If this has been posted elsewhere, please link me. I have tried 3 times to install Mojave on my Mac mini Late 2012. It technically installs but it's unusable. It's so ridiculously slow. Lag times are 30 seconds + for clicking on anything. And the wifi doesn't work. When I click on the wifi icon at the top, it says "no wifi card found." I tried when Mojave just came out. I tried again after a couple 10.14.x updates and had the same issues. I see it's up to .5 now and just curious if any one has had similar issues or has any ideas on how to get a good install. Thank you!
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Mojave on Mac Mini 2012 not working
- Thread starter cawesjmu
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I run High Sierra on my 2012 Mini (2.6Ghz i7) and Mojave on my 2014 Mini. You should be able to run Mojave on the 2012 Mini without the problems you mention.
What type of disk do you have - HDD or SSD? Is it internal or external? What resolution monitor are you using? Do you have any peripherals connected to the Mini besides the monitor?
How are you installing Mojave? Upgrading an existing installation? Installing completely fresh (empty target disk) from a USB flash drive? Do you use another OS version and just try out Mojave when you install? If so, which OS version (High Sierra, Sierra, etc.)? If you use another OS version on your Mini, does WiFi work then? After you install Mojave, how long do you keep on the Mini before ditching it?
What type of disk do you have - HDD or SSD? Is it internal or external? What resolution monitor are you using? Do you have any peripherals connected to the Mini besides the monitor?
How are you installing Mojave? Upgrading an existing installation? Installing completely fresh (empty target disk) from a USB flash drive? Do you use another OS version and just try out Mojave when you install? If so, which OS version (High Sierra, Sierra, etc.)? If you use another OS version on your Mini, does WiFi work then? After you install Mojave, how long do you keep on the Mini before ditching it?
- I have the Fusion drive. It has a bootcamp partition of 50 GB. I have a 2007 Apple Cinema Display, 20 inch (1680x1050).
- Peripherals - 2 external HDs. One is for Time Machine, the other is additional back up and photos. I have a few random things attached like bluetooth mouse (legitech)/keyboard (dell), USB attached Samsung CD/DVD drive (TSSTcorp CDDVDW SE-208DB).
- installation: I just used the App store and did standard upgrade. I have only upgraded from High Sierra. The first time I installed Mojave I left it on there for ~3 days, thinking it would sort itself out for the speed while rearranging data on the disk. The second time I bailed after a day, the third time I saw the wifi still didn't work and reverted back almost instantly.
Thank you for any additional feedback. Much appreciated.
I assume you’re putting the OS on your internal fusion drive?
My 2012 mini was running oddly slow and I later ran into more black and white issues. Apple diagnosed it as a failing hard drive (I forget which one was going bad). I replaced the fusion with a full SSD and things got massively better and I was running again. This was under high Sierra, but my point is that maybe it’s your fusion drive at fault - so make sure your backups are running.
My 2012 mini was running oddly slow and I later ran into more black and white issues. Apple diagnosed it as a failing hard drive (I forget which one was going bad). I replaced the fusion with a full SSD and things got massively better and I was running again. This was under high Sierra, but my point is that maybe it’s your fusion drive at fault - so make sure your backups are running.
I would agree with bigfatipod that with the information presented, the most likely cause would be the HDD. You could have a failing HDD and the OS wouldn't always detect it. You could also have a slowing HDD and the OS would detect it. There is software available that can test every sector of the disk but for most people, the cost of the software isn't worth it if they're only every going to use it on a single HDD. So a lot of people just replace the HDD or upgrade to a SSD when it begins to show sign of aging.
High Sierra did not support fusion drives on APFS. From what I've read - when upgrading from High Sierra to Mojave (which does support fusion drives on APFS), it converts to APFS from HFS+. Did you revert back to High Sierra? - in that case, High Sierra wouldn't be able to use the APFS fusion drive.
What could also be complicating things is the Boot Camp partition, which should be on the HDD. With the conversion from HFS+ to APFS, the OS should be able to work around the Boot Camp partition, but at the very least it does add more complexity to the situation.
People have reported problems with APFS fusion drives on Mojave, I don't recall seeing this before 10.14.4, but since 10.14.4, there have been several reports of problems.
You have several options:
1) Buy a SSD to replace the fusion drive setup. Good performance, brand-name Internal 1TB drives are about $120 - there are cheaper alternatives as well.
2) Stay at High Sierra. As I mentioned, if you upgraded to Mojave, you shouldn't be able to revert back easily to High Sierra because of what it did to the fusion drive.
3) Try clean-installing Mojave. This would involve erasing the "container" and then re-installing on it. The idea here is that Mojave got confused with how the fusion drive was working in High Sierra HFS+ and doing a clean install will clear that up. Unless somebody posts with experience on how this would work, you should probably call Apple for guidance on this.
