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While the yearly major macOS update system is free to install, it is still limited to Macs that Apple deems compatible, and every year a generation of Macs essentially becomes obsolete. This is despite the fact that Apple is eager to emphasize that macOS is a widely compatible operating system.
As it happens, there are still people with close to ten-year-old Apple desktop computers still in use on a daily basis, likely performing a range of lighter tasks.
For some reason Apple doesn’t want to allow these Macs to run one of its latest operating systems, namely macOS 10.13 High Sierra. This leaves the following Macs on macOS 10.11 El Capitan:
MacBook Pro – late-2009 or earlier models
MacBook – late-2008 or earlier models
MacBook Air – 2009 or earlier models
iMac – late-2008 or earlier models
Mac Mini – 2009 or earlier models
Mac Pro – 2009 or earlier models.
These machines are considered obsolete and vintage by Apple. The company defines vintage products as those that have not been manufactured for more than five years but less than seven years ago. Obsolete products are those discontinued more than seven years ago.
How to install macOS High Sierra on unsupported Macs
Though Apple doesn’t support the above hardware officially, someone has thought about sharing the love for these older machines. A developer known as DOSDude1 has written a patch that works on Macs with the Penryn architecture. Using this still imposes certain limitations, but at least makes it possible to install macOS High Sierra on the following Macs:
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 (MacBook Air 2,1, MacBook 5,1).
Early-2009 or newer Mac Mini or white MacBook (Mac Mini 3,1, MacBook 5,2)
Early-2008 or newer Xserve (Xserve 2,1, Xserve 3,1).
If you happen to own any of the Penryn Macs mentioned above, the macOS High Sierra Patch Tool written by DOSDude1 will make running the latest software possible. But remember, with High Sierra you will also migrate to the Apple File System, and it is highly recommended that you first disable SIP because it may prevent the patch from working at all.
Installing the operating system on any of these Macs will require some technical knowledge, so it is not recommended for novice users. Also, a backup of your data is always a good idea in case anything goes wrong.
While there is a full step-by-step tutorial and video tutorial available on DOSDude1’s website, it’s good to get a summary of the basics, which start with downloading the macOS High Sierra Installer app from the Mac App Store:
Installing macOS High Sierra on unsupported Macs
1
Format a USB drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) via Disk Utility.
2
Open the macOS High Sierra Patcher tool, navigate to the High Sierra Installer App, then select your pen drive and click “Start Operation”.
3
Boot from the USB drive by holding down the option key after reboot.
Install macOS normally, reboot back on the installer drive, and then open the “macOS Post Install” application.
5
From the options, select the Mac model you own. This step is important, because it contains the optimal patch for that specific model.
6
Click the “Patch” button, and after the process has finished, click “Reboot”.
The reason not to install macOS High Sierra on an unsupported Mac
As you may have already experienced with other types of officially unsupported machines, the probability of having issues is much higher. The same applies in this case, too, since the macOS High Sierra Patcher will render your iMac 8.1 Broadcom Wi-Fi chip useless for certain models.
Macs that use the Broadcom BCM4321 Wi-Fi module will not have functional Wi-Fi when running High Sierra. Another issue that has been highlighted by the developer is that the trackpad in the MacBook 5,2 isn’t fully supported in this version of OS.
These are just a few of the possible issues that could arise, and this is before even mentioning the various potential software errors that you can run into by using out-of-date hardware. Without getting the proper knowledge beforehand, you’ll need to revert back to the previous state of the Mac, which won’t be an easy process, especially not without a Time Machine backup.
Hello Andre, the official macOS version supported for a MacBook Pro (Early 2011) is macOS High Sierra (10.13). This means that your MacBook Pro should be able to run macOS High Sierra natively, as it is compatible with this version. Have a good day :)
Hi Andy, and thank you for your comment! We aren't able to find the model you mentioned. Did you mean the Mac Mini Model Number A1993? If that's the case, High Sierra fully supports this model, as it hit the market in 2018. As such, installing the operating system should be as simple as installing any other. Have a nice day!
This article needs to have a date prominently displayed at the top since this is really time sensitive material. As of 4/16/19, it looks like the Broadcom WiFi issue is solved but the track pad issue is not.
I have a 2009 MacPro (4,1). This is not just a light duty machine. It's still a powerhouse. It is important to point this out, since it is kind of the point of this article. Improvements in real world performance are not as fast or necessary as they once were. High end versus low end does matter. It probably helps that I have the 8-core, 2.9GHz version with 32GB RAM, an NVIDIA Titan X "Maxwell”, and 25TB worth of hard drives inside the machine.
I have been running High Sierra in a VMWare virtual machine for a while now. Performance of this VM is not just okay. It's snappy. In fact, I have this High Sierra virtual machine as well as two others, running Snow Leopard and Ubuntu Linux constantly running. The MacPro, itself, is still on El Capitan but I want to upgrade because the latest NVIDIA drivers require High Sierra. The latest NVIDIA drivers, in turn, are needed to use the latest version of the MinerGate cryptocurrency mining software. In addition to constantly running three virtual machines and mining cryptocurrency, I also do software development and video editing. Does this sound like a light duty machine?
Help needed
My Mac prop 2008 doesn’t want to play all
Got usb drive which has high sierra on it
And patch tool
But every time I press the operation I get this message restore error
An error occurred while restoring the base system image to the target volume
Can any one help
This patch maker for macOS High Sierra does NOT work on my Mac mini 2007, A1176, Core 2 Duo 1.83GHz, 4GB Ram. I did follow the instructions, I made the USB, then I restarted my Mac mini and I did hold the "Option" in order to boot with USB but when I click on the USB icon to boot, the system goes back to normal boot "Mac OS X Lion". Would you please help me?
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