How To Install Monterey on a 2012 MacBook Pro 

If you’re interested in doing this with Ventura, i just put a video up here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-7sz0Red_HN4.html

Can confirm this is still working as of 7/27/22. + Updates (9/1/22) I did NOT erase my disk before install updated from Catalina 10.15.7 straight to Monterey 12.5 using this. Took me over 5 hours. Followed every step minus erasing my ssd. I didn’t even backup (you probably should. Lol) Didn’t run into any complications but this does absolutely require patience. Everything is working just fine, all peripherals I use still work as well as all apps from the App Store and 3rd party. I was able to download the app I needed (it required higher macOS) and everything is still working just as smoothly as it was prior to this patcher. This is seriously a great tutorial and was presented well. Got a new subscriber and looking forward to more in the future from your channel. Thank you. Update: 9/1/22 - Monterey 12.5.1 Apple has released a graphics update today and my MacBook went to the wrong size display thinking I had a 42 inch monitor but correct resolution. Lol. I relaunched the Open-core Patcher and did the Post Instal again. After a moment of the program running and then restarting, display is back to where it should be. Wanted to leave this here in case others came back looking for something like I did.

Hey! I just wanted to thank you for this video! I recently bought the same MacBook Pro mid 2012, upgraded the SSD, to Samsung Evo 870 1 TB. Watched and followed along with your video, step by step, and was able to get Monterey, from Catalina! I wanted Monterey for the specific reason for GarageBand! This helped me tremendously after racking my brains how to get GarageBand for many many months/ years!! I’m sure there are a lot of musicians out there who wished they knew this knowledge, because there just isn’t any info out there! I got lucky, and discovered your videos where you explained just that, you were able to download GarageBand! So to you, I thank you so very much!!!😊🎸

It works like a charm on three machines thanks to this video. Late 2012, Mid 2010, and Mid 2009.

Much appreciated! Upgraded two older MacBook Pros using your instructions, both are running great. Excellent video! Thank you!

Thank you so much for producing this excellent video!!! My daughter got a new Mac and gave me her old 2012 MacBook Pro. The original Hd died so I’ve installed 16gig ram and scored a new 6Gb/s ssd. So many upsides❤

Really good job. And I hope no one is confused that this is a clean install…

Thank you so much for this great tutorial. I followed it and even was brave enough to execute it not by wiping the disk first but by upgrading the current system (since I need a lot of the content on the drive). This saved my life. Keep up the good work!

Done my upgrade to Monterey, the next day received a notification about OS update to Ventura... Now I run Ventura on my MBP mid 2012 without any issue. Thanks a lot for the tutorial

I followed the same steps but used OpenCore v0.5.1 instead and installed Mac OS Ventura instead. No issues at all, everything went well. Done on a Mid 2012 15" MacBook Pro 🎉

Just did this on a Macbook Pro mid 2012. Worked like a charm! Thanks for the step by step instructions!!

you are heaven sent! these steps are legit y'all. the only difficulty is patience cause it takes hours to fully process. after install monterrey you'll be able to update to the newest software versions like sonoma and others! make sure you have an empty portable drive that at least 1TB or higher!

This video was so helpfull, thank you! Just upgraded my Macbook Pro Mid 2012 and it's running smoothly like butter, I was on Big Sur also installed through a patch and I sure that this version of the OS is more stable and shows a better performance than the older one. recommend this update for those who wants their old mkp to last a few more years!

October 7 2022, found this tutorial.. October 8 2022, I have successfully updated my MacBook Pro mid 2012, 1TB SSD, 16GB RAM, from Catalina 10.15.7 to Monterey 12.6.1 without erasing my disk.. No issues at all, I was able to keep all my existing files.. Wifi, ethernet, bluetooth, display and audio, no issues.. Connectivity to peripherals, external display and mixer/audio interface, everything works just fine.. Thank you for this wonderful tutorial.. Cheers..

Just completed my upgrade. Install was made simple with your tutorial. Monterey works flawlessly. Thanks again. Keep up the good work 👍🏼

Thank you so very much! This is a lifesaver, I just bought a mid 2012 macbook pro less than a month ago and I just realized yesterday I needed the new macOS for programming. This is really great! Judging by all the positive comments it seems to work fine! I'm going to try it out today!

