Big Sur on older Macs [2008-2013] ULTIMATE GUIDE! OpenCore Legacy Patcher for Unsupported Macs

[@lenny1830]

Asked this man for help on twitter yesterday & today he uploaded a 1 hour in depth tutorial. Thank you so much!

[@Mr.Macintosh]

You bet! Happy to help 👍

[@punishrs]

It helped me a lot too. Thanks

[@macgamer1973]

@@Mr.Macintosh I want to know what you have in your Mac Pro 5,1 , is it the stock model? In my I have OWC pci controller, accelor Nvme controller, sonnet tech usb c. I put back in Radeon 5770

[@DjDestinyChicago]

This helped me a lot too! Thanks for asking for help

[@estinacbe]

Can I upgrade my macbook late 2010 to bigsur? Can I still use it properly? I am currently in high sierra version 10.13.6 pls help

[@eoliverosh]

I have a Mac mini server mid 2011 (5,3). Two years ago I upgraded it with 16 GB of ram and two 480 GB SSD. I managed to run unsupported High Sierra with some annoying but manageable glitches. One month ago most of the installed software began telling me that it could no longer be updated, I was planning to dump my beloved machine. Then I saw your video, many times until I became familiar with the procedure. I finally installed Big Sur in it. Everything runs fine, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, video, AirDrop (never worked in High Sierra), everything! You and the OpenCore team are the best!!

[@MattGUploads]

You are an absolutely legendary person my friend! I hate that app devs don't do older versions of their apps for older OS'. But i followed this guide and my 2011 Macbook pro 13 inch is now running BigSur and all the apps I need FLAWLESSLY. Thank you so much! You got my sub!

[@sligon00]

I am glad that your macbook pro is running " FLAWLESSLY " , gives me hope for my early 2011 MBPro ; now just wondering which version I should update my os ( El Capitan ) to , go all the way to Monterey ( see his new viideo ) , or maybe just do Big Sur like you did ? 🙂

[@nicoocafaro]

It worked perfectly on my Mac Pro 09’ , It have an intel processor, 8Gb of ram and 250gb SSD, just follow the step by step and you have no chance of some error, thanks and greetings from ARG🇦🇷

[@maukaman]

I finally got Big Sur running on my 2010 iMac that I pulled from a dumpster almost 2 years ago!!! It took many attempts and failures and I had just got it finally installed when I saw this video pop up 😂. I’m glad you made this new video, the instructions are very clear it should help some other users get it figured out. Wish this patch would have come sooner but I’m so thankful to those that made it happen!!! Go out and get to know your local e-waste dump everybody!! Save these wonderful machines and breathe new life into them!

[@Mr.Macintosh]

Thank you very much @EarthquakeTickles !!! That 2010 iMac is STILL USEFUL! And you proved it by installing Big Sur on it. Nice work!!

[@maukaman]

@@Mr.Macintosh No, Thank YOU! It was one of your videos on the subject that popped up right when I had considered getting rid of this old machine. I had already taken the time to set it up with 2 internal SATA drives and an eSata port, but didn’t want to put the time and money into a metal GPU replacement. Also, since I live off-grid on solar this big 27” machine was a bit power hungry without a good “dark mode” available. The dark mode setting alone actually cuts the power consumption in half!!

[@maukaman]

@@Mr.Macintosh I’m still missing the menu bar but I should be able to find a fix for that... Otherwise it’s running great! 👍

[@maukaman]

Sort of fixed the menu bar issue. Just toggled the transparency and contrast settings and it reappeared, it gets stuck on the title of the last open application but I can still access the options tabs for the current running application so it’s minor.

[@estinacbe]

can i do this on my late macbook air 2010? just recently updated it to macOS high sierra, can my external drive be used its 500gb and i cant think of what to do i have all of my files there do i have to delete it first before doing this?

[@Anthony-j5q8y]

You are a life saver! After restarting my old IMac after many years I was not able to login and deleted everything thinking I’d have a fresh start and wow that was the worst decision I made! Thanks to you what seemed impossible was fixed over something so little! I can’t believe apple hasn’t fixed this themselves…what a shame

[@echerkaoui]

dude !!!! thank you so so much ! my 2011 MacBook Pro has never been this quiet ! the fan barely spins ! great explaining the steps ! keep the hard work

[@Mr.Macintosh]

Glad it helped @D-Avg-Joe I really appreciate that! That 2011 MBPro will continue to last!!

[@problemsolver-draly7220]

Did you have any troubles in logging in after accelerating graphics I cant login

[@patrickigiraneza2947]

best tutorial ever Just installed Big Sur 11.7 on my old mid 2012 Macbook Pro

[@linuxxxunil]

Me too. I’m doing it again with the latest gui installer but the menu on the installer is messed up. Not in sequence. The help file list is different. Oh well.

[@Mr.Macintosh]

EDIT 9/23/21 OCLP Version 0.2.5 was just released! PLEASE USE 0.2.4 TUI FOR NOW, until I can investigate the menu changes. I know this is a long video, but I gathered all of your questions over the past few months and put them into one video divided up into organized chapters! Let me know if you have any questions, I hope you can get your Mac to Big Sur via OCLP!!!

[@calebyong]

Hi, I have mid 2011 iMac with AMD 6750 GPU. Would it work?

[@vitomgs28775]

My imac 27 2011 late is stock at waiting for remote debugger connection

[@maukaman]

@@calebyong If you follow the instructions well you should be fine. I’ve got it up and running on my 2010 iMac

[@raycordero01]

It doesn’t matter if the video is long. It’s so much better do it longer so the viewers can have all the necessary steps. Your are good sir! Continue with the approach! Much Appreciate!!!! God Bless You!

[@ronny71980]

Ahh if only I came across this comment earlier, yes I noticed the options were missing from the menu unlike the one you shown us 0.2.4. I'm in the phase of installation now hopefully all goes well **Update, downloaded 0.2.4 release and hola successfully installed big sur on my mbpro late 2011, 8,1. Thanks dude! You rock 👏

[@almatto8648]

Mr. Macintosh you are my hero. I updated my system and it would not allow me to run programs that need graphic acceleration. SO>>> I re-watched the video and like magic the "after install patcher" got the job Done. My "old" 2012 Mac Pro TOWER IS RUN NING LIKE A $7000 + NEW MAC. ThNK YOU VERY MUCH. I AM MAKING ANOTHER DONATION TO YOUR FANTASTIC TEAM. Your explanations are easy to follow even for 75 year old guy like me who watched your videos 3 times to get it right. You and your friends are incredible. 😃 NOTE TO ALL An SSD makes it flawless. Mr. Macintosh You covered all of the bases on this one.

