Mojave Patcher Tool For Unsupported Macs

MacOS Mojave Patcher (formerly macOS High Sierra Patcher and macOS Sierra Patcher) is a small yet powerful tool that can help you create a bootable USB drive that can be used to install macOS Mojave on Mac computers older than late 2009, basically acting as a macOS Mojave patch for unsupported Macs. Create bootable macos usb from windows. The Mojave Patcher Tool for Unsupported Macs is available for download from DosDude1. This is the same guy that did this for High Sierra, and has supplied a series of other hacks and workarounds for fans of older Apple hardware. Open the 'macOS High Sierra Patcher' tool, and browse for your copy of the macOS High Sierra Installer App.Ensure that the tool successfully verifies the app. Next, select your USB drive in the Target Volume list, and click 'Start Operation.'

High Sierra Patcher Tool For Unsupported Macs

Go to the Apple menu on the Mac and choose 'About This Mac'. From there you want to run the System Report and click on the Hardware Section. Make note of the model identifier (MacBook Pro 5.1 for example). Compare the model identifier on your machine to the list of supported hardware on the Mojave Patcher Tool support page. Essentially the Mojave Patcher Tool creates a modified USB installer drive (similar to the regular Mojave boot installer drive you can make) which you can then use to install not only macOS Mojave on the otherwise unsupported Macs listed below, but also a series of patched macOS Mojave component files that allow it to boot.

Questionsor comments? Feel free to contact me at [email protected] Pleasetake a look at the FAQ located at the bottom of this page as well.
I also have a YouTube video going over the whole process.
Requirements:
- 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 (MacBookAir 2,1, MacBook 5,1)
- Early-2009 or newer Mac Mini or white MacBook (Macmini 3,1, MacBook 5,2)
- Early-2008 or newer Xserve (Xserve 2,1, Xserve 3,1)

Machines that ARE NOT supported:
- 2006-2007 Mac Pros, iMacs, MacBookPros, and Mac Minis (MacPro 1,1 and 2,1, iMac 4,1, 5,1, 5,2, 6,1 and7,1, MacBook Pro 1,1, 2,1, and 3,1, Macmini 1,1 and 2,1)
-- The 2007 iMac 7,1 is compatible if the CPU is upgraded to a Penryn-based Core 2 Duo, such as a T9300.
- 2006-2008 MacBooks (MacBook 1,1, 2,1 3,1 and 4,1)
- 2008 MacBook Air (MacBookAir 1,1)
-- Note: Make sure SIP is disabled on the system you intend to installHigh Sierra on. If it's not or you're unsure, just boot into your Recoverypartition of your currently installed copy of OS X, open Terminal, andrun 'csrutil disable'.
Things you'll need:
- A copy of the macOS High Sierra InstallerApp. This can be obtained from the Mac App Store using a machinethatsupports High Sierra, or by using the built-in downloading feature of the tool. In the Menu Bar, simply select 'Tools > Download macOS High Sierra..'
- A USB drive that's at least 8 GB in size
- A copy of the tool - Download here (Current version: 2.7.0, SHA1: 73f180d30200ef5f6d900440fe57b9c7d22bd6bf)
-- View changelog and download older versions here

Known issues:
- Trackpad (MacBook5,2 affected only). The trackpad in the MacBook5,2isn't fully supported in High Sierra. While it works and is fully usable,High Sierra detects it as just a standard mouse, preventing you fromchanging some trackpad-oriented settings.

How to use:
1. Insert your desired USB drive, open Disk Utility, and format it as OS X Extended (Journaled).
2. Open the 'macOS High Sierra Patcher' tool, and browse for your copy of the macOS High Sierra Installer App.
*Ensure that the tool successfully verifies the app.
3. Next, select your USB drive in the Target Volume list, and click 'Start Operation.'
4. When the operation completes, boot your target unsupported Mac offthe USB drive you just created by holding down the Option key while turning on the machine, and selecting the drive.

Note: Only perform steps 5 and 6 if you intend to do a clean install.Otherwise, you can simply skip these steps and install to your volumecontaing a previous version of OS X, and it'll do an in-place upgrade.

