How to Install Mojave on an Unsupported Mac

Last month I talked about what’s in my tech bag. In that post, I professed my love for my Late 2011 MacBook Pro. It is my first and only Mac. It has all the ports I need unlike the newer MacBook Pros. It edits HD video just fine in Final Cut Pro X and edits audio just fine in Garage Band. The only thing I would like to have is USB 3.0 as this guy still had USB 2.0.

macOS Mojave on a 2011 MBP

macOS Mojave on a Late 2011 MacBook Pro

Apple has always been great with supporting older devices. I believe the latest version of iOS supports iPhones going back to the iPhone 6. Compare that to Samsung and other Android manufacturers that aren’t directly affiliated with Google.

Computer hardware doesn’t seem to evolve as quickly as mobile hardware has over the past few years and people are not as quick to replace their computers as they are their mobile phones. The decision to not support older Macs was a bit of a surprise considering the only real issue holding back the upgradability has to deal with the graphics card.

macOS Mojave requires a graphics card that supports Metal, an Apple technology that lets the system and apps efficiently tap into the capabilities of today’s graphics processors (GPUs).

Source

Thankfully, there are some smart folks out there that have created a patch that allows macOS Mojave to be installed onto some unsupported Macs. I have been running the patched version for some time now on my one and only Mac with no issues.

The tutorial I used was from dosdude1 on Youtube. It was a very straight forward and clean installation. The Mojave Patcher Tool for Unsupported Macs is available for download from DosDude1’s website.

I did a clean install of Mojave, as suggested in the video. I have had no issues to date. It really is a simple process and if you are a fan of Dark Mode All The Things like I am and you have an older Mac, this one is a no brainer.

This advice comes with all the typical caveats of backing up your device first, etc. and your experience may be different than mine, so take it with a grain of salt. Also, I have moved much of my workflow from the MacBook Pro to the iPad Pro thanks to apps like LumaFusion, but I still use the MacBook Pro for work since the virtual desktop experience is smoother on the Mac than it is in iOS at the time of this writing.

Do you have any unsupported Mac? Have you tried using the Patcher Tool? What has your experience been? Let us know in the comments below.