[@ShireIO]

Couldn't be happier. Your videos and the great work by the OpenCore team have revitalized my Mac Pro 5,1 Using OpenCore I am now able to boot Big Sur directly from an NVME drive in slot 4 (not an SSD - a real NVME drive) and I even tossed in an NVidia GTX 770 which still has native Metal support. Absolutely gave my cheesegrater new life as an dev system! Thank you so much!

[@Mr.Macintosh]

This comment is awesome @MsShirepony !!! and is one of the biggest reasons why I do these videos. You just took an 11 year old Mac and gave it NEW LIVE! How cool is that? Thank you again!

[@eurekamusiclab]

@MsShirepony yeah I have the same mac as you but looks like some of my system preferences and my top left corner options (apple menu, folder, window, etc) are not appearing at all. Any chance I did something wrong and how to fix it? Thanks a bunch!

[@subconsciouslyinyahead7977]

@@Mr.Macintosh Maybe I’m doing something wrong. Not seeing the option during the reboot. 1. Followed early instructions for the scheme: GUID partition Map Format: mac os extended journaled my 1tb also has my time machine on it. Should I delete that and start fresh

[@navang9933]

I just bought a 5,1 and the last owner said it had an NVME drive install, I do see it in slot 4 as well and the GPU is a Nvidia Geforce GTX 980. But because of my lack of knowledge I don't know what a "real" NVME drive is. It is in PCIe slot 4 so I'm gonna say it is. If I look in the system report it says all this gibberish: Available: 254.41 GB (254,407,786,496 bytes) Capacity: 511.9 GB (511,900,434,432 bytes) Mount Point: / File System: APFS Writable: Yes Ignore Ownership: No BSD Name: disk1s1 Volume UUID: Physical Drive: Device Name: SAMSUNG MZHPU512HCGL-00004 Media Name: AppleAPFSMedia Medium Type: SSD Protocol: SATA Internal: No Partition Map Type: Unknown S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified

[@pielichiewicz]

Best tutorial ever. Since Bensova's bigsur patcher doesn't work for me, I stopped at 11.5 on my MBP 2012. Thanks to your help I went flawlessly through updating to 11.6.

[@Mr.Macintosh]

Thank you very much pielichiewicz!!

[@youthithejackpott]

Sane here! Much appreciated!

[@davidemuccioli153]

This video is simply amazing and the effort in making it shows some real passion! Mr. Macintosh, you did an incredible job. I’ve tried to upgrade a mid 2011 Mac mini with SSD and 16gb ram: i was expecting “the strobo” effect that you mention on the last part of the video, but I’ve got some different graphical issues. I will retry to do it and in the worst case I will remain on Catalina. But, even if I’ll fail again, I really think that it’s worth to give it another try because your guide is so clear and useful that I owe it to you :)

[@thelocalappinc]

Listen I can't thank you enoughhhhhh for this... I legit bought my first mac... used... only to find out it was like 2010 mid version running Sierra and important programs like XCode just couldn't work... I felt sooo defeated almost cheated for my ignorance and then I came across this walk through which was heaven sent... I'm now running Big Sur on a 10 year old mac pro and lovingggg it... why does Apple practice these tactic with its customers this is soo not cool... someone would have otherwise legit dumped this device thinking it was worthless not realizing it just needed some Mr. Macintosh... THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!!

[@mrgentt]

Amazing video - fallowed your instructions and brought back 2 x Mac Pro (Early 2008) to use again with more decent Apps, fair play to you man - instructions are so clear and easy to fallow, absolute gent ;)

[@Mr.Macintosh]

Thank you very much Janeks! I really appreciate it 👍

[@walidboujdour]

Because of you, i installed Big Sur on my early 2011 MacBook Pro, thank you very much for this in-depth video

[@pedroportfolio]

hello there. Do you have both gpus enabled on your mac? Or just the Intel integrated one? I had to disable on a hardware level the AMD gpu because of the known problems and wanted to upgrade osx

[@eduardowatkinz]

Just finished installing on a Mac Mini 2012 i5 (upgraded). Worked like a charm. No issues at all; downloaded the latest software updates. I used the newest GUI OpenCore Patcher.... Thanks

[@Mr.Macintosh]

This is great news Eduardo!!! I'm glad everything worked great and your 2012 Mini si up and running the latest macOS 👍

[@DavidEAragon]

Hi, Love the process of this video. Question... I have a iMac 27" late 2012 running Catalina and my thunderbolt ports don't work (states "thunderbolt: hardware not found." Will this help bring back my thunderbolt ports? if not, do you know how i can bring them back - thank you.

[@koenkummel2989]

Perfect, works like a charm. Used open core 0.2.5 which is a newer release. They also changed the menu structure, putting the SIP and SBM settings in a sub menu hence had to carefully read and compare to your tutorial. Other than that it went as a warm knife through the butter. Firsts regular apple updates were fetched and installed allready. so all seems to work. First feeling is that it runs much smoother and snappier then OS Catalina. My specs for reference: 10.1 early 2013 15" mbp 2.7ghz i7 16GB 750SSD Intel HD 1600mb. Saves me to buy a new one for at least a year.. Keep the good tutorials coming 😃Thanks

[@Mr.Macintosh]

Koen, thank you very much for this reply! I'm really glad this worked on your 2013 MBP as it still has a lot of life still in it! 👍

[@ashleysimmons8165]

Does this mean Opencore now supports Catalina?

[@ernextoho]

AWE!! thank you mr mac. you are a genius teacher. your content is so good the we are getting 2 ads per minute.. hope you're getting paid. You deserve it.

[@Toby_Q]

Wow. This video must have taken you a long time to make. Good job man!

