macOS 11 Big Sur is an advanced Macintosh operating system that you can install on your Mac. It has got tons of new features to enhance the user experience, like making safari browser 50% faster, new features of messages, Air Pods improvements, new-design sidebar in mail and photos, widgets in the notification bar, and many more.
Apple announced this new software on 22 June at WWDC. And this time, Apple did a big challenge and released the macOS 11 Big Sur along with iOS 14, iPadOS 14, tvOS 14, and watchOS 7. Meanwhile, Apple highlighted all the new features, changes, and improvements to the current software. You can download this new operating system from various sources now. Unfortunately, some Macs can't receive macOS 11 Big Sur update and they can't install the new operating system. In this article, we will discuss how to install macOS 11 Big Sur on an Unsupported Mac with easy steps.
To get a copy of macOS Mojave to install on an unsupported Mac, you have to be in the Apple Beta program but more importantly than that, you have to download it on a supported Mac.
Part 1: Official List of Big Sur Supported Mac Models
macOS 11 Big Sur Developer Beta is available to download. But you have to check your Mac compatibility first. If you have the below-listed Macs then you don't have to install macOS 11 Big Sur as these models will receive an update for macOS Big Sur automatically.
- MacBook 2015 and later
- MacBook Air and Pro Late 2013 and later
- Mac mini 2014 and later
- iMac 2014 and later
- iMac Pro 2017 and later (all models)
- Mac Pro 2013 and later
Part 2: Unsupported Mac Models of Big Sur (Not Eligible for Direct Upgrade)
On the other hand, if you have the below-listed Mac computers then you can install macOS Big Sur on those models as they are unsupported officially. You have to do some hacks to let Big Sur running on unsupported Macs.
- MacBook Air 2012
- MacBook Pro 2012 and Early 2013 MacBook Pro
- 2012 Mac Mini
- 2012 and 2013 iMac
Part 3: How to Install macOS Big Sur on an Unsupported Mac
Before the installation, make sure that you take a backup of your Mac on an external hard disk as you will lose all your data when you install the new operating system. There are several backup software like Time Machine, iCloud, Dropbox, and many more. Once you have taken a backup follow the instructions below to install macOS Big Sur on your unsupported Mac.
Step 1: First you need to download two files from the links below to complete the macOS 11 Big Sur installation on your unsupported Mac.
- 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.
- Part 4: Installing and Patching macOS Mojave. In this fourth and final part, we will install and patch the macOS Mojave on our old Mac computer. Follow the steps below to complete the remaining procedure. Restart your computer and hold down the “Option” key as soon as the Mac starts up.
- macOS Big Sur PKG installer: https://developer.apple.com/macos/
- macOS Big Sur PKG install hack: https://forums.macrumors.com/simple-installer-hack-zip.926156/
Step 2: After you have downloaded these two files, unzip the hack and copy the hax.dylib file and then paste it to home folder.
Step 3: Click on Install Assistant.pkg to install required contents to your Mac. Make sure that you have enough space on your hard disk as the file will take 20.1 MB size on your computer.
Step 4: Now go ahead and tap on the Install button to install the software on the disk 'Macintosh SSD'. Once you click the 'Install' button then it will ask you to enter your password. Next, click the 'Install Software' button.
Step 5: Next, you have to boot your computer into Recovery mode. You can do that by pressing Command + R immediately on startup until Recovery option appears. In case if you have no recovery partition, you can press down Command + Option +R to get into Internet Recovery. After that, go to Utilities -> Terminal and type 'csrutil disable', followed by pressing the Enter button on your keyboard.
Step 6: Type the following two commands in the terminal. Once you apply the first command, type your login password, and then input the second command.
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.security.libraryvalidation.plist DisableLibraryValidation -bool true
launchctl setenv DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES $PWD/Hax.dylib
Step 7: Next, run the macOS 11 Big Sur installer app that you installed from InstallAssistant.pkg a while ago. Now click on the 'Continue' button and follow the instructions to complete the installation process.
Step 8: The installation will take about 30 minutes approximately. Once the installation is successful you will see the macOS 11 Big Sur wallpaper on your Mac screen. That's it, you have installed macOS Big Sur on your unsupported Mac successfully.
Follow the above-mentioned method to install macOS 11 Big Sur on unsupported Mac devices. The method is quite easy; you just have to focus on the command line and other installation procedures.
Part 4: Alternative Method to Install Big Sur on an Unsupported Mac
The above tutorial is for users who still have access to their device. However, if your Mac is unable to boot into Desktop or you are using a Hackintosh, then you should follow the alternative method instead. In this part, we will show you how to create a macOS Big Sugr bootable USB on a Windows PC and install macOS Big Sur on unsupported Mac by using that bootable media.
