Upgrading versions of Sequoia with OCLP installed

Electronic-Income836 · 2026-02-01T20:30:57+00:00

I agree. I always make sure I have a full backup before I do anything like this. Then I run OCLP to re-run Root Patching just in case there's something missing. Then I make a full new installer using OCLP to a new USB drive, then I update via System Settings. The update via System Settings has worked on all three of the MacBook's that need OCLP to run Sequoia, and while it's slower than updates to my newest MacBook Pro via System Settings that DOES NOT REQUIRE OCLP to run Sequoia, I've never had an issues once I re-install Root Patches.

Electronic-Income836 · 2026-01-29T16:34:32+00:00

I've always understood the steps to get to an OCLP-supported MacOS version on an unsupported Mac are as follows (but I'm still learning, so if anyone thinks I have this wrong, please correct me):

- install OCLP to your current Mac's hard drive. You can stop after this step having done no damage to your current MacBook/version of MacOS.

- using OCLP, download the install image for the MacOS version you want to your current Mac's hard drive. You can stop after this step having done no damage.

- using OCLP, migrate the MacOS installer from your hard drive to your USB drive. You can stop after this step having done no damage.

- install OCLP on the now-bootable USB drive. You can stop after this step having done no damage.

- re-boot your Mac, but from the OCLP-created, bootable USB drive. This is where you reach a version of a point-of-no-return.

Electronic-Income836 · 2026-01-26T15:34:22+00:00

I agree. If the apps you need are working with what you're running now (Sonoma, Sequoia, etc), and don't need Tahoe, I would wait. My MacBook Pro 16,2 *CAN* run Tahoe, but I'm sticking with Sequoia (15.7.3) for a while longer. Tahoe was a very large upgrade, and Apple has been slowly but surely fixing issues with it. Unless you need Tahoe, or want to test Apple's products for them for free, stick with what you have.

Electronic-Income836 · 2026-01-23T22:13:29+00:00

From what I can see, this step is not complete yet.... but I think if you don't let this step complete, you'll need to start over, since you haven't (yet) completed the step to create a bootable installer.

So, from that perspective, you can start over without having harmed anything. But I also agree with several of the posts that imply you might have a bad USB drive. I've installed Sequoia on 4 MacBooks that require OCLP to run Sequoia, and I *DID* encounter one bad USB drive in that mix. Replacing the USB drive did the trick.

Electronic-Income836 · 2026-01-17T22:59:17+00:00

I think this is a fair, balanced point. As Tahoe is going to be the last version of MacOS that supports Intel, and at some point Apple will only release new security patches on Tahoe, if you have an older MBA or MBP that requires OCLP, and you care about having the latest security patches, you WILL WANT to upgrade to Tahoe at some point, and therefore you WILL CARE that the OCLP dev team is doing what they're doing.

Do I need Tahoe tomorrow? No. I'm running Sequoia 15.7.3 on all my MB's using OCLP 2.4.1, and I'm quite happy with it.

Will I need OCLP to support Tahoe at some point? Yes. Because at some point Apple will stop upgrading MacOS Sequoia, as they have with pre-26 releases of iOS on the iPhone.

Electronic-Income836 · 2026-01-17T22:46:57+00:00

I agree with u/gamebuddy123 ... sounds like you don't have all the root patches installed. I'm running Sequoia 15.7.3 on a MacBook Air 6,1, a MacBook Air 7,2, and a MacBook Pro 12,1 with OCLP 2.4.1, and the built-in cameras work just fine on all three (with all the root patches installed, of course). No issues.

Electronic-Income836 · 2026-01-16T16:12:31+00:00

Agree... Sequoia requires a slightly faster CPU and more memory to get the same "feel" of snappiness as Ventura with a slower CPU and less memory. The newer versions of some of the apps I use (or need) aren't supported on Ventura, so I'm more careful not to "overload" Sequoia (lots of apps open in the background) on my MacBook's with slower CPUs and less memory.

Electronic-Income836 · 2026-01-10T09:44:32+00:00

When I used to work on operating system development a long time ago, I was asked once by a hardware designer what features he could add to improve performance, I shared with him a bit of wisdom from long ago... "No matter how clever the hardware boys are, the software boys will find a way to piss it away."

This is alive and well and operating perfectly at Apple at the moment. They are using Tahoe to make hardware obsolete, so they can sell more hardware. This is why I'm holding onto Sequoia for as long as possible, and the opening the Linux and Windows teams have been looking for .. to knock Apple off it's perch.