[@Mr.Macintosh]

It did Toby, the video is LONG for sure! The idea is that people could just go to the chapter that they need and it covers all the situations a user would be in. Thank you very much for the comment 👍

[@lawdogg97]

Finally updated my MacBook Pro 2010. Thanks sir! I’m not a tech guy, but you made it simple to understand.

[@chingamage2548]

Thank you Sir!!!!! what a great tutorial! I updated two of my 2011 13" and 15" MBPs and they works smooth like silk. Again, thank you Mr. Macintosh! One thing I want to add, when I was upgrading the Opencore Legacy version was 0.4.3., and in this version they have DISABLED Terascale 2 acceleration in the patcher settings by default. What it means is if you have a 2011 15" MBP, you will not get the graphics acceleration even if you install the post volume patches (because 2011 15" dGPUs need Terascale 2 acceleration). So what you need to do is go to the patcher settings and enable the Terascale 2 (Patcher Settings -> Misc Settings -> TeraScale 2 Accel) before building the OpenCore AND before installing Post volume patches. this will install the graphics acceleration for the dGPU and the OS will be smooth like sliding on butter! Also see below link about this setting before enabling it, since they mention these dGPUs has some kind of a degradation over the time.. however i took my chance and applied Terascale 2 acceleration, and I am happy!!! dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/ACCEL.html#cannot-login-on-2011-15-and-17-macbook-pros

[@karenfilippini]

I was installing Big Sur on my MBP 15" 2008, updated with SSD hard drive and 8 GB of memory's... everything works well and I just follow your video! Thank you so much for explaining and make this so easy!!!

[@jaskrawyy6150]

is it fairly smooth? can be used?

[@hebsonheby5416]

Thanks for taking the time to put together this video to breathe life into older Macs. Thank you a ton

[@Mr.Macintosh]

Thank you for that comment Hebson! That is my goal, keeping as many old Macs running as possible 👍

[@emmalawson1504]

Wow! It worked on my late 2009 iMac! Thankyou! I bought this a week ago for £150, the gentleman I bought it from had just upgraded it to an SSD 128, and to 8gb ram, and new graphics card. So I was very lucky! Now this! I cannot thank you enough! I was a little too scared to try the Monterey though! As I haven’t even updated my 2017 MacBook Air to Monterey either as yet 😂. So so happy! ☺️☺️☺️

[@Mr.Macintosh]

This is awesome news Emma!!! That was a great deal for that iMac that will now run well into the future! Don't worry about not upgrading to Monterey yet, Big Sur is just fine for the next year and a half. 👍

[@SWPAMUDSlingers]

Thank you for taking the time to do this, two years ago i upgraded my 2013 IMAC with the i7 processor, 32GB of ram and 1TB SSD so that $500 upgrade payed off Big Sur runs fantastic. I was considering purchasing some thing new but now I will not.

[@Mr.Macintosh]

Isnt that great? Your 2013 iMac is still very powerful and is definitely fast enough to still run Big Sur 👍

[@mehAudio]

Dang! I have the exact same config, Late 2013 27" iMac with i7 and the largest GPU. I followed all the steps but my Mac will only load the bootloader from the USB stick. No matter how often I use OpenCorePatcher to write to my Macintosh HD, without the USB stick, I get the message that my system is not supported by this version of Mac OS. So close!

[@SWPAMUDSlingers]

@@mehAudio Oh man I know I missed a couple steps and I had to repeat a few things because the newer boot loader is a little different but I did get it to work and so far I’ve had no issues updates are working as well

[@mehAudio]

Oh man, I failed at recognizing pictures :-D My Drive Icon for booting from SSD looks different and I didn't get that the black shape in the icon was representing my SSD. I'm going to register for another year of kindergarten, I guess.

[@adonysmercadal3508]

@@mehAudio me too gtx 780m 4g full spec loaded

[@mxc0bbn]

Freaking Amazing! I've been sitting on a Mid 2010 17" Macbook pro with MacOS 10.6.x for at least a year and figuring it was the end of the line for it. After this video I can see it becoming an active laptop in the family again. Thanks MrMc :-)

[@sabrinareid702]

Thank you so much for this! It was super easy to follow. I updated my iMac Late 2013 and it's amazing. I'm going to do my MBP 2011 tonight!

[@TheKbnrba]

let me know your thoughts!

[@JosephHerzog]

Came back to say I GOT IT TO FREAKING WORK. I'm amazed that this worked. Stick with it, don't get frustrated, and this man will save you hundreds of dollars. Thank goodness for Mr MAC!

[@XxXSuperDadXxX]

I was having trouble for 2 days upgrading a friend's Mac past Catalina. I found you last night and followed this tutorial with super pausing power activated. Thank you so freaking much! This helped more that FEMA ever could!

[@Mr.Macintosh]

haha! Thanks Loose Newport!!! Sorry I have to keep the pace up or I get "you are going too sloooooow" I'm glad your pausing skills are top notch 👍 Enjoy Big Sur!!

[@ElliotAtkins]

This is a fantastic video that helped me flawlessly upgrade my old Mac in a couple of hours. Thank you.

[@alancook6854]

Thanks Mr. Macintosh. I went through this today on my mid 2012 MacBook Pro after Quicken informed me my time was up and I'd need to spend £2k on a new computer. Now running Big Sur and its all gone quiet over there. Thanks again

[@JensenSiu]

This tutorial was very helpful to me because in encountered many problems installing OCLP 0.3.1 (just because I should reset NVRAM and didn't do sooner - Oups!). Thank you very much Mr Macintosh! VERY IMPORTANT: If you have a Mac Pro 5,1, own a metal compatible GPU like Sapphire RX580 and choose to put back in your Mac the original GPU (for me a basic RADEON) to see the installation process and/or the verbose mode, after the installation, do not use the post install patch to get the graphic acceleration on your Radeon GPU otherwise you won't be able to run your metal compatible GPU after ! The post-install patch uninstaller is experimental and it didn't worked for me two times. I had to completely reinstall Big Sur from the USB drive (it takes a lot of time) just to overwrite several problematic files. I don't think this tutorial is clear enough about this point.