If you think there may be some other hardware issue involved or maybe the problem is Mojave, if you have an external SSD, you can try installing Mojave on there and see how it works. If you don't have a SSD to use and you don't mind spending $20, you can buy a 120GB Kingston or Crucial SSD and put it in an external enclosure to try this out.
IMO, I would not buy a new HDD to replace the old HDD in a fusion drive setup. The price difference between a new brand-name HDD and a SSD is not enough to deal with the complications that fusion drives bring.
If you can run the Terminal app and type in the following command and post the results here, that would help to understand what your current disk setup is: "diskutil list"
Regarding the WiFI, have you tried going to Recovery (Command-R when the computer starts up) and see if it works there? You can also try doing a SMC reset and see if that restores it.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295
High Sierra did not support fusion drives on APFS. From what I've read - when upgrading from High Sierra to Mojave (which does support fusion drives on APFS), it converts to APFS from HFS+. Did you revert back to High Sierra? - in that case, High Sierra wouldn't be able to use the APFS fusion drive.
What could also be complicating things is the Boot Camp partition, which should be on the HDD. With the conversion from HFS+ to APFS, the OS should be able to work around the Boot Camp partition, but at the very least it does add more complexity to the situation.
People have reported problems with APFS fusion drives on Mojave, I don't recall seeing this before 10.14.4, but since 10.14.4, there have been several reports of problems.
You have several options:
1) Buy a SSD to replace the fusion drive setup. Good performance, brand-name Internal 1TB drives are about $120 - there are cheaper alternatives as well.
2) Stay at High Sierra. As I mentioned, if you upgraded to Mojave, you shouldn't be able to revert back easily to High Sierra because of what it did to the fusion drive.
3) Try clean-installing Mojave. This would involve erasing the "container" and then re-installing on it. The idea here is that Mojave got confused with how the fusion drive was working in High Sierra HFS+ and doing a clean install will clear that up. Unless somebody posts with experience on how this would work, you should probably call Apple for guidance on this.
If you think there may be some other hardware issue involved or maybe the problem is Mojave, if you have an external SSD, you can try installing Mojave on there and see how it works. If you don't have a SSD to use and you don't mind spending $20, you can buy a 120GB Kingston or Crucial SSD and put it in an external enclosure to try this out.
IMO, I would not buy a new HDD to replace the old HDD in a fusion drive setup. The price difference between a new brand-name HDD and a SSD is not enough to deal with the complications that fusion drives bring.
If you can run the Terminal app and type in the following command and post the results here, that would help to understand what your current disk setup is: "diskutil list"
Regarding the WiFI, have you tried going to Recovery (Command-R when the computer starts up) and see if it works there? You can also try doing a SMC reset and see if that restores it.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295
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I did a restore from my Time Machine when the Mojave trials went badly. The speed/slowdown isn't an issue when reverting back to High Sierra so I'm not convinced it's a hard drive issue currently. The formatting is a good thought. I hadn't looked at that.
I rarely use the BootCamp/Windows partition so I could delete that and then try to upgrade. Perhaps the drivers from Bootcamp are what messed with the Wifi card? Thanks for the feedback. Here's the Terminal app results. Let me know if it reveals any useful information.
[doublepost=1559697968][/doublepost]Is it a bad idea to do a trial install on a small blank SD drive (32 GB)? I know it wouldn't have any of my data/settings. Is there any downside to just installing a fresh Mojave on there? Or am I forgetting something that prevents me from doing that entirely? I formatted the SD drive to GUID Partition Map/ Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
What the information you posted says it that your fusion drive was NOT converted to APFS when you did the Mojave installs.
My recommendation would be that if you don't have a pressing reason to upgrade to Mojave at the moment, stay at High Sierra. When you're ready to invest in a 1TB SSD, you can try it out in an external enclosure and see if Mojave (or Catalina) works there and then you can either keep it as an external or switch it with one of the internal drives if you wish. Because you say that the HDD works fine in High Sierra, this recommendation assumes that there's something going on with Mojave and HFS+ fusion drives and perhaps adding in your data and/or something specific to the 2012 Mini fusion drive configuration.
Right now, OWC has the 1TB Micron 5100 Pro SSD on sale for $90. Crucial is the consumer brand name of Micron. This is a SSD that was introduced in late 2016 that were sold to data centers and has been discontinued (3-year warranty from OWC). I think something like this is a pretty good value for $. (I don't think OWC SSD's themselves are anything special.)
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Micron/AK960TCB1A/
When Catalina is officially released, you can try that with fusion but obviously my opinion is that fusion is just not that good a technology given where Apple is at and the price of cheaper SATA SSD's. (At BestBuy, they sell the HGST Travelstar 1TB HDD for $90 although other HDD's from Toshiba and Seagate start at about $50.)
You wouldn't need to delete the Boot Camp partition if things work in High Sierra.
If WiFi isn't back in High Sierra, try the SMC reset.
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Thanks for the links and thoughts. I did install Mojave last night on a 32 GB SD card and it ran fine and the WiFi worked.
