Install Macos 11 Big Sur On Unsupported Macs

  • Next, install the MacOS High Sierra as usual on the desired volume. It should be noted that if you install the operating system on an officially supported Mac model for any reason, then at this stage, the installation is complete, and you don’t need to do 8-11 steps.
  • 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.
  • Patched Sur is a UI patcher for macOS Big Sur, designed to make it easy to run macOS 11 on unsupported Macs. This patcher hopes to allow any user of any knowledge to patch their Mac, while still giving you freedom on how you want to use your Mac.
  • The presence of graphics drivers for some of these newly unsupported Macs in Big Sur Beta 1 suggests this. Q: So will my now unsupported Mac get macOS 11.x Big Sur? A: If your Mac had official support in macOS Catalina, it will be able to be patched to run Big Sur with minimal issues.

Big Sur on unsupported Mac. Installing Big Sur on an unsupported Mac can’t be done the regular way through System Preferences Software update.However, if the machine’s not too old, there’s still a way to install Big Sur on an unsupported Mac using a specially developed patcher tool.

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.

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)

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
Big sur on unsupported imacUnsupported

4. How to Create a macOS Catalina Bootable USB

Mac Mini 2012 Big Sur

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Install Macos 11 Big Sur On Unsupported Macs

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

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.

Big Sur On Imac 2011

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!

MacOS Big Sur 11.0 and later allows management of legacy system extensions for both Intel-based Mac computers and Mac computers with Apple silicon. How to manage legacy system extensions Kernel extensions that use previously deprecated and unsupported KPIs no longer load by default. (The Host Mac will do the work and the Target Mac is the Mac you need to Restore) 1. USB-C Mac as the Host Machine. The Host Mac must have at least macOS 10.15.6 and Apple Configurator 2.13.1 or newer installed. (Version 2.13.2 is the latest as of 11/18/20) 3. DosDude Catalina Patcher is a popular third-party tool that allows users to patch the MacOS Catalina installer on otherwise unsupported Macs. Of course, just because you can do this, doesn't mean.

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This article is intended for system administrators at businesses and educational organizations.

About system extensions in macOS

System extensions on macOS Catalina 10.15 and later allow software, such as network extensions and endpoint security solutions, to extend the functionality of macOS without requiring kernel-level access. Learn how to install and manage system extensions in user space instead of the kernel.

Legacy system extensions, also known as kernel extensions or kexts, execute in a highly privileged mode of the system. Starting with macOS High Sierra 10.13, a kernel extension must be approved by an administrator account or a Mobile Device Management (MDM) profile before it can load.

macOS Big Sur 11.0 and later allows management of legacy system extensions for both Intel-based Mac computers and Mac computers with Apple silicon.

How to manage legacy system extensions

Kernel extensions that use previously deprecated and unsupported KPIs no longer load by default. You can use MDM to modify default policies to not show dialogs periodically and to allow the kernel extensions to load. For Mac computers with Apple silicon, you must first change the security policy.

How To Install Catalina Unsupported Mac

To install a new or updated kernel extension in macOS Big Sur, you can do either one of the following:

  • Instruct the user to follow the prompts within Security & Privacy preferences to allow the extension, then restart their Mac. You can permit users who are not administrators to allow the extension using the AllowNonAdminUserApprovals key in the Kernel Extension Policy MDM payload.
  • Send the RestartDevice MDM command and set the RebuildKernelCachekey to True.

Big Sur Update

Any time the set of approved kernel extensions changes, either after initial approval or if the version is updated, a restart is required.

Additional requirements for Mac computers with Apple silicon

Big Sur Map

Mac computers with Apple silicon require kernel extensions to be compiled with an arm64e slice.

Before you can install a kernel extension on a Mac computer with Apple silicon, the security policy must be changed in one of the following ways:

Install Macos 11 Big Sur On Unsupported Macs Version

How To Get Catalina On Unsupported Mac

How To Install Big Sur On Unsupported Mac

  • If you have devices enrolled in MDM with Automated Device Enrollment, you can automatically authorize remote management of kernel extensions and change the security policy.
  • If you have devices enrolled into MDM with Device Enrollment, a local administrator can change the security policy manually in macOS Recovery and authorize remote management of kernel extensions and software updates. Additionally, an MDM administrator can advise the local administrator to make this change by setting PromptUserToAllowBootstrapTokenForAuthentication in MDMOptions or by setting the same key in the MDM profile.
  • If you have non-MDM devices or devices enrolled into MDM with User Enrollment, a local administrator can change the security policy manually in macOS Recovery and authorize user management of kernel extensions and software updates.