macOS Mojave Patcher Tool for Unsupported Macs
*This utility is provided to anyone free of charge, however if you'd like to donate, you can do so here:
Questions or comments? Feel free to contact me at [email protected]. Please take a look at the FAQ located at the bottom of this page as well.
I also have a YouTube video showing the process, which can be viewed here.
Important Note: 10.14.4 and later CANNOT be patched properly using Mojave Patcher version 1.2.3 and older. If you update to 10.14.4 or later, and HAVE NOT updated your installer volume with version 1.3.0 or later of Mojave Patcher, you WILL NOT be able to get your system to boot after updating! Please read the updates section for more info.
Contents:
Requirements:
• Early-2008 or newer Mac Pro, iMac, or MacBook Pro:
• Late-2008 or newer MacBook Air or Aluminum Unibody MacBook:
• Early-2009 or newer Mac Mini or white MacBook:
• Early-2008 or newer Xserve:
Machines that ARE NOT supported:
• 2006-2007 Mac Pros, iMacs, MacBook Pros, and Mac Minis:
— 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:
• 2008 MacBook Air (MacBookAir 1,1)
Things you'll need:
• A copy of the macOS Mojave Installer App. This can be obtained from the Mac App Store using a machine that supports Mojave, or by using the built-in downloading feature of the tool. In the Menu Bar, simply select "Tools > Download macOS Mojave..."
• A USB drive that's at least 16 GB in size
• A copy of the tool - Download:
• View changelog and download older versions here
Known issues:
• AMD Radeon HD 5xxx/6xxx series GPU acceleration: Currently, it is not possible to get full graphics acceleration when running Mojave on a system with a Radeon HD 5xxx or 6xxx series GPU. Mojave will be almost UNUSABLE without graphics acceleration. This includes the 15" and 17" MacBook Pro systems (MacBookPro8,2 and 8,3). If you want to enable GPU acceleration on these machines, you'll need to disable the AMD GPU (This will work on MacBook Pro 8,2 and 8,3 systems ONLY. You CANNOT disable the AMD GPU in an iMac.) Weird colors will also be produced when running Mojave with one of these video cards installed/enabled. To disable the AMD GPU on a 2011 MacBook Pro 8,2 or 8,3, follow the guide found here.
• Built-in iSight cameras: Currently, built-in iSight cameras do not work correctly on some machines. It seems to be hit or miss, but when installing, expect your iSight camera to be non-functional.
• Trackpad (MacBook5,2 affected only). The trackpad in the MacBook5,2 isn't fully supported in Mojave. While it works and is fully usable, Mojave detects it as just a standard mouse, preventing you from changing some trackpad-oriented settings.
How to use:
Important Note: If you have a machine that supports High Sierra natively, you MUST ensure you have the latest version of the system's BootROM installed if you want to boot from an APFS volume. If you have NOT previously installed High Sierra, you can download and install this package to install the latest BootROM version. When installing, ensure your system is plugged in to power, or the update will not be installed.
1. Insert your desired USB drive, open Disk Utility, and format it as OS X Extended (Journaled).
2. Open the "macOS Mojave Patcher" tool, and browse for your copy of the macOS Mojave 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 off the 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 volume containg 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.
Important Note: 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.
• Using APFS on Late-2009 and later machines will work no differently than it did with High Sierra.
• If you have a machine that did NOT natively support High Sierra (and therefore cannot boot APFS volumes natively), please note the following:
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 optimal patches will be selected for you based on the model you select. You can also select other patches of your choosing.
10. Select the volume you have just installed macOS Mojave on, and click "Patch." When it finishes patching, click "Reboot". It may sit there for a few moments rebuilding caches before rebooting.
• If for some reason the system fails to work correctly after rebooting, boot back into your installer drive, run the post install patch again, and select "Force Cache Rebuild" before rebooting. This isn't necessary under most circumstances.
11. When it reboots, it should now boot into a fully working copy of macOS Mojave.
Additional Info:
• If selected in the macOS Post Install tool, your Mojave 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.
Re-installing Patches
• During system updates, some patches may get overwritten. Using the Patch Updater tool, it is possible to re-install these patches with one click. To do so, open the Patch Updater application, and select "View Installed Updates", or use the "View > Show Installed Updates" menu in the Menu Bar.
• To re-install a patch, simply right-click on it in the list and select "Re-install". You can also select the "Re-install All" button to re-install all currently installed patches at once.