I was having trouble after installing Monterey after reboot. When I would click on “macOS installer”, it would load for a while but would return back to the previous page where it shows install Monterey and the hard drive. I just kept retrying, eventually after clicking “macosinstaller” for the umph time, it led me to press on the hard drive itself “MacOS” and somehow worked this time . Had no issues installing open core to the hard drive and works beautifully without the thumb drive. Thank you so very much for your help! Just be patient and follow the steps to those having issues. MacBook Pro late 2013

Thank you so much for this video! The instructions were incredibly clear and easy to follow. I followed everything step by step, and I'm thrilled to say that everything went exactly as planned. I didn't encounter any issues. Best of all, I didn't have to erase the disk. Your video made the process so smooth and stress-free. Great job! 👍👏

I moved from Big Sur (Patched Sur) to Monterrey, following this video. Everything worked almost perfect. The problem was using the Migration Assistant. My MBP had a SSD running Big Sur, and I installed Monterey in a spare SSD. I replaced the Big Sur SSD with the spare (empty) one, and then proceeded with the installation. During the installation I tried Migration Assistant, and it seemed to work. However, the machine couldn't finish the installation. Somehow, it entered in a boot loop. It displayed the grey apple logo, and the progress bar. It loaded up to the middle, and rebooted! I had to reinstall everything again. But had the same problem. After a few tries, I could solve it first importing only the previous existing user accounts (actually, just 1). I was finally able to login, and conclude some adjustments. After that, I used MA once more to import the applications. Finally, SUCCESS! :D

Your video inspired me to take the plunge. After a lot of technical challenges, I finally got it working. First of all my USB key must’ve been corrupted. It would boot EFI, but hang at install. I thought my computer was just slow. When I enabled verbose mode, I saw that there were disk errors. I then tried an external USB hard disk and those work perfectly. However, the EFI boot would not show up. I finally ended up using a combination of the USB to get into EFI and the external HD to boot the installer. Once the installer got cranking I just sat back and let it do its thing. Some people have written that the last minute is the longest and that’s true. One minute remaining must’ve remained on the screen for 30 minutes. After all was said and done, the latest version of the installer (0.61) prompted me to install the EFI on my new drive. The only other thing I needed was the beta transparency support for my GPU due to some minor flickering. Now my 2011 13 inch i7 (8,1) is humming along like a brand new computer and I recall fondly the days of installing system 8 and 9 on my old 030 mac!

Hope you’re reading this. Thank you so much! Bless you. It works like butter. Shows how great mid-2012 Mac Pro is.

Perfect. My mid-2012 MacBook Pro is now perfectly running Monterey. I ran the install as an upgrade on my existing system rather than wiping the disk first. I can now run the latest version of Logic Pro, which wasn't compatible with Catalina. Thank you!

For anyone wondering, once you have the USB created you basically have the recovery mode on a flash drive, you can even do a time machine backup or use the migration thingy

This tutorial was amazing thank you so much I’m getting into front end web development and web design and a complete newbie this tutorial was super detailed thank you so much I’m so happy to have this now and I feel happy I was able to accomplish it thanks to you keep up the great work

NOTE ‼️‼️ The step that he do after rebooting The erasing of the disk part ! Its only for those who want to completely clean their hard disk! Its not an important step to do! If you don't wish to clean your hard drive and keep your data! Just move to the next step! Hope you find it helpful :)

I followed all the instructions!! You ROCK!! All working good!! Cheers from Costa Rica!!

Thank you, so clear and went without a hitch. Mid 2012 Macbook Pro running with no issues whatsoever!

Thank you for this video. This saved me quite a bit a money as I had a legit business need to upgrade due to OS limitations, but wasn't wanting to buy a new laptop. This worked perfectly.