[@nicolamberti5076]

did now my Mid 2012 MacBook Air from CatalinaOS 10.15 to Big Sur OS (in order to have latest Google Chrome installed) - worked perfectly fine - thank you Mr Macintosh

[@courtneysheppard1024]

Thank you so much for this. Worked for me. I used the Monterey video to get me through the new open core update too as I downloaded the newer version ☺️

[@Mr.Macintosh]

Nice job Courtney, it sure is pretty cool that we can run Big Sur on our old Macs 👍

[@courtneysheppard1024]

@@Mr.Macintosh just going to do the Monterey update now I know everything works. For anyone that wants to know I have a 2013 27” iMac. 32GB of ram, 1TB SSD. Also a metal Mac. works as perfectly as Catalina did. Doesn’t slow it down. You wouldn’t even tell it’s a 2013 Mac. I upgraded the software so I kept all my documents and apps on there instead of fresh upgrade.

[@rafaellombardiparri3647]

Fair dinkum!!! Man, you're good! You revived my 2009 macbook and I can use Big Sur as my Mini. The video is very easy to follow and all the links are there. Good on you, mate! If only the videos from my old employer (EMC - 20 years there) was easy as this one, it would a blessing! Bless your heart! Geraldo/Australia

[@davidheller1650]

I used your video to update my iMac 27” mid-2011 to Big Sur, and it worked perfectly!! I am so happy to breath new life into this 10 year old machine, I can’t thank you enough. I used the GUI version of OCLP because it was just easier than the TUI version. One question: when a update version of Big Sur becomes available, can I just click on the update as per usual, or do I have to do anything with OCLP. Thanks again!

[@swampwitch6133]

It will update normally for any reading this and wondering. Once the OS is installed it will behave just as if the OS is supposed to be supported. The only thing that may or may not get updates would be graphic drivers if the support isn't there by Apple and it's a Legacy Driver Apple no longer supports (like the Intel 4k series with some machines as I understand they are dropping support for it.

[@adonysmercadal3508]

iMac 2013 27 inch 32gb of ram, i7, gtx 780m 4gb, 2tb ssd, and it works like a charm!!! Thanks a lot!!

[@Mr.Macintosh]

That 2013 iMac is still a BEAST! wait until you install monterey on it 👍

[@TheSalonLife]

Thank you so much for all of your amazing, comprehensive tutorials. Keep up the great work!

[@thejazzassignment]

This is a great resource. I was able to use it to get my Mac Pro 5,1 running Big Sur by Jan 2022. The one thing that I would say is that recent updates to open core include a new approach, somehow using virtualization technology, that gives a different experience to some of the settings. In the end I made my best guesses and it all went very well! Thank your for this very well-paced, easy to follow tutorial!

[@mikebe2090]

Wow just spent the last 4 hours installing this on my 2009 17” MacBook Pro 5,2 after installing a new 1tb SSD. This went really well. The updates on this version have moved on now & made it even smoother to install. I tried using an old ext HD at first to do this but quickly changed to a 3.0 32Gb USB Drive much much better. I used terminal & some of the menus in it have changed but I managed to find my way around it by trial & error (try a number, if its not the menu you need Q then enter to go back, try another. Some things that did not show it terminal for me were Number 10 Disable AMFI & Number 13 Latebloom but I carried on & everything went ok. There is a lot to do in this but I watched this video first before trying anything to get the feel of it. Very happy I bought this MBP on an auction site $155 NZ dollars 👍 with no operating system installed, added Yosemite, then El Capitan, now Big Sur 😱 debating wether to try Monterey now? lol Many Thanks Mr Macintosh & all the developers, your all amazing 🎉🥳

[@amirfarrahi7905]

Thanks so much for this helpful guide. Very well done. I am trying to use this to install macOS Big Sur on my 24" iMac Early 2009 model, while upgrading from macOS Catalina to Big Sur. I created the external USB Mac OS Big Sur Installer, and the Open Core EFI. I had instaled rEFInd boot selector earlier, and was expecting some difficulty getting to the OpenCore EFI selector. However, when I reboot and hold the option key, I get to the screen that allows me to seleft the OpenCore EFI, and then it takes me to the screen that I can select to install Mac OS Big Sue from the external Drive. However, after the install, I keep getting to the same screen that shows the following options: 1- Restore from Time Machine 2- Install macOS Big Sur 3- Safari 4- Disk Utility And when I choose the "Install macOS Big Sur", I go through the same following sequence repeatedly, and: - Continue, - Agree, - Agree, - Select the disk where I want to install macOS, - Continue, - Wait for 30+ minutes or so, for Big Sur to install Then the system seems to reboot, and gives me the same 4 choices 1-4 listed above, as if Big Sur is not installed. Do you know what may be wrong? Could it be a problem caused by rEFInd? I really appreciate your help.

[@argruber]

I had exactly the same experience with my iMac early 2008 (iMac 8.1). Any clue to solve the problem?

[@AppleNinja]

This is an Awesome video! Thanks so much for the in-depth tutorial Mr. Macintosh! Anyone looking for info on this topic, this is the video to watch. Have a great weekend Mr. Macintosh and thanks again for such a detailed video.

[@Mr.Macintosh]

Thank you very much @Apple Ninja!!!

[@Mr.Macintosh]

Love that new terminal video btw 👍👍👍

[@erikfox8471]

omg, man you could be a professor on MIT😃this is the best tutorial iv ever watched on youtube, so detailed so well presented...respect!! i wish there was a install hackintosh with big sur tutorial like this too...

[@xRaymondCx]

Very good guide. However, for people that are new to installing this, I recommend AGAINST using the new 0.2.5 OCLP if you have a Macbook Pro 8,2 cause that thing drove me insane. They changed something about it that breaks the booting process (I am assuming that it was the AMFI option, since it disappeared from 0.2.5 but says it auto disabled it for me

[@Mr.Macintosh]

@Rayted_R, thank you for letting me know of your experience. I'm still looking at 0.2.5 and have changed the links to 0.2.4 so users are not confused. I will be able to start testing 0.2.5 soon.

[@josedamianortegasilva8182]

can the most recent version (11.6) of big sur be used?

