Instructions to install macOS Sierra on older Macs. 1) Find yourself an 8GB or larger USB drive or external hard drive partition. 2) Format it as GUID Partition Map, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) using the Disk Utility application. Related tutorial: How to use Disk Utility to format drives on your Mac. 3) Download a copy of macOS Sierra 10.12.
- Oct 02, 2016 According to what I've been reading on the web, my MacBookPro 5,5 (mid 2009) should not support macOS 10.12, Sierra. However the Mac App Store allows downloading it. I would like to prevent downloading 5GB of files and finally discover that the installer says 'your mac is not supported'.
- I did this by using a supported Mac to install Sierra. Nothing odd here. Then, I downloaded @parrotgeek1 's ZIP (attached to my post) and ran it on the drive with Sierra installed on it. You should just be able to plug the drive into an unsupported Mac and use Option+boot or Startup Disk to boot from it.
With each new OS version, Apple eliminates support for older hardware, even if it's still capable of running the new OS.
Planned obsolescence or just a push for you to make an upgrade? It doesn't matter, actually, as there are still ways to use the newest OS on older Apple computers, such as:
Early-2008 (or newer) Mac Pro, iMac, or MacBook ProLate-2009 (or newer) MacBook Air or unibody MacBookEarly-2009 (or newer) Mac Mini or white MacBook
What do you need?
1. An 8Gb or bigger USB memory stick2. MacOS Sierra Patcher for Mac - it will create a custom USB installation3. MacOS Sierra installation App4. AUSEnabler - it will help you get future software updates on your installation.
For known issues, read here.
Steps:
1. Go to Spotlight - System Information - Hardware Overview - Model Identifier and note the value. In my case was MacBook5,1
Install Osx On Unsupported Mac
2. You need Install macOS Sierra.app in your Applications Folder.
You can get this from a newer (supported system), from a friend or if you have a supported computer.
3. Run MacOS Sierra Patcher for Mac and, using the 8Gb+ USB memory stick, create a custom bootable installation kit.
4. When the creation of the tool is finished, reboot the computer, keep ALT/OPT key pressed, and select the USB device on boot.
5. Install MacOS as usual and wait for the process to finish.It will restart, but will not work, so you need to repeat the step 4 and boot from the USB drive, to run post installation tweaks.
In the first interface after boot, select from the top menu: Utilities - MacOS Post Install
Now, you must select the correct Model Identifier for your hardware (see Step 1) and apply the suggested tweaks and reboot!
6. Use AUSEnabler to get software updates.
Mac Kernel Source Patch
That's it!