Great video, thanks. Before selecting the usb to erase, select View -> Show All Devices in Disk Utility

I really appreciate what you’re doing for us it was a big help although I still need to upgrade my memory to the 16 gb. I am attempting to make it faster so including with that I put a new hard drive in and stole Monterey on it so thank you for your tutorial. Again thank you for Helping all of us out here that are need of new laptops. Unfortunately it’s out of your arrange. I look forward to watching RU-vid for more insightful information.

Very well explained and everything executed excellent. Running so very smooth!!! Thanks so much!

Another excellent video for all of us that want to hold onto the older unibody MacBook pros!!

Really appreciated! Encouraged me to try it after recent failed Big Sur attempt. Despite few heart attacks during installation as it froze for a bit or rebooted spontaneously and during Mac setup it was laggy as hell, it runs well without any issue. Experiencing only higher temperature on the Mac body, but that's what the i5 has to deal with. Cheers

Awesome awesome awesome... I just fixed a collegues old mac, I had one lying around with a broken screen and salvaged the trackpad and battery. Installed Monteray and gave the mac a new life!

Thanks so much for this video! Doing this upgrade to a friend’s 2012 MBP for them, and this walk-through was so beneficial!

Great vid. Just did this on my MB Pro (2012) and it's running smoothly. Got a notification to upgrade to Ventura, but will stick to Monterey because I kind of love it. Again, great vid and thanks for your help!

My first ever apple laptop I bought is a 2012 MacBook Pro 3 years ago, I just wanted to try Logic Pro. Upgraded it to 250gb SSD and 8gb RAM now running on Catalina OS and it is a workhorse. I will upgrade it one more time same exact specs as you did and it is going to last for another 10 years. Thank you for this tutorial!

Hi Steve, I found your video as I needed to use Pages on my 2012 MacBook Pro, and I was able to install macOS Ventura 13.3.1. It worked wonderfully. I appreciated the detail on each step to follow. THANK YOU!!

To be honest, i rearly find videos that are real on here, and im really impressed, it really worked, time consuming yea but, its worth it!!!

It went well, even with the latest version of MacOS in may 2024. Thanks for this tuto!

Hello :) I did this Monterey update today on my MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012), and it work like a charm. No problem and it run smooth as butter. Thanks for this tutorial.

I needed to update my adobe creative cloud and it worked!! 2024 and still working!

Thanks for the great tutorial. This upgrade is really tempting, I just have to decide if the performance hit is worth the added value of Monterey.

Best one so far, and the most up to date tutorial. I am in the process but I can see this will go great! Thanks alot Evenos

Thank you brother jun 27 2024 still working 100%

Thanks dear. Finally i did. Earlier there was error when i was writing to pen drive. But i tried different pen drive. Finally succeeded with 16GB Toshiba pendrive with internet off.

Functions perfectly! MacOS installation times, though, are terrible…😢

It was time consuming indeed … took about 6 hours to figure it out … some parts of installation process not the same as shows in video but about 40 restarts and reinstall works … now i have on midle 2012 macbook pro MacOS Monterey 12.6.1. Thanks for video … very strait forward but time consuming

At the time of me installing it’s at 1.4.2 so I’ll just try the 0.4.2 and see if I have any issues or it loads right. I’ll get there soon enough! Thanks for the video!

Thank you for the walkthrough! It worked like a dream. 🙏

Excellent video, very clear!!! exactly what I was looking for!!!

This video made the process easy for me. Thanks a million!

This was spot on step by step. Thank you very much.

Can't thank you enough for your help with such detailed video, I was able to complete upgrade flawlessly

Thank you very much for your video. Now my MacBook Pro 2012 with Monterey runs without problems. Greetings from Germany

Thank you so much you've brought new life to my 2012 Macbook Pro - Awaiting 16 gig memory upgrade

Great video well explained, updated my MacBook Pro mid 2012 to Monterey with the latest version also having the Ventura update notification but not going to Ventura now I'll stick to Monterey

Worked like a charm. Thanks. A bit sluggish but I'm due for a hardware upgrade.

Thanks Steve for this amazing tiutorial video, it help to upgrade my Mac Pro 2012 to Sonoma 14.2, of course it takes time but i am up and running, i am hoping that the next update will work automatically without any issues. many thanks Steve, I apprecaite

Seems to be working great. Thanks. Was it laggy when going through the setup that you skipped. It was for me

I needed Microsoft office 2021 for work, but I couldn't install it because of os. Now I'm going to upgrade it and I will probably upgrade the motherboard to i7 and my mac will last for ten more years! Thank you!