Macos Sierra
Step 1: Make a full backup of important files on your Mac.
Step 2: Download a copy of UUByte DMG Editor and follow the instructions to install it on your Windows PC.
Step 3: Insert a USB flash drive into PC and open UUByte DMG Editor. Now, click the Burn tab to get into the new window.
Macos Mojave 10.14
Step 4: You will see three options on Burn windows. Please import macOS Big Sur DMG file into the program and choose the USB drive name. You can also set a new name for that USB drive. And this is optional.
Step 5: Once the setting process is completed, just click 'Burn' button located at the bottom to start burning dmg file to USB on your PC. You should wait about 10 minutes for this task.
Step 6: Plug Big Sur bootable USB on your Mac and press Power + Option combine keys to open Startup Manager. At this stage, you are able to select a booting device. Click on the USB drive and start Big Sur installation process.
This part is mainly for Windows users who want to install Big Sur on an unsupported Mac. The most important step is to create a bootable USB drive.
Troubleshooting:
If your system is showing any error message while installing the macOS Big Sur you can try these methods to fix it.
- Restart your Computer and continue with the installation.
- Make sure that your Mac’s date and time is correct.
- Check your Hard Drive to see that you have enough free space to carry out the installation.
- Make sure that the version of macOS Big Sur is up to date including the macOs installer
- Run first aid on your startup disk before installing macOS Big Sur to check any system files are damaged or not.
Summary
Macos High Sierra Download
Install Macos Mojave On Unsupported Macbook
You can see that it is not hard to install macOS Big Sur on an Supported Mac. Make sure that you key in the right command lines which are mentioned above, as typing a wrong command can harm your system. Enjoy the great features that come with the macOS Big Sur on your unsupported device!
I also have a YouTube video going over the whole process.
Requirements:
- Early-2008 or newer Mac Pro, iMac, or MacBook Pro(MacPro 3,1 and 4,1, iMac 8,1 and 9,1, MacBook Pro 4,1, 5,1 5,2, 5,3,5,4, and 5,5)
- Late-2008 or newer MacBook Air or Aluminum Unibody MacBook (MacBookAir 2,1, MacBook 5,1)
- Early-2009 or newer Mac Mini or white MacBook (Macmini 3,1, MacBook 5,2)
- Early-2008 or newer Xserve (Xserve 2,1, Xserve 3,1)
Machines that ARE NOT supported:
- 2006-2007 Mac Pros, iMacs, MacBookPros, and Mac Minis (MacPro 1,1 and 2,1, iMac 4,1, 5,1, 5,2, 6,1 and7,1, MacBook Pro 1,1, 2,1, and 3,1, Macmini 1,1 and 2,1)
-- The 2007 iMac 7,1 is compatible if the CPU is upgraded to a Penryn-based Core 2 Duo, such as a T9300.
- 2006-2008 MacBooks (MacBook 1,1, 2,1 3,1 and 4,1)
- 2008 MacBook Air (MacBookAir 1,1)
-- Note: Make sure SIP is disabled on the system you intend to installHigh Sierra on. If it's not or you're unsure, just boot into your Recoverypartition of your currently installed copy of OS X, open Terminal, andrun 'csrutil disable'.
Things you'll need:
- A copy of the macOS High Sierra InstallerApp. This can be obtained from the Mac App Store using a machinethatsupports High Sierra, or by using the built-in downloading feature of the tool. In the Menu Bar, simply select 'Tools > Download macOS High Sierra...'
- A USB drive that's at least 8 GB in size
- A copy of the tool - Download here (Current version: 2.7.0, SHA1: 73f180d30200ef5f6d900440fe57b9c7d22bd6bf)
-- View changelog and download older versions here
Known issues:
- Trackpad (MacBook5,2 affected only). The trackpad in the MacBook5,2isn't fully supported in High Sierra. While it works and is fully usable,High Sierra detects it as just a standard mouse, preventing you fromchanging some trackpad-oriented settings.
How to use:
1. Insert your desired USB drive, open Disk Utility, and format it as OS X Extended (Journaled).
2. Open the 'macOS High Sierra Patcher' tool, and browse for your copy of the macOS High Sierra Installer App.
*Ensure that the tool successfully verifies the app.
3. Next, select your USB drive in the Target Volume list, and click 'Start Operation.'
4. When the operation completes, boot your target unsupported Mac offthe USB drive you just created by holding down the Option key while turning on the machine, and selecting the drive.
Note: Only perform steps 5 and 6 if you intend to do a clean install.Otherwise, you can simply skip these steps and install to your volumecontaing a previous version of OS X, and it'll do an in-place upgrade.