Updates
Important Notes:
10.14.6
10.14.5
10.14.4
10.14.3
10.14.2
10.14.1/macOS Extended (Journaled) volumes
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 Mojave App. If you're using the latest version of the tool, you must be using the latest version of the Install macOS Mojave App. Version 1.1 of the 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: Open up Disk Utility, and verify that "InstallESD" is not mounted. If it is, eject it, and then try again. Also, check to make sure your Install macOS Mojave App is the correct one. It should be around 6GB in size. If you used the "Skip App Verification" option, you have most likely selected an invalid app that doesn't contain the necessary files.
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 Mojave.
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: 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 Mojave
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.
Q: System updates are not appearing in the Software Update Prefpane
A: Make sure you're running Mojave off an APFS formatted volume. If you are using a macOS Extended (Journaled) volume, then you will either net to convert the volume to APFS using Disk Utility in the patched installer drive, or simply apply the desired system update by following the method detailed for 10.14.1 in the above section.
Q: The Zoom application does not show any video during meetings
A: This is due to the latest Zoom versions requiring a Metal-compatible GPU for video rendering. To patch this out of the Zoom application, download and run the script located here, or here for later Zoom versions.
I also have a YouTube video showing the process, which can be viewed here.
Important Note: 10.14.4 and later CANNOT be patched properly using Mojave Patcher version 1.2.3 and older. If you update to 10.14.4 or later, and HAVE NOT updated your installer volume with version 1.3.0 or later of Mojave Patcher, you WILL NOT be able to get your system to boot after updating! Please read the updates section for more info.
Contents:
Requirements:
• Early-2008 or newer Mac Pro, iMac, or MacBook Pro:
• MacPro3,1
• MacPro4,1
• iMac8,1
• iMac9,1
• iMac10,x
• iMac11,x (systems with AMD Radeon HD 5xxx and 6xxx series GPUs will be almost unusable when running Mojave. More details are located in the Known Issues section below.)
• iMac12,x (systems with AMD Radeon HD 5xxx and 6xxx series GPUs will be almost unusable when running Mojave. More details are located in the Known Issues section below.)
• MacBookPro4,1
• MacBookPro5,x
• MacBookPro6,x
• MacBookPro7,1
• MacBookPro8,x
• MacPro4,1
• iMac8,1
• iMac9,1
• iMac10,x
• iMac11,x (systems with AMD Radeon HD 5xxx and 6xxx series GPUs will be almost unusable when running Mojave. More details are located in the Known Issues section below.)
• iMac12,x (systems with AMD Radeon HD 5xxx and 6xxx series GPUs will be almost unusable when running Mojave. More details are located in the Known Issues section below.)
• MacBookPro4,1
• MacBookPro5,x
• MacBookPro6,x
• MacBookPro7,1
• MacBookPro8,x
• Late-2008 or newer MacBook Air or Aluminum Unibody MacBook:
• MacBookAir2,1
• MacBookAir3,x
• MacBookAir4,x
• MacBook5,1
• MacBookAir3,x
• MacBookAir4,x
• MacBook5,1
• Early-2009 or newer Mac Mini or white MacBook:
• Macmini3,1
• Macmini4,1
• Macmini5,x
• MacBook5,2
• MacBook6,1
• MacBook7,1
• Macmini4,1
• Macmini5,x
• MacBook5,2
• MacBook6,1
• MacBook7,1
• Early-2008 or newer Xserve:
• Xserve2,1
• Xserve3,1
• Xserve3,1
Machines that ARE NOT supported:
• 2006-2007 Mac Pros, iMacs, MacBook Pros, and Mac Minis:
• MacPro1,1
• MacPro2,1
• iMac4,1
• iMac5,x
• iMac6,1
• iMac7,1
• MacBookPro1,1
• MacBookPro2,x
• MacBookPro3,1
• Macmini1,1
• Macmini2,1
• MacPro2,1
• iMac4,1
• iMac5,x
• iMac6,1
• iMac7,1
• MacBookPro1,1
• MacBookPro2,x
• MacBookPro3,1
• Macmini1,1
• Macmini2,1
— 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:
• MacBook1,1
• MacBook2,1
• MacBook3,1
• MacBook4,1
• MacBook2,1
• MacBook3,1
• MacBook4,1
• 2008 MacBook Air (MacBookAir 1,1)
Things you'll need:
• A copy of the macOS Mojave Installer App. This can be obtained from the Mac App Store using a machine that supports Mojave, or by using the built-in downloading feature of the tool. In the Menu Bar, simply select "Tools > Download macOS Mojave..."