[@xRaymondCx]

​@@josedamianortegasilva8182 Yup, I used 11.6 2 days ago with both 0.2.4 and 0.2.5 OCLP. Just do it with 0.2.4 OCLP if you want to be safe.

[@sulz2545]

Im having the same issue and I used the latest patcher. I can’t see the high sierra partition anymore. It only shows the big sur and the efi boot and it stucks at booting up. Any help plz

[@BrandonBaileyIG]

I've been looking for this help for 6 months.. you SIR.. are THE GOAT!! thank you SOOOO much for making this video!

[@ahpenglehahpengleh]

Thank you Mr Mac for the time dedicated to this lovely video! Truly appreciate it. Just to share: I’m on early 2011 Mac Pro and met some hiccups at the graphic patch step. After patching and attempting to reboot, verbose mode got stucked at “waiting for remote debugger connection”. Decided to redo the whole thing by erasing disk and conduct step 3 instead. I’m so glad it worked! I have a final question, I currently have problem turning on my filevault. The error shows: “incorrect password” which shouldn’t happen. Is this normal for using OCLP?

[@BUTAJIUK]

Awesome, I did as u said here for my mid 2012 MacBook Pro, installed Big Sur without any issues and it works just perfect. Even BootCamp with Parallels are working perfect! Thank You!!!

[@kingshukdatta8048]

How is the battery life on mid 2012?

[@BUTAJIUK]

@@kingshukdatta8048 the same as on Catalina

[@kingshukdatta8048]

@@BUTAJIUK I was thinking of upgrading my mid 2012 MacBook Pro. Are you still on big sur? And are you having any issues on backlit?

[@kingshukdatta8048]

Please let me know. It will be a great help

[@BUTAJIUK]

@@kingshukdatta8048 Big Sur was working without any issues on my mid 2012 MBP. Now I have Monterey on my Mac and it works with no issues also. For backlit issue there’s a solution with special app, you can watch videos on this channel for instructions. I haven’t updated the latest version for Monterey yet, but 12.1 is working as it should.

[@bastienx8]

I just updated my main iMac from late 2013 (with a GTX 780M, a still very capable machine) and everything seems to work so far ! It even feel a bit faster, but I don't know if it is just the new animations or if there is a real difference in performance

[@Mr.Macintosh]

From my tests it IS faster @Bastien Corn! This makes me think that I should do some speed tests!

[@armandoponce-garcia8494]

Yeah!!!I finally got it working. I did a fresh install, and it is running fast and great. One thing I should mention, Clicking on my qifi icon, will not reveal all the networks around me, not a big deal, but I thought I should mention it.

[@Karmatias]

Fantastic tutorial! I'm having an issue tho, maybe someone here can help. I have a macbook pro early 2011. I followed the install all the way to the volume patch and restarted. But there seems to be a driver glitch when the desktop boots and it sends me back to the login screen. If I try to log back in, it just takes me right back to login screen until I reboot and the issue repeats. Am reinstalling for 5th time

[@Mr.Macintosh]

Kareem, can you try booting up with safe mode by holding down the shift key. Will that let you login?

[@willjernigan9159]

Hello having the same issue here and was able to boot into safe mode. Few months old thread but perhaps you can lend some advice as to what i can do at this point

[@Karmatias]

@Will Jernigan I went back 1 OS and it installed fine. I thing it is just a problem with big sur

[@willjernigan9159]

So i was up late because i just had to solve this- you have to boot to safe mode or single user mode disable the amd graphics card in NVRAM

[@collinbrooks8205]

firstly i havent receive the necessary information but i can say this man is not getting the right amount of respect he still have reach 5ook subscribers this isnt fair

[@whosevamp]

I had a 2009 Yosemite computer this really helped :>

[@ShivKumar-qo5ql]

i have 2009 too will it work??

[@muhammadragilsaputra3067]

​@@ShivKumar-qo5qlyess but if you want full performance i suggest you to upgrade your mac to ssd and maximum ram capabilities of your mac. example 16GB on 2010 13" Macbook Pro

[@animah.midtimbang3780]

How to upgrade my Macbook 2009 I must Change it or what?

[@zacmizampa]

Done!Big Sur on my MacPro 5.1 mid 2010.Super!Everything goes on.Perfect and very details tutorial!Thank You very much from Italy!The best Mac ever!!!Think Different!

[@Mr.Macintosh]

That's awesome Massimo!!!!! I'm glad your Mac Pro is up and running again with Big Sur 👍

[@paulo_a_dias]

What configuration example do you use? I am a same model and I am a litle confuse. Thanks

[@Muon_ium]

Thanks so much for uploading this video. Finally, I was able to upgrade my mac to Big Sur. Thanks!!! It would be really very nice if you can make a video for macOS 12 Monterey upgrade as well!

[@Mr.Macintosh]

You bet! Upgrading from big sur is on my video list as soon as Monterey is stable. As of now things are changing even this late in the beta cycle!!!

[@trutris124]

@@Mr.Macintosh So does that mean the big sur is more stable now than it was a few months ago? I tried the big sure like a few months ago and it was bad. Should it be better now? I just want to try it again and see how it is.

[@stefanvasilev9318]

@@Mr.Macintosh Love this tutorial - Big Sur is working so so wel on my MBP/2012/A1286! Love it! One important question tho - I just received a notification that I can officially update to Monterey? Is this normal? Does this Big Sur version trick Apple to think my MBP is supported for future updates? I am itching to press the Upgrade Now button, but I feel a little nervous? Thank you!

[@somfplease]

after a few attempts I got this working on MB Pro mid 2010. seems to working great. now i am going to try on imac late 2012. excellent videos and brilliant piece of software.

[@sulz2545]

Hello i have the same mac but am having issues. After installing when I power on the mac it says operating system not supported on this mac. Any heads up as to what I’m doing wrong. Thank you

[@somfplease]

@@sulz2545 sounds like you missed a step. you have to boot to OCLP EFI loader. can you restart and hold option key to get the boot loader?

[@sulz2545]

@somf I did and all booted to the big sur desktop but when I wan to install d post patches the mac says user account name and password are wrong. And I assure you i typed them correctly but it says its wrong. Thats where i got stuck

[@somfplease]

@@sulz2545 ahh ok, thats an issue well away from the patcher. can't really help with user account issues. if you can just wipe everything and start completely from scratch and go from there.