5. When the installer boots, open Disk Utility from the Utilities menu, or by double-clicking it in the Utilities window on the bottom left corner of the screen.
6. Select the disk or partition you want to install on, and erase it,ensuring to use either Mac OS Extended (Journaled), or APFS as the filesystem type.If formatting an entire drive, ensure GUID is selected.
-- Please note that if you use APFS, you will not have a bootable Recovery partition.
-- It is recommended that you only use APFS if the target drive is an SSD.
-- If you decide to use APFS, a custom booting method will be installed by the post-install tool, as the firmware of these unsupported machines does not natively support booting from APFS volumes. It is not quite as clean as native booting, but will not cause any issues while running High Sierra. A demo of the modified booting process can be viewed here.
7. Install macOS normally onto the desired volume.
8. When the install completes, reboot back onto the installer drive.This time, open the 'macOS Post Install' application.
9. In the application, select the Mac model you are using. The optimalpatches will be selected for you based on the model you select. You canalso select other patches of your choosing.
-- The 'i' button next to each patch will show more details about the respective patch.
10. Select the volume you have just installed macOS High Sierra on, andclick 'Patch.' When it finishes patching, click 'Reboot'. It may sitthere for a few moments rebuilding caches before rebooting.
-- If for somereason the system fails to work correctly after rebooting, boot backinto your installer drive, run the post install patch again, and select'Force Cache Rebuild' before rebooting. This isn't necessary under mostcircumstances.
11. When it reboots, it should now boot into a fully working copy ofmacOS High Sierra.
Additional Info:
- If selected in the macOS Post Install tool, your High Sierra install will have a program named 'Patch Updater' located in your /Applications/Utilities folder. This program will alert you when new updates to patches are available for your machine, and will prompt you to install them. If you do not have Patch Updater installed, but would like it, you can download and run the script found here to do so.
Updates
System updates, such as 10.13.1, should install normally if 'Software Update Patch' was selected in the macOS Post Install tool, or installed using the Patch Updater program. If for some reason updates aren't showing up, or you did not apply the patch, you can install it manually using the script found here.
-- If the machine does not start up properly after applying a system update, you will need to boot off your patched installer volume, and re-run the post-install patch on your High Sierra volume. Ensure you select 'Force Cache Rebuild' before rebooting.
FAQ:
Q: The tool created the USB drive successfully, but when booting, the progress bar hangs a bit more than half way.
A: Check your copy of the Install macOS High Sierra App. If you're using thelatest version of the tool, you must be using the latest version of theInstall macOS High Sierra App. Version 1.1 ofthe patch tool and older support older versions of the installer app.
Q: The patch tool gives me errors, such as 'Error copying files...'.
A: Check to make sure your USB drive is writeable. Try re-formatting it, or just try a different USB drive.
Q: The patch tool gives me a 'Mounting Failed' error
A: Check to make sure your Install macOS High Sierra App is the correct one.It should be around 5GB in size. If you used the 'Skip App Verification' option, you have most likely selected an invalid app thatdoesn't contain the necessary files.
Q: I cannot open my copy of Install macOS High Sierra with the patch tool.
A: If you downloaded the copy linked above, it is distributed inside aDMG file. You must open this file (mount it) to access the InstallmacOS High Sierra App you need to select.
Q: I don't see my hard drive partition in the installer screen or in the post-install tool.
A: Make sure FileVault is disabled, or use the instructions found here to unlock it manually using Terminal.
Q: I get a 'NO' symbol when starting up after successfully installing High Sierra.
A: Make sure you have run the post-install patch on the correct volume, as detailed above in steps 8-10.
Q: I get a 'NO' symbol when starting up from the patched USB drive
A: Check the supported/not supported list at the top of this page. Ensure your machine is in the supported list.
Q: My iSight camera doesn't work after installing High Sierra
A: Make sure you properly remove (using the program's uninstaller, not by simply dragging the application to the Trash) all virtual machine software installed on your machine, such as VirtualBox, VMWare, etc.
Q: I get 'NSURL' errors when trying to update my machine or use the App Store
A: This is usually the result of having an invalid CatalogURL set. To revert to stock, simply run 'sudo softwareupdate --clear-catalog' in Terminal, and then run the software update patch script located above.
Q: Safari, App Store, and/or Mail stopped working after installing a system update
A: Download and run the Onyx application, select 'Maintenence' at the top, then click the Run button.
Q: I get a 'No packages were eligible for install' error when attepting to install High Sierra
A: This is due to your system's date and time being set incorrectly. To fix it, you can either boot into your current OS X install and set the date, or you can use Terminal after booting from your patched USB installer drive to set the date. Instructions to set the date using Terminal can be found here.