How to Install macOS 12 Monterey on an Unsupported Mac

Apple has recently launched its new OS, the MacOS 12 Monterey. They have made numerous new improvements with this release. These includes screen sharing, a streamlined Safari, much improved FaceTime etc. However, the MacOS 12 Monterey is supported only by a handful of devices which, obviously, has disappointed many Mac users.

Fortunately, you can still install MacOS 12 Monterey on an unsupported Mac thanks to the developers who found the hacks. For that you need to follow a process. The first step of the process is where you determine if your Mac is already supported by MacOS 12 Monterey or not.

List of MacOS 12 Monterey Compatible Macs

Here’s a list of all Macs that are compatible with the MacOS 12 Monterey. This will help you determine if your device is already compatible, and you will get the update automatically.

• MacBook Pro (2014 or later)
• MacBook Air (2014 or later)
• MacBook (2015 or later)
• Mac Mini (2014 or later)
• iMac (2014 or later)
• Mac Pro (2014 or later)
• iMac Pro (2017 or later)

If you are not sure what device you are using, please click the Apple logo at the upper left corner and select About this Mac. You will see an overview information of Mac hardware:

Now that you have determined whether your Mac device falls under the supported list of devices or not, if it doesn’t and you still want to install the mOS 12 Monterey on an unsupported Mac computer, then read out the below tutorial carefully and follow the steps.

Part 1: Backup Your Mac

This is the most important step before getting started as installing macOS Monterey on unsupported Mac is not recommended by Apply. It might have potential bugs and issues during the entire process. We suggest testing macOS on a spare device instead.

You can backup the important file to external drive or cloud drive. For full backup, please use Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner app.

Part 2: Download macOS Monterey Beta

Now, download the gibMacOS tool which can download macOS Monterey InstallAssistant packages directly from Apple. For the follow the below steps:

1. Go to the gibMacOS GitHub repository and click Code button as shown below and then select “Download Zip”.

2. Double click the zip file to extract content from it. Usually, it is in Download folder by default.

3. Go to extracted folder and click gibMacOS.command to open up the command line utility.

This will give you a list of available products that you can choose from, and in the end, you will have a number of options that you need to select. The first list is for public released products. As macOS Monterey is in Developer Beta, you need to type ‘C’ to list all public beta products and input ‘4’ to list all macOS versions in Developer Beta.

4. As and when you see the next screen, press “1” to begin the download. This should take a while as the file is over 11GB.

p.s You can also download macOS 12 Monterey if the Mac was enrolled in Apple Beta Software Program. You will see the download link once logging into Apple Developer account.

Part 3: Create macOS Monterey Bootable USB

Once the download has been completed, you can locate macOS Monterey Beta in Download folder as usual.

/Downloads/gibMacOS-master/macOS Downloads/developer/071–63739–12.0 macOS 12 Beta

Now, double-click the InstallAssistant.pkg file that you downloaded earlier. When prompted to input Mac’s login password, please do so and continue the installation.

Once you have installed the package file, the MacOS 12 Monterey installer will appear under the Applications folder.

Finally, use the following command to create a macOS 12 bootable USB installer:

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ 12\  Beta.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume

Part 4: Create OpenCore Bootable USB

OpenCore is a famous bootloader utility designed for Mac users. It has been used millions of time for building a hackintosh, a machine that runs macOS on a PC. With the latest version of OpenCore, it can help you install macOS 12 on an unsupported Mac by tricking the macOS thinking the current device was a newer Mac. However, some of the macOS functions are not working, such as Boot Camp Assistant app and GPU acceleration.

First, download latest version of OpenCore Lagacy Patcher and unpack the zip file. Currently, it is only tool to be used for installing macOS 12 on unsupported Mac.

Go to extracted folder and open OpenCore-Patcher app. And you will see the following options:

Now, insert another USB drive into Mac and input ‘1’ in Terminal app to build OpenCore. Wait 3–5 minutes for the process.

When the download is finished, you will be redirected to the main menu. At this time, please choose ‘Install OpenCore to USB/internal drive’ and select the USB drive you just plugged in.

Part 5: Patch macOS and Install Monterey on UnSupported Mac with OpenCore

Connect macOS Monterey bootable USB along with OpenCore USB into the Mac you are trying to install macOS.

Reboot the Mac and keep pressing Option key to bring up Start Manager. From there, you can select a bootable drive. Now, click on EFI boot to patch macOS with OpenCore utility.

Once the Mac is loaded with OpenCore, select Install macOS 12 Beta from the boot list. Your Mac will be rebooted several times during this step. When the process is done correctly, you will see the installation screen of macOS 12 Beta.

This is a complete tutorial for installing macOS 12 Beta on an unsupported Mac. Hope you found these useful.

However, these are not officially supported by Apple. So there is not guarantee that they would work always. So, we would suggest you to take a backup of your present OS on the cloud and then try them.