[@2forever56]

Thanks a lot for this great video Actually you are the best international tuber talked about this Iam following you from Middle East One more thing kindly When I followed all your instructions but where is Macintosh HDD Big Sur It's disappeard at last video I didn't know what actually should I used any partitions of them?

[@Mr.Macintosh]

Thank you very much Ahmed!!! Just to clear up your question. Are you trying to partition the drive? Or are you talking about the split system "Macintosh HD" is one partition and Macintosh HD - Data is the 2nd partition.

[@2forever56]

@@Mr.Macintosh yeah my dear I tried to partition the drive to two parts Macintosh HDD & Macintosh HDD Big Sur, After that I didn't know why I did it because at the last of video we are just seen one partition I didn't know where is the other one

[@Makarandstories]

I have done it very well. The heartiest greetings to Mr Macintosh for this amazing tutorial. I faced difficulty while entering the terminal with the administrator password. After that I got problem with removing the pen drive with the OS.my computer get blank at the time. then I remember your guidelines on how to remove the pen drive at the end. The heartiest Thanks to you for this great effort

[@EnTiFiRe]

You’re the best one doing this, thank you so much ❤️

[@Mr.Macintosh]

Thank you Anthony!!!! 👍

[@joepowell4098]

I'm in the process of building the USB drive using Terminal. No issues creating the Install macOS Big Sur USB drive. Next, using OpenCore Patcher Terminal it built the OpenCore (1), but when I select (2) Install OpenCore it doesn't find my USB drive. I've switched USB ports, rebooted, and tried the GUI app. It only shows my internal drive. What did I miss? Sorry, my bad. I didn't select the correct Scheme to format the USB drive. Worked great after I correctly formatted the drive. Also, since I'm running 11.5.1, I skipped the OS install and went right to installing the Boot Loader into the internal drive. Process smooth and up and running.

[@Mr.Macintosh]

All you need to do is erase the usb again and select GUID partition scheme after clicking show all disks from the top menu

[@goldenrick9704]

Hello mr Mac .. my MacBook keeps getting stuck on boot with apple logo every now and then .. is there a fix for this ?

[@0FunshotG0]

Yes, Try resetting your NVRAM by holding Command + Option/Alt+ P + R It worked for me.

[@stephenloibl4297]

The final install..which takes around 20 odd minutes and gets to 0 minutes remaining……my Mac just get stuck and goes nowhere…..any ideas?

[@onteo4561]

​@Stephen Loibl I just left it overnight on "less than a minute remaining" and woke up on Big Sur

[@pedromanafaia]

This is a fantastic video, thank you!!! I just successfully installed Big Sur on my Mac Pro 5.1 from 2012 and its working really well!!!

[@Mr.Macintosh]

Awesome Pedro!! I'm glad everything went well 👍

[@thrivingbranch]

This is an amazing guide. I have a late 2012 Mac mini that still runs great, but is stuck on Catalina (or so I thought). One of the issues I’ve heard about the patchers is the loss of WiFi or personal hotspots. Would these work on a late 2012? I must admit, being able to get native updates on OCLP is quite amazing!

[@Mr.Macintosh]

You bet! Wifi works great with no issues. That 2012 Mac Mini will live on with macOS Big Sur!!!

[@LUKAS-bb4jc]

@@Mr.Macintosh I have a MacBook Pro 15-inch Mid 2012 that has 16GB of RAM, a fast HD and it runs quite fast on Catalina, will it be as fast on Big Sur ?

[@clarinetics5213]

so you did the installation without problems? I'm not able to handle it. When it comes to the reboot, pressing the alt-key doesn't lead to the window to choose the EFI-Partition. Any help?

[@thrivingbranch]

@@clarinetics5213 There is no ALT key on a Mac keyboard. If you're using a "Windows" keyboard, you might need to hold a different key like CTRL or SHIFT, because the key mapping is different. I'm not an expert by any means though, so this is just my best guess.

[@randymorrow8931]

Will this work for Mac Pro Early 2009 without upgrading the graphics card?

[@LUKAS-bb4jc]

The fact that you took time to make this very useful video for Big Sur when macOS Monterey is coming "soon" is very nice from you, but if you do a video about Monterey and OCLP will you tell how to upgrade from Big Sur which is already is OCLP ? Thanks in advance.

[@Mr.Macintosh]

I appreciate that @LUKAS, that was the idea behind this video one final blowout video for Big Sur before I switch to full time monterey. I will be creating a normal video for Monterey but things are changing so fast with all the changes in the latest betas. The OCLP Dev team is on top of it, from wifi, bluetooth, acceleration patches! In the new video I will show how to upgrade to monterey from big sur, stay tuned!

[@samsittikul]

Just upgraded my Mid 2010 MBP and it's working like new. Thank you so much for your video tutorial.

[@renouxmarais3333]

Very nice and detailed. Thank you from a new fan. Just a quick question before I do this, How is the performance on a late 2009 Macbook? 6.1. I have an SSD and 8GB RAM but I dont want to install this if its gonna be super slow.

[@Mr.Macintosh]

Renoux, you can follow the 2nd example that shows you how to install on a 2nd partition so you can test it out. Let me know how it goes, it should perform good with your SSD and 8GB of ram.

[@jxke]

This helped to keep my completely hand built from new old stock parts Mid 2009 MacBook 5,2 to stay relevant today. I think I'm going to have to pop on new thermal paste because Big Sur is making this MacBooks fan run consistently with just running Safari. And, upgrading from 4 gb of ram to 6 is going to be a must as well. I did try to the Monterey upgrade and it went well. But, it runs much slower than Big Sur. So, I rolled it back to Big Sur. So glad that I don't have to see the scrolling text and unsupported graphics on Dosdudes patcher anymore. Thanks for the upload. This laptop has been the one I fell in love with. I had an M1 MacBook when it was released. But, I just didn't feel at home on it. I was always terrified of even breathing on it as it just seemed too fragile. So, I sold it. I'm much happier on this old a1181.

