Install macOS 15 Sequoia on Unsupported Macs in 6 EASY Steps

0:00 Mac OS 15 Sequoia has officially been released and my 2013 MacBook Pro is still officially unsupported for upgrading to Sequoia. But you know me, that doesn't stop me. I upgraded this old friend to Sequoia on day one and it's never run smoother. Here are the exact steps so that you can do the same. Start by downloading the latest version of OpenCore Legacy Patcher or OCLP from GitHub. A link is in the description. The latest version can be found in the releases section to the right of the page. Currently it's version 2.0.1 and in case you didn't know, version 2 was recently released as a huge update to OCLP as it allows Macs as old as from 2007 to upgrade to unsupported Sequoia. When you click

0:46 on the latest release, scroll down the page and read through the notes to make sure that your particular Mac is supported. Most Macs from 2008 or newer are supported but there are some weird exceptions like right now 2018 MacBook Airs with T2 security chips can't run this upgrade. So just read through the notes and check to make sure. Also this upgrade will probably work best if your computer is from 2012 or newer. Once you've confirmed your Mac is supported, scroll to the assets section at the bottom and download the file named OpenCorePatcherGUI.app.zip. This is the only file you'll need from here. Download this file even if you have OCLP already installed on your computer from a previous unsupported installation of macOS. It's really important

1:32 to have the absolute latest version of OCLP and the file is less than a gigabyte. So if you just download it and use that file then you don't have to worry about it. By the way, I'm going to show you the cleanest way to install unsupported Sequoia so this method will work regardless of whether you're currently on a supported or unsupported version of macOS. Once it's downloaded, extract the zip file and double-click to open up the OpenCore Legacy Patcher app. If it's your first time you'll have to give OpenCore permission to make changes to files on your computer in the security section of your system settings. Don't do anything else in OCLP yet. Now with the latest version of OCLP installed you need to update your computer to the latest version of its current OS. You could have done this before installing OCLP but for unsupported Mac users doing this first

2:19 will just make the update process go more smoothly. So go to the Apple menu, system settings, general, and then software update. Any available updates should be shown here. They should be pretty simple for those of you on supported versions of macOS but if you're on an unsupported version of macOS the updates can take quite a bit longer. You can try upgrading to Sequoia without upgrading Sonoma to its latest version but I find that OCLP works best when both OCLP is on the latest version and the computer that you're using is on its latest version of its operating system. Unsupported macOS users may also have the option to upgrade to Sequoia from right here in the system settings. This method has been buggy for me in the past however and was bugging out when I was doing this upgrade so that's why I'm showing you a more

3:06 robust method but feel free to try the upgrade from here if you'd like and then skip past the next section where we create a macOS installer. From here on out the steps to complete this installation will be exactly the same regardless of whether you're currently on an unsupported or supported version of macOS. So head back into the OpenCore app and click on create macOS installer. On the pop-up click download macOS installer. Then select the latest version of macOS Sequoia from the list and click download. Obviously you need enough space on your hard drive for the download it took about four minutes to download and about two minutes to validate and extract when I did it. Then it asks you if you want to create a macOS installer. First grab a 16 gigabyte or larger flash drive and plug it into your computer.

3:54 It doesn't have to be erased but it will be as part of the process so make sure that you don't care about losing whatever is currently on it. Then go ahead and click yes on the pop-up. Select the Sequoia installer you just downloaded and then select your USB drive from the list. Make sure that you're selecting your USB. It's probably a good idea to unplug any other external storage or peripherals whenever you're doing an upgrade like this so hopefully the USB drive is the only option in the list. Then click yes on the confirmation. It will copy the files to the flash drive and then validate the installer. This process took about 11 minutes for me. Once it finishes a pop-up will ask you if you want to install OpenCore to the disk. Select yes it will build an OpenCore configuration it only takes a

4:42 couple of seconds and then a pop-up will ask you if you're ready to install OpenCore. Click install to disk. Now be careful here this step is really important we need to select our flash drive from the list not our Macintosh hard drive. We just created a normal macOS Sequoia installer and now we need to put OpenCore on top of it so that we can install Sequoia on unsupported Macs. Once you select your flash drive OpenCore will be added. It takes about 20 seconds or so and then a pop-up lets you know it's time to reboot with the option key held to bring up the boot menu and to then select the OpenCore boot EFI option. So click reboot and then hold down the option key on your keyboard. Wait for the computer to restart and release

