Also, a backup of your data is always a good idea in case anything goes wrong. Installing the operating system on any of these Macs will require some technical knowledge, so it is not recommended for novice users. But remember, with High Sierra you will also migrate to the Apple File System, and it is highly recommended that you first disable SIP because it may prevent the patch from working at all. If you happen to own any of the Penryn Macs mentioned above, the macOS High Sierra Patch Tool written by DOSDude1 will make running the latest software possible.

Early-2008 or newer Xserve (Xserve 2,1, Xserve 3,1).

Early-2009 or newer Mac Mini or white MacBook (Mac Mini 3,1, MacBook 5,2).

Late-2008 or newer MacBook Air or Aluminum Unibody MacBook (MacBook Air 2,1, MacBook 5,1).

Using this still imposes certain limitations, but at least makes it possible to install macOS High Sierra on the following Macs: A developer known as DOSDude1 has written a patch that works on Macs with the Penryn architecture. Though Apple doesn't support the above hardware officially, someone has thought about sharing the love for these older machines. How To Install macOS High Sierra on Unsupported Macs Obsolete products are those discontinued more than seven years ago. The company defines vintage products as those that have not been manufactured for more than five years but less than seven years ago. These machines are considered obsolete and vintage by Apple.

MacBook Pro – late-2009 or earlier models.This leaves the following Macs on macOS 10.11 El Capitan: Which Macs Don't Support High Sierraįor some reason Apple doesn't want to allow these Macs to run one of its latest operating systems, namely macOS 10.13 High Sierra. This is despite the fact that Apple is eager to emphasize that macOS is a widely compatible operating system.Īs it happens, there are still people with close to ten-year-old Apple desktop computers still in use on a daily basis, likely performing a range of lighter tasks. While the yearly major macOS update system is free to install, it is still limited to Macs that Apple deems compatible, and every year a generation of Macs essentially becomes obsolete.

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