[@Mr.Macintosh]

keep that old 2009 running Jacob!!! Think about how cool it is that an almost 13 year old MacBook can run macOS Big Sur

[@domenicob.8844]

Hello, thank you for your really well done guide. I signed up specifically for the quality of your videos. I have a doubt that hope you can solve. I'm on a Mac Pro 5.1 with OS Mojave and a Radeon RX 560 GPU (Metal but does not allow me to use ALT for Boot). What settings should I use in the Open Core Patcher. I refer to point 5.

[@Mr.Macintosh]

Domenico, thank you very much! Do you still have your old video card? Most people will put the old card back in so they can see the boot picker then put the metal card back in when the Big Sur install is finished. IF you don't I'll try to think of a few ideas that we could do.

[@domenicob.8844]

@@Mr.Macintosh Thanks for you answer. Yes have a old GT120, but I'm having trouble connecting my new Benq to her, because don't have miniDV male cable. Anyway i can arrange with my old Apple monitor. My question was related to the right setting in the Advance Setting Patcher, in particular to n. 10 and 11 and considering, that I will then use a Metal card.

[@danieleichar8167]

@@Mr.Macintosh this is the exact issue I am having. Is there any way around needing to add the original card back? Thank you in advance for your help!

[@JerryFisher]

I think this is the same question I have. I'm installing Big Sur to my cMP 4,1 but flashed to 5,1. I discovered that the installation would stop dead in its tracks until I replaced my ASUS HD 7850 w/2GB with the original GT120 card. I was shocked when it actually still worked while getting everything installed. It doesn't have the juice to output full resolution to my 4K 29" Samsung monitor, but it still gave me a stretched but usable screen. The problem is, I want to put my ASUS card back in and use that. But, it seems that I can't. It is metal capable but not flashed. So no boot picker screen. I tried restarting the Mac leaving the USB installer in while using the ASUS card but nothing but a black screen after holding down the option key. I would count off ten or fifteen seconds then try to blindly find the volume with the arrow keys. That didn't work. Am I off the mark in assuming that I have to patch the boot volume using the GT card to finish the installation, but can go back to my ASUS card? If so, will the patches see that there is a different card and adjust accordingly? If not, then I think I'm back at the bottleneck with trying to use a more capable ASUS versus the venerable but slower GT. I keep thinking I'm missing something obvious that should make this a cakewalk, but my mind is a bit foggy tonight.

[@josephpisani1072]

Same issue for me. I upgraded to a Radeon 7XXXX which supports metal because the old graphics card died. I've installed Mojave but I don't think I can get to the screen to select the usb drive as I don't see the boot picker screen normally. One thought I saw on an apple forum is to simply hit the arrow key to the right or left and press enter. If it's the only other bootable drive, you'll likely hit it. Not the most elegant solution but could be possible. Has anyone found a way around this as I don't have the option to install the old card.

[@edward.ramirezfpqp]

Mr. Macintosh thank you for this tutorial! My mid-2010 15in MacBook Pro now has a new life! Thank you!

[@kristmadsen]

Thanks apple for making it so hard to install your newest OS ! Isn't it great that you have to hack your machine to install a newer version..

[@azrilsyazrin]

Very thorough explanation/tutorial.. by watching this I really think I gained some confidence to do this upgrade on my late 2012 mac mini by myself.. Thank you so much

[@denmarkdiscord1561]

Sir my MacBook Pro7,1 mid 2010 13 inch is old but I want to update it to Catalina is that possible? Can it be run smoothly and if there’s a way for it can you tell which part of my MacBook Pro should be changed and replaced for newer and stronger things cause I can’t afford the newer macs for now can you please help me?

[@radio5stars]

Catalina is The best and estable, go for it, everybody Having problems with Big sur and monterey

[@radio5stars]

I have same model

[@wapasowapaso]

I'm working on a Macmini 5,2 2011. I did follow all the instructions and at the end came Big Sur screen but is blinking with different colors. Can you help me to find what I did wrong? Thanks

[@TheMondiEstate]

I am on a 2012 Mac Catalina Desktop, I am on the terminal step copying the files to the disk, and it has been stuck at 0% for a while. Any tips on how to make it go faster or what things I can do if it fails? Thanks for the tutorial!

[@radadechev310]

Hello, please help: my MacBook Pro 5,2 is not responsive after the instal (update). I see the welcome screen, but the cursor and keyboard are stuck. Any ideas? Thanks!

[@eduardowatkinz]

I was reluctant to take a perfectly immaculate 2011 dual GPU MacBook Pro 15 inch i7 running High Sierra and follow your instructions (although I did install on an external drive to ensure it would work). It worked; mostly. I need to do some further research as the KB brightness does not work (not that I ever use it anyways) and I had to install Macs Fan Control to ramp down the fan speeds. Overall, I give you instructional video a thumbs up. I have noticed no slow down in OS performance. Now I have an 11 year old system (that was kicked to the curb by Apple and brought it back to life) and get back all the ports plus the internal DVD Drive, you can't get anything from Apple that can even comes close to touching it. I collect older retro Macs (2009 Mac Pro running Catalina (OpenCore), and a few others that go back to the early 2000's) and the thrill in bringing them back to life feels good, I'll further test some of the apps, but don't feel that I will have any issues. I will say your instructional videos are very good, but at times you go too fast and you cover too much material (it's hard to follow, need to keep going back to fully understand) at one time, I would suggest breaking it up and when you come to a critical step, slow down a bit. IMHO. Thanks

[@Mr.Macintosh]

Eduardo, thank you very much or your detailed honest feedback. I am really happy that your 2010 MacBook Pro is running on Big Sur!!! It will be even faster if you install it on the internal drive one day 👍As for the keyboard backlight all you need to do is install an app called LabTick. As far as speed, I do understand what you are saying. I tried slower videos but I got a bunch of complaints that I am going too slow. I try to keep things moving + and cut it in the middle a bit. You are right, it feels great to bring an old Mac back to life with a new supported OS!

[@incognito_user]

👏👏 Very good attention to detail at 36:12. Saw you changing the partition name from “Big SUr” to “Big Sur”.