5. When the installer boots, open Disk Utility from the Utilities menu, or by double-clicking it in the Utilities window on the bottom left corner of the screen.
6. Select the disk or partition you want to install on, and erase it,ensuring to use either Mac OS Extended (Journaled), or APFS as the filesystem type.If formatting an entire drive, ensure GUID is selected.
-- Please note that if you use APFS, you will not have a bootable Recovery partition.
-- It is recommended that you only use APFS if the target drive is an SSD.
-- If you decide to use APFS, a custom booting method will be installed by the post-install tool, as the firmware of these unsupported machines does not natively support booting from APFS volumes. It is not quite as clean as native booting, but will not cause any issues while running High Sierra. A demo of the modified booting process can be viewed here.
7. Install macOS normally onto the desired volume.
8. When the install completes, reboot back onto the installer drive.This time, open the 'macOS Post Install' application.
9. In the application, select the Mac model you are using. The optimalpatches will be selected for you based on the model you select. You canalso select other patches of your choosing.
-- The 'i' button next to each patch will show more details about the respective patch.
10. Select the volume you have just installed macOS High Sierra on, andclick 'Patch.' When it finishes patching, click 'Reboot'. It may sitthere for a few moments rebuilding caches before rebooting.
-- If for somereason the system fails to work correctly after rebooting, boot backinto your installer drive, run the post install patch again, and select'Force Cache Rebuild' before rebooting. This isn't necessary under mostcircumstances.
11. When it reboots, it should now boot into a fully working copy ofmacOS High Sierra.
Additional Info:
- If selected in the macOS Post Install tool, your High Sierra install will have a program named 'Patch Updater' located in your /Applications/Utilities folder. This program will alert you when new updates to patches are available for your machine, and will prompt you to install them. If you do not have Patch Updater installed, but would like it, you can download and run the script found here to do so.
Updates
System updates, such as 10.13.1, should install normally if 'Software Update Patch' was selected in the macOS Post Install tool, or installed using the Patch Updater program. If for some reason updates aren't showing up, or you did not apply the patch, you can install it manually using the script found here.
-- If the machine does not start up properly after applying a system update, you will need to boot off your patched installer volume, and re-run the post-install patch on your High Sierra volume. Ensure you select 'Force Cache Rebuild' before rebooting.
FAQ:
Q: The tool created the USB drive successfully, but when booting, the progress bar hangs a bit more than half way.
A: Check your copy of the Install macOS High Sierra App. If you're using thelatest version of the tool, you must be using the latest version of theInstall macOS High Sierra App. Version 1.1 ofthe patch tool and older support older versions of the installer app.
Q: The patch tool gives me errors, such as 'Error copying files..'.
A: Check to make sure your USB drive is writeable. Try re-formatting it, or just try a different USB drive.
Q: The patch tool gives me a 'Mounting Failed' error
A: Check to make sure your Install macOS High Sierra App is the correct one.It should be around 5GB in size. If you used the 'Skip AppVerification' option, you have most likely selected an invalid app thatdoesn't contain the necessary files.
Q: I cannot open my copy of Install macOS High Sierra with the patch tool.
A: If you downloaded the copy linked above, it is distributed inside aDMG file. You must open this file (mount it) to access the InstallmacOS High Sierra App you need to select.
Q: I don't see my hard drive partition in the installer screen or in the post-install tool.
A: Make sure FileVault is disabled, or use the instructions found here to unlock it manually using Terminal.
Q: I get a 'NO' symbol when starting up after successfully installing High Sierra.
A: Make sure you have run the post-install patch on the correct volume, as detailed above in steps 8-10.
Q: I get a 'NO' symbol when starting up from the patched USB drive
A: Check the supported/not supported list at the top of this page. Ensure your machine is in the supported list.
Q: My iSight camera doesn't work after installing High Sierra
A: Make sure you properly remove (using the program's uninstaller, not by simply dragging the application to the Trash) all virtual machine software installed on your machine, such as VirtualBox, VMWare, etc.
Q: I get 'NSURL' errors when trying to update my machine or use the App Store
A: This is usually the result of having an invalid CatalogURL set. To revert to stock, simply run 'sudo softwareupdate --clear-catalog' in Terminal, and then run the software update patch script located above.
Q: Safari, App Store, and/or Mail stopped working after installing a system update
A: Download and run the Onyx application, select 'Maintenence' at the top, then click the Run button.
Q: I get a 'No packages were eligible for install' error when attepting to install High Sierra
A: This is due to your system's date and time being set incorrectly. To fix it, you can either boot into your current OS X install and set the date, or you can use Terminal after booting from your patched USB installer drive to set the date. Instructions to set the date using Terminal can be found here.
Updates
Important Notes:
  • Using APFS is REQUIRED in Mojave in order to receive system updates via the normal Software Update method. If you choose to continue using macOS Extended (Journaled) as your filesystem type, you will NOT receive System Updates via System Preferences. If you are not using APFS, you can follow the 10.14.1 installation steps below.

  • After applying ANY system update via Software Update, re-applying post-install patches using your Mojave Patcher installer volume will most likely be necessary. If you install a software update and the system fails to boot afterwards, this is what needs to be done.

10.14.6

10.14.6 can be updated normally via Software Update if using an APFS volume, and will need to be patched using an installer volume created with Mojave Patcher version 1.3.2 or later after installing.

Mojave Patcher Tool For Unsupported Macs
10.14.5

10.14.5 can be updated normally via Software Update if using an APFS volume, and will need to be patched using an installer volume created with Mojave Patcher version 1.3.1 or later after installing.


10.14.4

10.14.4 adds new changes that ARE NOT patchable by the post-install tool of Mojave Patcher v1.2.3 and older! Before updating to 10.14.4, you you will need to use the latest Mojave Patcher version to create a new installer volume, using the 10.14.4 installer app. Then, update to 10.14.4, either by installing via Software Update, or by just using the installer volume you've created to install.


10.14.3

If you are currently running 10.14.1 or 10.14.2, you can simply use the Software Update pane of System Preferences (if using APFS) to apply the 10.14.3 update. Once the update is installed, you will most likely need to re-apply post-install patches to get the system to boot again. This process is detailed in steps 8 - 10 above. If you are currently running 10.14.0, you'll need to proceed with the 10.14.1 update method described below.


10.14.2

If you are currently running 10.14.1, you can simply use the Software Update pane of System Preferences (if using APFS) to apply the 10.14.2 update. Once the update is installed, you will most likely need to re-apply post-install patches to get the system to boot again. This process is detailed in steps 8 - 10 above. If you are currently running 10.14.0, or are using a non-AFPS volume, you'll need to proceed with the 10.14.1 update method described below.


Upgrade Unsupported Mac

10.14.1/macOS Extended (Journaled) volumes

Apple Patcher Windows Tool

The Mojave 10.14.1 update does NOT install properly on unsupported machines, and could result in an unbootable OS. If you want to install the 10.14.1 update (and are not currently running 10.14.1), perform the following steps:
• Download the latest version of Mojave Patcher
• Download the installer using the Tools menu of Mojave Patcher
• Create a patched USB installer
• Boot from that, and install 10.14.1 onto the volume containing an older release.
• Once done, apply the post-install patches, and you should now be on 10.14.1.