I might try and delete the Boot camp partition since I don’t ever use it anyway and try again. If not I’m pretty good at reverting back to High Sierra now. Luckily everything seems to go right back to working when I restore it back. Wi-Fi card and speed. Then I’ll just leave it at High Sierra if it doesn’t work. I’m just baffled why the Wi-Fi card isn’t recognized and the extreme slow down.
Slightly different question since you mentioned Catalina. Will the 2012 Mac mini be supported? I didn’t see the spec recs for Catalina on the Apple page.
OP wrote:
"I might try and delete the Boot camp partition since I don’t ever use it anyway and try again."
This is THE FIRST THING I'd do, even if you stick with High Sierra.
Get that gone!
If Bootcamp assistant won't remove it, then your best option is to:
1. Back up (I always recommend creating a bootable cloned backup with either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper).
2. Boot from an external source.
3. Use Disk Utility to ERASE the internal drive back to HFS+ (or APFS)
4. Restore from your backup (if it's a cloned backup, you can just "clone it back over" to the internal drive again).
If at some point you again try the upgrade to Mojave, I'd recommend DISCONNECTING ALL EXTERNAL DEVICES with the exception of the keyboard and mouse. And then go from there.
"I might try and delete the Boot camp partition since I don’t ever use it anyway and try again."
This is THE FIRST THING I'd do, even if you stick with High Sierra.
Get that gone!
If Bootcamp assistant won't remove it, then your best option is to:
1. Back up (I always recommend creating a bootable cloned backup with either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper).
2. Boot from an external source.
3. Use Disk Utility to ERASE the internal drive back to HFS+ (or APFS)
4. Restore from your backup (if it's a cloned backup, you can just "clone it back over" to the internal drive again).
If at some point you again try the upgrade to Mojave, I'd recommend DISCONNECTING ALL EXTERNAL DEVICES with the exception of the keyboard and mouse. And then go from there.
As mentioned in the previous post, use the Boot Camp Assistant app to delete the partition. If it doesn't want to delete it or if it doesn't reclaim the free space, because you have the fusion drive, I would just leave it unless you really need the extra 50GB.
On the Apple Catalina preview page, very close to the bottom of what is a pretty long page, it does mention that Catalina will run on the 2012 Mini.
https://www.apple.com/macos/catalina-preview/
A couple of other thoughts on your situaiton:
1) Another option you have is to break your fusion drive and use the SSD and HDD. But that would take some work - you'd have to copy the data to an external drive, break the fusion drive, install an OS on the SSD and then copy back the data to the SSD and HDD and figure out how you want to manage the data (make links from the HDD to the SSD or just keep separate directories on the HDD, or whatever).
2) If your HDD and SSD are original, your drives are 5-7 years old. For a boot/system drive, 5 years for a HDD is old. The SSD is also pretty old in terms of how the technology has advanced (more so with the endurance gains than with the raw performance gains for these SATA SSD's). So that's something to consider - certainly be diligent with your backups. If you just use Time Machine, you might want to augment that by using cloning software - Carbon Copy Cloner is pretty popular. Also, Super Duper. My understanding is that Super Duper is free if you just do a full clone (so any time you run the free software, it will do a full copy, not just what changed). CCC is free for 30 days and $40 thereafter.
https://bombich.com/
https://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
I used the boot camp assistant and removed the boot camp partition without issue. I made a CCC backup last night and started the install of Mojave this morning and left it to run today. I’ll see if the WiFi card works and if the speed issues are resolved tonight. Thanks everyone for the input and ideas/suggestions. I’ll update if it worked. If it does work, then I’ll have to assume it was the boot camp portion that was messing things up.
I'm wondering if your HFS+ fusion drive didn't automatically get converted to APFS because of the Boot Camp partition. It would really help if you can re-do the "diskutil list" command and post the results. Taking a look again at some search results, there doesn't seem to be consistent results: fusion APFS seems to work for most people, but more problems started coming up after 10.14.4; for some, Mojave fusion HFS+ worked where fusion APFS didn't (unlike what you experienced) so it's a tossup what will happen. The web search results do show that Apple tech support doesn't seem to have a ready answer to this issue. So do post on what your results are.
So it worked for me. Removing the Boot camp partition seems to have helped the overall results. Wifi works, no problem at all. Update was quick and everything seems great. Results now for diskutil list below. I just haven't reconnected my external backup drives. I'm just excited the wifi works and it's running like it should. 10.14.5.
Thanks for posting this and reporting your results. As you can probably tell, this time installing Mojave did convert your fusion drive to APFS.
So, based on the work you've done, it looks like Mojave HFS+ fusion drives can cause problems (on the same computer where High Sierra HFS+ fusion drives didn't and Mojave APFS fusion drives, thus far, haven't) and the Boot Camp partition can prevent the conversion of fusion drives from HFS+ to APFS.
Once again, thanks for your posting your results.