Catalina (10.15) is the latest stable release of Apple's macOS. You will see some of the recent apps can only work on this version. And you have to upgrade macOS accordingly. However, only a small portion of Mac models are eligible for direct upgrade offered by Apple. What 's to do if you want to use Catalina on an unsupported Mac? This tutorial will show you how to install macOS Catalina on an unsupported Mac model.

  1. DosDude Catalina Patcher is a popular third-party tool that allows users to patch the MacOS Catalina installer on otherwise unsupported Macs. Of course, just because you can do this, doesn't mean.
  2. In this video, I go over the process of installing macOS 10.15 Catalina on an unsupported Mac. This entire process involves the use of my 'macOS Catalina Pat.

Jun 16, 2021 Make your old Mac support macOS Catalina. Older Mac owners don’t have to worry. It’s not the end of the world. There’s a patch that lets you install Catalina to Macs that are not officially supported. The patch is known as DosDude Catalina Patcher. DosDude Catalina Patcher is a third-party tool, meaning Apple does not develop the tool.

1. Why macOS Catalina?

macOS Catalina is the last iteration of the macOS series, after which Apple has now moved to macOS 11 Big Sur. Not all Mac users will install Big Sur so soon after its release because they'll be waiting for all the major bugs to be fixed in an 11.x update. But there's also another reason: Big Sur is only meant for certain models of MacBooks and iMacs.

And some of the apps can not work on an old version of macOS, such as High Serria or Serria. You will receive the following messages if you try to run an app that only supports Catalina and later versions. You have to upgrade macOS to Catalina in such a case if the app is very important for you.

The same is true of Catalina as well, but Catalina is a more mature version and brings a lot of features to the table, such as the improved Siri, customizable smart lists, the new AI-based Photos app, better Notes search, refreshed Safari, and so on. Probably the most important change is the deprecation of iTunes into three separate entities for Music, TV, and Podcasts. That's why a large portion of users still prefer Catalina even if their device is compatible with Big Sur.

2. Official Support List by Catalina

Unfortunately, as in the case of Big Sur, macOS Catalina also does not support very old models of Apple devices. Here is the official support list. If your device is from an older year, you cannot upgrade to macOS Catalina the usual way.

  • MacBook (Early 2015 or newer)
  • MacBook Air (Mid 2012 or newer)
  • MacBook Pro (Mid 2012 or newer)
  • Mac mini (Late 2012 or newer)
  • iMac (Late 2012 or newer)
  • iMac Pro (2017)

In addition, your video card will need to be pre-metal, and it works with specific series of GeForce, Radeon, and Intel graphics cards.

3. Unofficial Support List by Catalina

Unsupported

Thankfully, there's a way to patch macOS Catalina on your older system, which extends the list of supported devices. However, you will need to download macOS Catalina dmg file, burn it to a USB drive, and then install Catalina on your Mac by booting from the USB installer. The process is shown below and it works with the following unsupported Mac models.

  • MacBook Pro Early 2008 or newer
  • MacBook Air Late 2008 or newer
  • Mac Mini Early 2009 or newer
  • MacBook Early 2009 or newer
  • iMac Early 2008 or newer

4. How to Create a macOS Catalina Bootable USB

UUByte DMG Editor is a fantastic disk image management utility for Apple's DMG files. Not only can you burn a DMG to a range of media storage devices but you can also extract files without having to mount the DMG as a virtual drive. Besides, it is a cross-platform application that works well on both Windows and macOS. This means you can create a bootable Catalina USB installer on a Windows PC.

Although it is meant for experienced users, the user interface, navigation, and feature layout have been simplified so even beginners can jump right in and get comfortable with the software. Here's the process in the form of steps you can duplicate on your Mac.

Warning: Please back up your Mac first before taking into real actions. This might brick your EFI chip with multiple EEPROM definitions.

Step 1: Download DMG file of macOS Catalina from the following sources. These site offer the latest version of the macOS Catalina, please download a copy to your Mac.

  • Download Link 1: https://themacgo.com/macdownload/
  • Download link 2: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/NW4r628CM

Step 2: Insert a USB drive and install UUByte DMG Editor application on a Mac or PC.

Mac Os Catalina Patch

Step 3: Launch UUByte DMG Editor and select the 'Burn' option on the main page.