• A USB drive that's at least 16 GB in size
• A copy of the tool - Download:
(Current version: 1.3.7, SHA1: 6f96788c3e61240dde232d644d83a0d8f373dbdc)
• View changelog and download older versions here
Known issues:
• AMD Radeon HD 5xxx/6xxx series GPU acceleration: Currently, it is not possible to get full graphics acceleration when running Mojave on a system with a Radeon HD 5xxx or 6xxx series GPU. Mojave will be almost UNUSABLE without graphics acceleration. This includes the 15" and 17" MacBook Pro systems (MacBookPro8,2 and 8,3). If you want to enable GPU acceleration on these machines, you'll need to disable the AMD GPU (This will work on MacBook Pro 8,2 and 8,3 systems ONLY. You CANNOT disable the AMD GPU in an iMac.) Weird colors will also be produced when running Mojave with one of these video cards installed/enabled. To disable the AMD GPU on a 2011 MacBook Pro 8,2 or 8,3, follow the guide found here.
• Built-in iSight cameras: Currently, built-in iSight cameras do not work correctly on some machines. It seems to be hit or miss, but when installing, expect your iSight camera to be non-functional.
• Trackpad (MacBook5,2 affected only). The trackpad in the MacBook5,2 isn't fully supported in Mojave. While it works and is fully usable, Mojave detects it as just a standard mouse, preventing you from changing some trackpad-oriented settings.
How to use:
Important Note: If you have a machine that supports High Sierra natively, you MUST ensure you have the latest version of the system's BootROM installed if you want to boot from an APFS volume. If you have NOT previously installed High Sierra, you can download and install this package to install the latest BootROM version. When installing, ensure your system is plugged in to power, or the update will not be installed.
1. Insert your desired USB drive, open Disk Utility, and format it as OS X Extended (Journaled).
2. Open the "macOS Mojave Patcher" tool, and browse for your copy of the macOS Mojave 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 off the 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 volume containg 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.
Important Note: 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.
• Using APFS on Late-2009 and later machines will work no differently than it did with High Sierra.
• If you have a machine that did NOT natively support High Sierra (and therefore cannot boot APFS volumes natively), please note the following:
— If you use APFS, you will not have a bootable Recovery partition.
— 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 Mojave. A demo of the modified booting process can be viewed here.
— 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 Mojave. 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 optimal patches will be selected for you based on the model you select. You can also select other patches of your choosing.
10. Select the volume you have just installed macOS Mojave on, and click "Patch." When it finishes patching, click "Reboot". It may sit there for a few moments rebuilding caches before rebooting.
• If for some reason the system fails to work correctly after rebooting, boot back into your installer drive, run the post install patch again, and select "Force Cache Rebuild" before rebooting. This isn't necessary under most circumstances.
11. When it reboots, it should now boot into a fully working copy of macOS Mojave.
Additional Info:
• If selected in the macOS Post Install tool, your Mojave 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.
Re-installing Patches
• During system updates, some patches may get overwritten. Using the Patch Updater tool, it is possible to re-install these patches with one click. To do so, open the Patch Updater application, and select "View Installed Updates", or use the "View > Show Installed Updates" menu in the Menu Bar.
• To re-install a patch, simply right-click on it in the list and select "Re-install". You can also select the "Re-install All" button to re-install all currently installed patches at once.
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.
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.
10.14.1/macOS Extended (Journaled) volumes
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.
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 Mojave App. If you're using the latest version of the tool, you must be using the latest version of the Install macOS Mojave App. Version 1.1 of the 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: Open up Disk Utility, and verify that "InstallESD" is not mounted. If it is, eject it, and then try again. Also, check to make sure your Install macOS Mojave App is the correct one. It should be around 6GB in size. If you used the "Skip App Verification" option, you have most likely selected an invalid app that doesn't contain the necessary files.
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 Mojave.
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: 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 Mojave
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.
Q: System updates are not appearing in the Software Update Prefpane
A: Make sure you're running Mojave off an APFS formatted volume. If you are using a macOS Extended (Journaled) volume, then you will either net to convert the volume to APFS using Disk Utility in the patched installer drive, or simply apply the desired system update by following the method detailed for 10.14.1 in the above section.
Q: The Zoom application does not show any video during meetings
A: This is due to the latest Zoom versions requiring a Metal-compatible GPU for video rendering. To patch this out of the Zoom application, download and run the script located here, or here for later Zoom versions.