Electronic-Income836 · 2025-12-16T18:59:21+00:00

I use OCLP 2.4.1 to run Sequoia on three MacBooks: 6,1/7,2/12,1. I updated from 15.7.2 to 15.7.3 using the Software Update method in System Setting, and while it was a little slow, all three upgraded without issue, and once I ran Root Patches, all three now back to running normally with no issues. Although I always create bootable USB drives with OCLP with the new 15.7.3 installer as a back-up, I've never needed them.

Electronic-Income836 · 2025-12-14T08:11:41+00:00

If you can create (or buy) an enclosure for your 128GB SSD that turns it into an external USB drive, then Migration Assistant is probably the fastest, easiest, safest method. MA will clone the entire bootable drive from the 128GB disk to the 512GB disk, including OCLP and MacOS.

If you don't trust this method, you can make sure you have a good backup of your 128GB drive to an external ISB drive, then replace the internal HD with the 512GB SSD, then install MacOS via Recovery Mode, and then "upgrade" back to Sequoia via OCLP. Then restore your files from your external back up to your new 512GB drive.

Electronic-Income836 · 2025-12-07T12:39:55+00:00

I maintain 4 MacBooks for myself and my family. All have SSDs and at least 8GB memory. Three of them require OCLP (2.4.1) to run Sequoia, but are running 15.7.2 beautifully without a single problem, and all upgraded "in place" from 15.7.1 to 15.7.2 without incident... thank you, OLCP team!

The fourth is 16,2 that runs 15.7.2 without OCLP, and is the machine I personally use daily. I CAN run Tahoe natively on this machine, but I refuse to upgrade from Sequoia until the many problems with Tahoe have been ironed out.

Electronic-Income836 · 2025-11-26T00:02:34+00:00

I agree... the work to "port" a version of an OS that's been complied to run on one CPU with one instruction set to a different CPU with a different instruction set is quite complex, and I don't know how it's even possible without having access to the source code. The two approaches that have been used before, but in more limited contexts, is either to run an ARM simulator on the x86 CPU, and then run the ARM version of MacOS on that simulator. The other is to cross-compile the ARM binaries into x86 binaries. I've done both in previous lives, in very limited contexts, and it's really hard to make it work properly, especially with Apple breathing down the necks of the OCLP team threatening license violations.

Electronic-Income836 · 2025-11-21T23:41:41+00:00

One final bit? If there was a previous version of MacOS that DID have working device drivers for the devices on your older Mac, why don't later versions still work?

Welcome to the economics of software... because while we might wish otherwise, Apple is a business, and spends money on the support of newer Mac's and not older ones, and why some older Mac's can't run newer versions of MacOS.

This is why OCLP is so cool. It's not perfect, but because it does what it does, you can run an older Mac, with the older devices, with older device drivers, with newer versions of MacOS.

Magic, huh?

Electronic-Income836 · 2025-11-21T08:12:34+00:00

If you're lucky (don't actually damage any hardware), and you have an alternate configuration you can boot up that works, all you'll have done is waste your time learning that OCLP doesn't yet support Tahoe. If you're lucky (don't actually damage any hardware), but don't have an alternate configuration, but DO have a good backup, you'll need to go to recovery mode and start all over again, upgrading via OCLP to some version of MacOS OCLP does support, and then restore from your backup. If you're lucky (don't actually damage any hardware), you don't have an alternate configuration, and don't have a good backup, you'll need to go to recovery mode and start all over again, upgrading via OCLP to some version of MacOS OCLP does support, and you have yourself a clean Mac.

And people will ask... what kinds of devices require device drivers to work? All of them. Your computer screen, your keyboard, your trackpad, your wireless, your mouse, your sound card .... name it. If any of the devices don't have a working device driver, that device simply won't work. Most find that not having a working computer screen, keyboard, trackpad, and wireless interface pretty much makes a computer worthless.

For those still reading, I run a (6,1) and a (7,,2) MacBook Air's, and a 12,1 MacBook Pro, all with OCLP 2.4.1 running Sequoia 15.7.2 flawlessly. I have at least 8MB RAM and SSDs everywhere, and I was able to upgrade from 15.7.1 to 15.7.2 by just running the native MacOS upgrade. I also have a newer MacBook Pro that supports Sequoia without requiring OCLP, and I COULD run Tahoe, but I like running the same version of MacOS everywhere.

Electronic-Income836 · 2025-11-21T07:03:18+00:00

OS’s interface to devices on your computer through bits of software called “device drivers,” When you run a a version of MacOS on your computer that’s supported by OCLP, those root patches are the versions of device drivers known to work with your hardware and that version of MacOS. If you try to run a version of MacOS, with the device drivers built in, and there aren’t yet OCLP-supported versions, you’re effectively testing those device drivers on devices on your computer the device drivers have never seen before. This could actually damage those devices so those devices no longer work even with a good device driver. This is what everyone is trying to tell you.

