Download MacOS for Intel Mac with M1 Mac

[jerryk]

Hi,

I have a 2011 MBP 13" and need to reinstall the OS (ex. Mojave) via USB. The only other Mac I own is an Air M1 so this is what I am using to try to create a bootable USB drive.

I went to the Apple instructions for creating a bootable installer. The instructions require that you install the OS as an app on the current system, that is, my M1 Air. However, when I follow the link, the M1 installer refuses to install the "app" since Mojave and the other OS versions are not for a M1 system. Not sure how to proceed at this point. Any thoughts?

 

[Maconplasma]

Hi,

I have a 2011 MBP 13" and need to reinstall the OS (ex. Mojave) via USB. The only other Mac I own is an Air M1 so this is what I am using to try to create a bootable USB drive.

I went to the Apple instructions for creating a bootable installer. The instructions require that you install the OS as an app on the current system, that is, my M1 Air. However, when I follow the link, the M1 installer refuses to install the "app" since Mojave and the other OS versions are not for a M1 system. Not sure how to proceed at this point. Any thoughts?

How did you get Mojave to work on a 2011 MBP? High Sierra is the last supported. You can download HS from Apple's website directly on your 2011 MBP.

 

[jerryk]

How did you get Mojave to work on a 2011 MBP? High Sierra is the last supported. You can download HS from Apple's website directly on your 2011 MBP.

Thanks. This is a newly found machine and I was not sure about the year. So I was guessing on which OS worked. And I don't have an OS on the system. So I need to load one.

When I try to run Internet Recovery it only gives me an option to download Lion. And that errors out with "cannot download the additional components...". Even after I reset the clock to the correct time as mentioned in the searches for this error.

So the bottom line I am seeking someway to get an OS onto this Intel MBP.

 

[Mechanism]

I wonder if you could use gibMacOS: https://github.com/corpnewt/gibMacOS. Instructions: https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore.../mac-install.html#downloading-macos-modern-os.

It's a hackintosh tool but I think it might also work here to download a specific version of macOS from Apple.

 

[LuisN]

Hi,

I have a 2011 MBP 13" and need to reinstall the OS (ex. Mojave) via USB. The only other Mac I own is an Air M1 so this is what I am using to try to create a bootable USB drive.

I went to the Apple instructions for creating a bootable installer. The instructions require that you install the OS as an app on the current system, that is, my M1 Air. However, when I follow the link, the M1 installer refuses to install the "app" since Mojave and the other OS versions are not for a M1 system. Not sure how to proceed at this point. Any thoughts?

Use dosdude's unsupported Macs installer to download the os. http://dosdude1.com/software.html
Last supported macOS version for your Mac is High Sierra -> http://dosdude1.com/highsierra/
Use the patcher to create a bootable usb installer and you'll be good.
DON'T install any post install patchers as they are not needed.

 

[Captain Trips]

Use dosdude's unsupported Macs installer to download the os. http://dosdude1.com/software.html
Last supported macOS version for your Mac is High Sierra -> http://dosdude1.com/highsierra/
Use the patcher to create a bootable usb installer and you'll be good.
DON'T install any post install patchers as they are not needed.

I have used DosDude's MacOS patcher for a 2009 MacBook (white polycarbonate case) and it has worked well with a patched version of Catalina. I plan on doing the same for my 2010 MacBook Pro 17" at some point.

Just read through the release notes, because:

• Some older models will lose some functionality - for example, I can't use multi-touch gestures on the trackpad and I can't connect an external monitor. I am OK with that tradeoff, but there is various levels of "support" depending on how ld and what model Mac you have.
• For older Macs (like with my 2009 MacBook), if you upgrade the HDD to an SSD, then you will want to apply a firmware update to get the most out of the SSD with Catalina (and Mojave as well?). The page for the Catalina patcher at DocDude's site covers this. The firmware upgrade worked well. You will see some command line entries as part of the Mac startup, but that was the only difference I saw as compared to before the firmware update.

One thing in general - be careful about using a patched version of Big Sur! Not because of any problem with the patching itself, but video performance will be terrible if your Mac does not have a video card that supports Metal. I haven't tried this, but what I read said that (for example) page refreshes could take up to 30 seconds or so with a Mac that doesn't have a Metal compatible video card.

I use "video card" in a general sense, I realize that some Macs have integrated graphics and probably wouldn't be considered a card or adapter.