Great post and helped me install Monterey on an 2012 MBP. Tip for everyone, remove any partition first. Friend didnt warn me and I had to do some stupid things to get it to work. I got it going and this old sucker can run FCPX 10.6.1 :)

This time can you do Mac OS Big Sur I would also love to see that tutorial. Im a subscriber I love your work keep it up buddy. Knowledge is key.

It took me 6 hours but it was worth it. From macOS Catalina to macOS Venture 🎉

Just installed Monterey on my 2012 MacBook Pro! And it was successful!

Thanks for the vid , it took me a few tries using 3 different usb’s because apparently a couple of the ones i tried were crap then i finally found one that worked.

Thank you for easy steps setup macOS Monterey! Great video!!

Great video, I loaded monterey on mid 2012 macbook pro- so far so good! there are a few things but most have to do with keychain propagating through I have a couple of other macs. Thank you.

It was easy and fast. I just updated my other mac. Thank you so much!

you're tutorial was amazing, I've got monterey running on my 13inch late 2012 macbook pro

Thanks so much, I was struggling with this for 2 straight months 😭

Great Video. Im gonna try this. I thought my Mac Pro 2012 was trash. cool to find this video. keep them coming.

Great video amazing guide, every thing works fine with montery the issue is when i try to migrate time machine, i would not boot after that. I had to restore back to Catalina 😢

Thank you very much, it work on my iMac 2014. Good job and I really appreciate taking your time to make the video

Thank you so much, I want to run GarageBand but wasn’t able on my old 2012 MacBook Pro. It work now !!!! 😊

Worked flawlessly!!! THANK YOU!!!

Thank you very much. Followed the steps and everything is working perfectly! :)

Thank you so much you made my day

Updated just now! Still working perfectly! Tnx! ❤

I just successfully installed Monterey following these steps exactly, but when the system boots, I now have to select my boot disk every time. How do I correct this?

Have you loaded Monterey on your older Mac or MacBook Pro? If so, how is it running?

Started this last night at 9:20pm when I got home from work. I finished at 4:30am this morning

Thank you, so clear and went without a hitch. Mid 2012 Macbook Pro running. However my Apple Watch will not show in settings to enable iwatch login

I had fun, new way of installing os man thanks for the idea big up

thank you very much i can confirm everything still working march 18th 2023

Hey! Is it possible to update to Monterey with out wiping my data? Also, I'm currently using Big Sur through a different patch so will It affect this?

Much appreciated!! MacBook Pro Early 2011 13-inch . 8GB Ram, i5 Thank you!

How to install Ventura in this 2012 macbook pro brother ?????

Hi, I have a mid 2012 13- inch Macbook Pro and getting a message "The Update cannot be installed on this computer", any suggestions? I followed this video step by step until I came to that msg.

Thank you so much, it's so time consuming but it's definitely worth it !!!❤

Thanks finally I’m on Monterey now. I was worried cuz it’s stuck on Apple logo and it takes so long my battery is burning, thanks to the guy on the other channel who told me to wait for an hour haha finally it’s working now thanks, thank you so much.

Oh man I’ve been waiting for this!

wow thank you so much, quik simple it work like a charm on 2009 Macbook. Really GOOD TUTORIEL !!

Tnx a lot.. works perfectly for Macbook pro mid 2012. Cheers!!

Yeah it didn’t work for me again, tried it 4 times but it says “this copy of the install macOS Monterey application is damaged, and can’t be used to install macOS.” So I’m pretty much stuck and would have to search all over again to see which one works.

it works flawlessly on my two mid 2012 macbook pro. again THANKS

Do you have to erase the hard drive right before installing Monterrey? I’d like to install it “on top” of Catalina, so all my programs and data are still there after the upgrade…

thank you so much it works!!

Followed step by step, it worked! Thanks 🙏🏼

Thank you, worked perfectly!!!