5:27 the option key once you see the boot menu. From the boot menu use the arrow keys to select the EFI boot option and press enter. On the next menu use the arrow keys to select the install macOS Sequoia option and press enter. On the menu that appears you have a choice to make. If you want a super fresh and clean Sequoia installation you can go to the disk utility option and erase your hard drive first. I'm not going to do that in this video because my current Sonoma installation only has a few files on it and it's a really clean installation but I did do this in my video last year when I upgraded this computer to unsupported Sonoma. So if you want to see how that process works you can go ahead and check out that video and of course any time you're doing an upgrade like this you should be backing up your files

6:13 regardless of whether or not you're going to erase your hard drive. The other option and the one that I'm going to choose in this video is to install Sequoia and keep all of your current files. I know that this is a very attractive option but trust me if you really want the best Sequoia installation possible it's a good idea to erase that hard drive first. If you don't want to erase your hard drive or once you already have use your mouse to select the install macOS Sequoia option and click continue. Click continue again. Agree to the software license agreement. Now click on the hard drive that you'd like to install Sequoia on and click continue. My laptop wasn't plugged in at this point so I got a pop-up saying that that's not the best idea. I plugged it in shortly after. Now the Sequoia installation will begin. This install screen said it would take about 21 minutes for me but that initial part

7:02 finished in about eight minutes before my computer rebooted to another loading screen. At this point my MacBook rebooted about four times with different loading screens over the course of about 20 minutes so 28 minutes total from starting the Sequoia install. You may see the boot menu flash on the screen during the restarts. You shouldn't have to click or type anything. Just be patient and let it do its thing. Finally if everything goes well you'll be greeted with some beautiful Sequoia trees at the macOS 15 login screen. Sequoia is installed but hold on you're not done yet. There are some critical steps that we need to take to make sure that Sequoia is fully ready. So go ahead and log into the computer and give it a minute to gather itself and load up. Once it loads up you should see a pop-up from

7:47 OpenCore letting you know that OpenCore is currently booted from the flash drive and that you should install OpenCore to your disk. If you don't get this pop-up manually open the OpenCore app and it should come up. On the pop-up click OK. An OpenCore configuration will be built in a matter of seconds and another pop-up will ask you if you want to install it. Click install to disk and then from the list choose your actual computer hard drive this time. The one that you just installed Sequoia on not your flash drive. On the next pop-up choose the EFI volume. It should take less than a minute before another pop-up asks you to reboot the computer. Go ahead and click reboot. Once it restarts log back in and you can ignore the message saying that you're booting from a USB this time.

8:33 Double click to open the OpenCore app and it will start installing some additional components. You may have to enter your computer password during this step. Once OpenCore opens up click on the post install root patch option. From the pop-up click start root patching. This actually took three minutes on my computer and while it was going I decided to give the computer more of a Sequoia feel by changing the wallpaper. Once it finishes a pop-up will ask you to reboot and apply the changes. Before you do go ahead and eject your flash drive so that OpenCore will boot from your hard drive instead. Then click reboot. You should be done with the flash drive for now. Once it boots back up log in and you are done. You can go to the Apple menu and click about this Mac to make sure that you're running Sequoia and

9:20 then you can use the computer like you normally would. I tested using Google Chrome as you can see my screen recording software worked. I'm using the screen mirroring feature right now as I record this video and continuity mode also worked to move my mouse between my MacBook Pro and my iMac. When an incremental update comes out you can update it like normal through the software update menu. Generally however the incremental updates take a bit longer on unsupported Macs so be ready for that. After any update make sure to open up OpenCore legacy patcher and run the post install root patch option. Other than that you should be good to go. I wouldn't expect it to run as smoothly as a Sequoia installation on a Mac with an Apple Silicon chip but it really depends on the exact Mac

10:05 model you're using which tasks you're performing and which apps you use the most. You may find a few tasks a bit sluggish but to be honest my 2013 MacBook Pro has been running Sequoia more smoothly than it did Sonoma. Keep an eye on this playlist right here as I'll post updates throughout the year and there's already some videos in there showing you how to do incremental updates with OpenCore legacy patcher and if you're wondering why we have to do these unsupported updates to begin with this video at the bottom has all the goodies. Good luck upgrading those unsupported Macs. I'm Anson Alexander and I'll see you in the next one.