The macOS Catalina Patcher is an application that lets you install and run macOS 10.15 on unsupported hardware, meaning you can get macOS Catalina installed in an old Mac!

Application Introduction

The macOS Catalina Patcher is an application that lets you install and run macOS 10.15 on unsupported hardware. The program can download the latest version from Apple servers and create a bootable flash drive from it.

To create media using macOS Catalina, you need to specify the location of the installer and select the media (at least 16 GB).

Requirement

Before you start, make sure you have:

Access a Mac that can be used to download and create a bootable USB installation drive.
The drive should be at least 16GB in size and formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format.
Back up your data on the Mac where you want to install Catalina.

Finally, please note that this process depends on patches and hacks, and you may still experience issues running macOS Catalina without any errors on unsupported old Macs.

Officially, macOS Catalina is only supported on the following Mac models as they have a graphics processor that supports Apple Graphics API Metal.

MacBook (Early 2015 or later)
MacBook Air (Mid 2012 or later)
MacBook Pro (Mid 2012 or later)
Mac mini (Late 2012 or later)
iMac (Late 2012 or later)
iMac Pro (2017)
Mac Pro (Late 2013 or later)

With the macOS Catalina Patcher tool, you can install operating systems on the following Macs:

Early 2008 or newer Mac Pro, iMac or MacBook Pro
Late 2008 or newer MacBook Air or aluminum all-in-one MacBook
Early 2009 or newer Mac Mini or white MacBook
Xserve in early 2008 or later

However, even the Patcher tool does not support the following Macs:

Mac Pro, iMac, MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini 2006-2007
2006-2008 MacBook
2008 MacBook Air

Application screenshot

Installation method

Text version:

Create patched macOS Catalina USB installer

After checking if your Mac is supported, follow these steps:

1. Download the latest version of macOS Catalina Patcher from here (http://dosdude1.com/catalina/). Because developers continue to update applications with the latest patches and hotfixes, always download the latest version.

2. Run the application and click Continue.

3. On the next screen, click Download a Copy. We will use this option because we will create a bootable USB drive installer.

4. The installer is about 8GB in size, so it may take some time to complete the download.

5. When finished, you will be given the choice of installation method. Here, insert the plug-in into the USB flash drive and click "Create a bootable installer".

6. After creating the drive, plug it into an unsupported Mac and install macOS Catalina in it. Turn on your Mac and hold down the Option key. You will see the startup manager. Use the arrow keys to select the bootable USB drive and click Return.

7. When you boot into the macOS recovery environment, make sure to use Disk Utility to format the internal drive (the drive used to install macOS Catalina) to APFS. This step is required if you want to update from a very old macOS version that does not support APFS.

8. The next step will use the "Reinstall macOS" option to begin the installation process. Let the installation process complete. During this process, you may see some command line messages. These are perfectly normal and are part of the installation process created by the developer to ensure compatibility.

9. After the installation is complete, shut down your Mac and then restart it using the USB drive again. The reason for this is that you can apply an installed patch to ensure that Catalina works properly on your system.

10. After returning to the macOS recovery environment, click on the option that says "macOS Post Install." By default, the installer will select all the correct patches required by your Mac. Click Apply Patch and complete the process.

11. After applying the patch, select the option that says "Force Cache Rebuild" and click "Restart".

12. The Mac will restart, and you should be able to set up macOS Catalina.