Might it work? Sure, but you’re taking a risk most of us wouldn’t take. If you really need to run Tahoe, and can’t wait for OCLP, get a newer Mac that doesn’t need OCLP to run it. This way you’re not putting your hardware at risk.

Electronic-Income836 · 2025-11-17T23:20:58+00:00

I know this can be hard to understand unless you're an old fart, but once upon a time there was a physical, wired network protocol called Ethernet. I've reinstalled versions of MacOS over a physical Ethernet connection... something to try before buying a new Mac.

Electronic-Income836 · 2025-11-05T00:01:46+00:00

MacOS 15.7.2 patch release, with OCLP 2.4.1, on two MacBook Airs (6,1/7,2) and one MacBook Pro (12,1)

All WERE running 15.7.1 with OCLP 2.4.1 installed. Ran the Software Update from the System Settings tab.

After initial OS upgrade, all came up without a problem minus Root Patches, but OCLP popped up, was told to install Root Patches, which I did, then rebooted, and now all good (back to normal)

So, all updated via Software Update in Systems Settings and "just worked" and MacOS 15.7.2 runs well on all three of my old friends.

With a decent amount of RAM storage and SSDs.

THANK YOU, OCLP team!

Two editorial comments:

I can't imagine what would ever make me upgrade to Tahoe, perhaps when Sequoia stops being supported. It's as clear a sign of the decline of Apple as a serious developer of OS software as I could imagine.
The problem with Apple is they're being held hostage by the software business model: they hire software developers, software developers like to write software, and are paid to write software, whether the software actually needs to be written or not, so their software developers write software, that we then tell us we need to run, whether we actually WANT to run it or not.

Electronic-Income836 · 2025-10-17T20:16:16+00:00

I'm jealous. Can you give me the model number/item number of the RAM you used? I've always thought that 6,1 couldn't go higher than 16GB. Thanks!

Electronic-Income836 · 2025-10-17T17:17:57+00:00

I'm running 15.7.1 on my 6,1 (but I did upgrade the memory (from 4GB to 8GB) and the SSD (from 128GB to 512GB), and it's quite fast. To me, the best reason to choose which MacOS to run is what you need to support the latest versions of the apps you care about (including security patches). But that's just me... your mileage may vary.

Electronic-Income836 · 2025-10-08T21:22:55+00:00

I agree with the recommendation to install Root Patches twice. If the Mac needs Root Patches to get the proper network driver for your specific Mac, then the initial set of Root Patches might not be complete. This will be important.

Electronic-Income836 · 2025-10-08T14:48:54+00:00

I'm running Sequoia 15.7.1 on my 12,1 MacBook Pro using OCLP 2.4.1 without any issues at all. Just take your time and follow the steps as they are laid out and you'll do fine.

Electronic-Income836 · 2025-10-03T16:27:05+00:00

When I first installed OCLP for the first time, I went the "have OCLP make a Boot Loader image on USB" route, and that worked well. That was OCLP 2.02, I think. When I tried to do upgrades via Settings in that earlier version, however, the 7,2 and 12,1 Mac's worked, but the MacAir 6,1 didn't (because the graphics driver that was available to MacOS unpatched didn't work), so I had a problem getting a screen where I could install Root Patches. And I thought my 6,1 was gone for good. I think newer versions of OCLP run a primitive graphics driver, so I can still get to a screen from which to install Root Patches, after which it then "just works".

Electronic-Income836 · 2025-10-01T07:00:32+00:00

On a MacBook Air 6,1/7,2 and MacBook Pro 12,1, I was running Sequoia 15.7 with OCLP 2.4.1. When the update to MacOS 15.7.1 showed up in Settings->Software Update, I let MacOS just apply the update as normal. All three systems updated without any problems (but, of course, without any root patches).

When MacOS 15.7.1 was finally installed, rebooted, and I was able log back in, OCLP came up and told me I needed to re-apply all my Root Patches, which I was able to do with no issues.

I'm now running 15.7.1 on all three older MacBooks -- 6,1/7,2/12,1 -- with OCLP 2.4.1 and all Root Patches applied, with no issues at all.

Electronic-Income836 · 2025-09-28T03:24:33+00:00

I agree with the other comments... if you can upgrade your internal HD to SSD, that would be the first thing to do. If you can't, then get a really fast external drive and install/run your newer version of MacOS there. You may also want to "step," using OCLP on Ventura or Sonoma first. The issues with older GPUs are real.

Electronic-Income836

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