Step 4: On the inside page, hit the 'Browse' button and select the DMG file from your local storage. Check if your USB drive is displayed in the field below the DMG image field. If not, click on 'Change' button to select the correct drive.

Step 5: All you need to do is name your drive and hit 'Burn' button. You will see the progress as the USB installer is created.

When you see the success message, close UUByte DMG Editor and eject the drive. It is now ready for you to use in the macOS Catalina installation process described in the next section.

5. Install macOS Catalina on Unsupported Mac

Now, follow the steps shown below carefully to load the installer, erase your local disk, and install macOS Catalina from USB drive you created in above step.

Step 1: Boot Mac from USB Installer

To do this, insert the installer and hold down the Option key as you restart your Mac. In the Startup Manager, choose the drive name that you used in the installer creation process. You won't be able to use the mouse here so use the arrow key to select your drive and hit Enter.

Step 2: Wait Catalina Installer to Be Loaded

This could take a few minutes so be patient. Don't worry if the screen goes blank or if the progress bar looks like it's frozen. Don't do anything at this point.

Step 3: Erase Local Hard Drive

When macOS Catalina installation wizard is loaded, you'll be able to see macOS Utilities window with several options. Choose Disk Utility option and then Continue. In Disk Utility, choose your hard drive (usually Macintosh HD) and hit Erase, which you will see in the top menu bar.

In the popup window, make sure the Format is set to APFS and hit Erase, leaving everything else as it is. You may want to change the name of the local HDD but you can leave it as Macintosh HD. Exit Disk Utility, which will take you back to the macOS Utilities window.

Step 4: Start Installing Catalina on Unsupported Mac

This time, in macOS Utilities, please choose Install macOS and then hit Continue. Hit Continue again to confirm the operation. When you see the license terms, hit the Agree option. You may need to do this twice for confirmation. Choose Macintosh HD (or however you renamed your local hard drive) and hit Install.

Wait for the installation to complete. This may take up to an hour or more depending on your system configuration and other factors.

Frequently Ask Questions

There are several known issues when installing macOS Catalina on ansupported Mac. However, it has less impact on daily usage.

No Tab for All Photos in Photos App. You will find this minor issue when using Photos app on Catalina. To fix this, you should right click any photo in Photos app and select 'Show in All Photos' from pop-up menu.

GPU acceleration not available. You will see a performance downgrade when playing games because the full video accleration is not available in Radeon HD 5xxx or 6xxx series video card.

WiFi not working. If you could not join any WiFi network, then you should use this command to fix it manually: sudo networksetup -setairportnetwork en1 SSID PASSWORD

Summary

Definitely, it is not a simple task to install macOS Catalina on an unsupported Mac. You have to complete the task manually, which is more challenging than a direct update being pushed by Apple official. However, the above tutorial proves to be fine on most of unsupported Macs we listed in Section 3. Now, enjoy using macOS Catalina on an officially unsupported device!

While you can’t install macOS Catalina officially on your unsupported Mac but thanks to the Catalina Patcher third-party tool. The macOS Catalina Patcher tool will definitely work fine to install macOS on the above unsupported Mac. This problem is occurring for thousands and maybe a million Mac users, so there’s a should be a solution. MacOS Catalina Patcher. The easy way to run macOS Catalina on your Unsupported Mac. Download Latest Version View Changelog. Current Version Info. Current Version: 1.4.4. To rectify this, use Catalina Patcher to download a fresh copy of the Catalina installer, then re-create an installer volume and/or retry the installation. Download Mac OS X El Capitan DMG File – (Direct Links) Ibrahimi macOS. Download macOS Catalina DMG File – (Direct Links) Ibrahimi macOS. How to Install macOS Catalina on Unsupported Mac. Download macOS Sierra DMG File – (Direct Links) Ibrahimi Windows. How to Delete User Profile Correctly in Windows 10. A Hackintosh-compatible computer with an empty hard drive: This is the computer where you will install Hackintosh Catalina.It can be the same computer as the one mentioned in the previous point. If your computer already has macOS installed, Hackintosh Catalina will just update macOS normally, without deleting any of your apps or files, but always a fresh installation is recommended.

