully capable of running both Catalina and large Sur with a Metal-compatible GPU and upgraded Wifi/BT card. Mac can be patched to run macOS Catalina normally, and it may be patched to run macOS Big Sur: – These Macs can currently launch Big Sur, but there is currently no Wifi or graphics acceleration support. This type of model requires additional steps to solve installation problems. Early-2008 or newer Mac Pro, iMac, or MacBook Pro: MacPro3,1
    Macmini5,x (systems with AMD Radeon HD 6xxx series GPUs were almost unusable when running Catalina and will be under Big Sur as well.)
    MacBook5,2
    Xserve3,1*

    *Not officially supported in macOS Catalina, but are fully capable of running both Catalina and large Sur with a Metal-compatible GPU and upgraded Wifi/BT card.
    Completely unsupported Mac:
    This type of model does not need to consider installing Big Sur.
    Macmini2,1
    — The 2007 iMac 7,1 is compatible with Catalina and potentially Big Sur if the CPU is upgraded to a Penryn-based Core 2 Duo, like a T9300.
    2006-2008 MacBooks:
    MacBook4,1 (as with Mojave and Catalina, we’ll get on our own here, but Big Sur are going to be running on this machine!)
    2008 MacBook Air (MacBookAir 1,1)
    All PowerPC-based Macs
    All 68k-based Macs
  3. Download macOS Big Sur
    Mac App Store
    Open the App Store and directly search for macOS to download.
    After the download is complete, you can see that Install macOS Big Sur is located in the application (Application) directory.
    Baidu SkyDrive DMG Mirror
    Please visit: https://sysin.org/article/macOS-Big-Sur/
    After downloading, double-click to open the dmg file, and drag Install macOS Big Sur to the application (Application).
  4. Patch Tool Download
    (1) Hax.dylib: link 1
    (2) big-sur-micropatcher
  5. Installation method: new installation or upgrade installation under the current system
    (0) Prerequisites
    Make sure the Mac is currently running on macOS Catalina.
    (1) Boot to recovery mode (recovery mode)
    When booting or restarting, press and hold Command + R until the splash screen (Apple logo) appears.
    If there is no recovery partition, you need to press Command + Option + R to start Internet Recovery.
    (2) Disable sip (System Integrity Protection)
    Utilities -> Terminal Enter the command csrutil disable and press enter.
    (3) Disable compatibility check
    Continue to execute commands in the terminal:
    1
    nvram boot-args=”-no_compat_check”
    (4) Restart, start macOS Catalina normally
    (5) Disable libraries validation
    Open the terminal and execute the command:
    1
    sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.security.libraryvalidation.plist DisableLibraryValidation -bool true
    (6) Insert library
    Put the downloaded Hax.dylib file in the home directory, namely /Users// directory, and execute the command in the terminal:
    1

    launchctl setenv DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES $PWD/Hax.dylib
    (7) Start to install macOS Big Sur
    Clean install
    Before starting the installation, we open the “Disk Utility” to create a new APFS volume, and then double-click Install macOS Big Sur in the application to start the installation. Select the newly created volume as the target disk. After the installation is complete, it will automatically boot to the new system.
    After installation, you can delete the APFS volume where the original system is located, leaving only the Big Sur system.
    Upgrade installation
    Double-click Install macOS Big Sur in the application to start the normal installation. The installation target partition selects the partition where the current system is located, that is, the upgrade installation is performed automatically.
    By default, the factory setting has only one partition named: Macintosh HD
    (8) Solve the problem of network card driver
    In some models, the wireless network card is already working (Late 2013 iMac, or your 2012/2013 model uses an 802.11ac network card instead of an 802.11n network card).
    If the wireless network card cannot work, you need to deal with it as follows:
    You need to use the method in item 7 below to create a bootable U disk. Restart the system, hold down the Option key until the boot partition selection screen appears, boot to “Install macOS Big Sur”, after booting, select “Utilities -> Terminal” and execute the following commands (three formats) Both can be supported, choose one of them, “Macintosh HD” is your default system installation partition name, replace it according to the actual name):
    1
    2
    3
    /Volumes/Image Volume/patch-kexts.sh /Volumes/Macintosh HD
    ‘/Volumes/Image Volume/patch-kexts.sh”/Volumes/Macintosh HD’
    “/Volumes/Image Volume/patch-kexts.sh” “/Volumes/Macintosh HD”
    Then restart to macOS Big Sur, at this time Wi-Fi is already normal.
  6. Installation method: fresh installation using removable media
    Tip: U disk can also be replaced by mobile hard disk, especially SSD mobile hard disk, which is faster.
    7.1, create boot media
    (1) Create a bootable U disk
    Prepare a 16G or above U disk, open “Utilities> Disk Utility”, select the U disk, click “Erase”, the format is as follows:
    Mac OS X extension (Journaled);
    GUID partition map;
    Partition name: MyVolume (The default is Untitled, which can be customized. Note that MyVolume in the terminal command below should also be changed to the same name you customized)
    Open the terminal and execute the following command:
    1
    sudo /Appli