[@Mr.Macintosh]

@Justin Kur, you have a VERY good eye! As soon as I say that my OCD kicked in and HAD to fix it haha! 🤣

[@MarcellinoBuitenhuis]

Thanks, Mr. Macintoch with your help my mid 2011 iMac (12.1) has been revived. It already had a new 1TB SSD and 20Gb RAM, I updated to a CSR4.0 bluetooth dongle and now it can run the latest hard- and software. It's faster than my, 2015 Lenovo Yoga 500.

[@Mr.Macintosh]

This is fantastic news @Marcellino Buitenhuis and is what this video is all about. I am so happy that you are keeping that 2011 iMac rolling 👍

[@avandyvaniivanliu9171]

I succces install on macbook pro late 2013. But I have a problem. My keyboard light cannot turn on and ajust, can help me sir. Thanks

[@Mr.Macintosh]

Hello Avandy, all you need to do is insatall LabTick dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/ACCEL.html#keyboard-backlight-broken

[@avandyvaniivanliu9171]

@@Mr.Macintosh thks sir. It’s work 😁

[@mikemusial2417]

Successfully loaded Big Sur onto a 12,2 27 inch iMac that has a non Metal GPU. I was able to put the strobing problem to bed with the fix you introduced in the video. Very excellent video and I am truly grateful.

[@Mr.Macintosh]

That is great news Mike!!! I'm glad you gave your iMac new life with big sur 👍

[@garyspencer7380]

I'm up to the terminal password but don't have a password set on my iMac, and it won't let me go any further, can you advise?

[@BinarySmurf]

Very much a specific case but I have had problems booting from USB 3. 0 sticks on my Late 2012 iMac, whereas I have had no issues with USB 2.0 sticks. I did my upgrade from Catalina -> Big Sur using a USB 2.0 stick with no hassles.

[@Mr.Macintosh]

Nice work on the upgrade Steve!!! On the usb stick thing, that's strange! Your iMac supports USB 3.0 So i'm not sure what the deal could be 😟

[@maukaman]

That could also be a coincidence. I remade the install disk a couple times using different usb sticks before I suddenly got it installed properly. Can’t say exactly what I did differently, it just decided to work on the 3rd, or maybe 5th try.

[@FeloniousDream]

I put Big Sur on a 09 white unibody last night. The gui is different now, but this explanation still made sense. Thank you sir. FB LEM all the way.

[@Queensni99a]

Had to subscribe to you for these gems! Running bigsur on my old mid 2009 macbook pro!!! Thank you🙏🏾

[@davidchiu4692]

Mac Mini 5,3 installed fine. But every system text/buttons become a patch of black. So I revert it back to High Sierra.

[@fousna]

same here unfortunately :-(

[@cyrillec135]

Works like a charm with the last open core patcher and the Nvidia Kernel graphic issue with Monterey Beta 8 and a iMac late 2013!!! Thx a lot

[@Mr.Macintosh]

👍This is great news @Cyrille C !!! Thank you for sharing your results

[@korleteyobedtetteh4418]

Great! I'm on macOS Big Sur 11.7.5 now. Thanks alot you're a genius ❤. Just that your guide are old version and different from the new guide but, I still made it.

[@MacinSoftDaDIY]

i hit the bell bro. my Macbook pro 2010 w/Ssd ang 9gigs made it all the way through .. ur tutorial and instructions,, very well said man!!

[@wolfesgameplayvault5708]

I’ve nothing but praise for you, but I did run into some trouble, if you’re able to help. I followed the guide religiously, step by step, and everything worked up until I rebooted after installing Big Sur. For some reason, I went to boot where I installed it (which is an SSD I’m using via USB 3.0), and it loaded into Catalina. I’m on an iMac 2013. Thanks again for the perfect tutorial, just figured I’d ask if you, or somebody else, knew any solutions.

[@earthsinger]

Thanks worked perfectly. Old iMac 2013 - installer looked different as it was an updated one but very similar and worked well.

[@Tennesseeroadster222]

I followed this with the current 12.2 download with a few hiccups corrected this now working thanks, on a Mbp9.2 mid2012

[@stevetorres2116]

Hi, Your instructional video was extremely helpful. Great teacher

[@wapasowapaso]

Hey Mr Macintosh I fix the problem on my Mac Mini Thanks. Now I try to do the same think but on my Mac Pro 5,1 2010 is possible to do that since I have Mojave in this Machine? Thanks

[@GwnMichael]

Thank you my man, worked like a charm on my 15 inch 2012 MacBook Pro 👌, and it also feels a lot more responsive and faster than Catalina.

[@Mr.Macintosh]

This is great news @Michaelvuur! I'm glad you made it to big sur, your 2012 still has a lot of life left in it

[@clarinetics5213]

I exactly did what you described in your very good video. Everything is OK until it comes to the reboot: pressing down the option-key does not lead into the window, where I should click on the EFI-partition. This option does not appear anyway. Maybe because I'm using a already patched MacMini 6.1 (late 2012 OSX 10.15.7)?

[@bueno2001]

a big THANK YOU for this tutorial. All works fine for my Macbook Pro Mid 2012 on Big Sur (used to have Ben Sova's Patched Sur, but it discontinued)

[@Mr.Macintosh]

This is great news! Nice work @bueno2001 👍

[@bueno2001]

@@Mr.Macintosh only thing is that Bit Defender for Mac marked some of the open core files as Trojan infected and deleted them. Hard to believe that these are Trojan infected as this is open source and everything is open for review. But of course, still little bit worried as you can never know…

[@lippy-ju2jd]

Thank you so much! I installed Big Sur on a 2009 unibody Macbook ( 8gb RAM & 500gb SSD ) using the 2nd partition method. I cautiously only used 60gb to create the partition but now that it works fine I don't know how to resize to a much bigger partition ( there is 200gb of free space on the High Sierra partition). Do you have a tutorial for how to do this. Many thanks

[@umbertofurlan501]

hi lippy. i have a white unibody 2009 macbook. does it runs smoothly or has some lags here and there like catalina patch? that one was really disappointing. hoper this one is better done. i'd really wish to install big sure

[@sabrybobrahim6279]

Thank you for everything But it doesn’t boot options when I press command????

[@Mr.Macintosh]

Hello Sabry, oh be sure to hold down the option key not command. 👍