Got an older MacBook or Mac Mini, and macOS Catalina is not supported? Here is how you can install macOS Catalina on an unsupported macOS. Check out step by step tutorial with download links and the complete guide.

Another year, another major release by Apple for the latest mac users. Now, macOS Catalina is the latest version running on the latest devices. In this update Apple have improved the processing speed, adds the side car feature; connect your iPad Pro with mac for better development using Apple Pencil and much more features like Screen Time. However, this update is also useful because it includes the iPhone apps for macOS device. For the example, Twitter app is now also available for macOS Catalina.

  • MacBook (Early 2015 or newer)
  • MacBook Air (Mid 2012 or newer)
  • MacBook Pro (Mid 2012 or newer)
  • Mac mini (Late 2012 or newer)
  • iMac (Late 2012 or newer)
  • iMac Pro (2017)
  • Mac Pro (Late 2013 or newer)

If you are one who have an older MacBook or Mac Mini and want to run this update on your machine then this is the right place where you are going to learn the easiest way to install macOS Catalina on unsupported mac. Yes, this is a truth you were always looking for. Now yo can easily do this by following some steps. I have shared all the download links and step by step guide to do this.

  • 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

However, still if you are using macOS Catalina Patcher listed machines are not compatible.

  • 2006-2007 Mac Pros, iMacs, MacBook Pros, and Mac Minis
  • 2006-2008 MacBook
  • 2008 MacBook Air

Before proceeding next, please make a complete backup of your current macOS version running on your machine. This method requires time and there are still some bugs and you also see something missing.

Requirements for Installing macOS Catalina on unsupported mac

  • Access to a Mac using which we will create a bootable macOS Catalina installer USB.
  • At least 16GB storage of USB in MacOS Extended Journal format.
  • Backup of the target machine.

Now, if you have read all the above-mentioned things and you are ready to install macOS Catalina on unsupported mac then follow the give steps.

If your device is still compatible with macOS Catalina patcher then follow the given steps.

  1. At the very first, you need to Download the latest version of macOS Catalina Patcher on the real macOS device. Always use the latest version of this patcher because they have bug fixes for you.
  2. Open the macOS Catalina Patcher app and hit continue button on your screen.
  3. At this stage, we are going to click at “Download a Copy” button because we need to create a bootable USB.
  4. Depending on the speed of internet the installer of 8GB will download when you hit Start download button.
  5. Once downloaded, you will see different installation methods. Just, insert the USB in your MacBook and click on “Create a Bootable Installer”.
  6. Once USB Drive is ready, plug-in this USB into the unsupported mac where you want to install macOS Catalina.
  7. Power on the machine and keep holding the Option key on mac. You will see the Startup Manager on Screen. Using arrow keys, click on the USB drive you have created.
  8. At this step, you are in macOS recovery and you need to format your internal drive with APFS format on which you are going to install macOS Catalina using patcher.
  9. Now just wait ‘Reinstall macOS’ option to start the installation process. This will take some hour. If you see any command lines, ignore them because this is normal.
  10. Once the installation is done, shutdown your mac. Again, boot it using USB drive. This step is important because we need to verify patches.
  11. At the macOS recovery screen, hit ‘macOS Post Install’ option. Let the MacBook select the right patches for you. Click Apply Patches and sit back.
  12. At the final step, hit ‘Force Cache Rebuild’ and click Restart.
  13. Finally, you will see the macOS Catalina Setup screen on your mac.
  14. Setup the device according to your need. You will see ‘Setting up Mac’ screen before the desktop.
  15. As a result, you have successfully installed and booted macOS Catalina on unsupported mac.

That’s all for today. If you have any issues while installing macOS Catalina using this patcher you can comment below. Our team will assist you as soon as possible. However, this is not a rocket science. Just make sure you are following the steps carefully and not skipping any.

Dosdude Catalina Patch

If you have confusions you can also try the video tutorial made by the developer of this patcher. He have also explained all these steps very well.

Download Macos Catalina On Unsupported Macos

EMBEDD THIS VIDEO HERE: https://youtu.be/wxFzZWqoCng

Also leave a comment of you have successfully installed macOS Catalina on your unsupported mac. We are always looking to see our visitors happy.

Osx Catalina On Unsupported Macs

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Macos Catalina Supported Macs

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