macOS 15 Sequoia on Unsupported Macs Thread

[amaze1499]

When I push the start button the tiled screen is first, then the picker, then the logo and progress bar which always freezes. When I push the T key at startup, first the tiled screen and then the Arrow which only moves around the screen. I have never used an external screen.

I do have an older display from that era and I see an adapter is only around 10.00, but would I need to be logged in to use it, and if it came up with tiles would that mean the GPU is shot.

Try the external monitor, but i think your IT guy pointed you in the right direction: hardware issue. If you are lucky, it's just a solder joint that needs to be redone. Otherwise you need an MLB replacement. Time for a gpu upgrade perhaps!

 

[deeveedee]

@ronton3 I think you have demonstrated that the issue is hardware. I don't know whether the GPU is "shot." Could you have a thermal problem that would be resolved by cleaning and replacement of thermal paste? I don't know, but you have convinced me it's a hardware issue.

 

[phaser32]

Hi everyone,
I'm having a problem with Sequoia. In the settings I set the "Desktop" option in the active corners at the bottom right. Previously with Ventura by activating it all the windows disappeared, this allowed me to see the desktop and interact with all the elements present and reactivating the function (by touching the left corner) all the previously opened windows reappeared correctly in their place.
What happens with Sequoia instead, by activating this function is that all the tabs remain in their place, you don't see the desktop obviously you can't interact with it. The only thing I noticed is that a light frame appears (which also appeared on Ventura to make it clear that the function was in use) but on Sequoia it obviously doesn't work.
Does anyone have any ideas about this?
Thanks to anyone who can give their contribution.
Alessandro

Sorry, I just wanted to add that I also tried pressing the CMD + F3 key and I get the same result. That is, all the windows remain in their place without showing the desktop, but the typical frame of this function appears. It's as if something is preventing the windows from disappearing.
At the moment this is the only compromised functionality, for the rest everything works divinely, it seems even more responsive than Ventura (we are talking about a Late 2011 macbook pro with the related and age-old GPU problem )

 

[sinbad21]

A new tab of what, Safari? I've already disabled and re-enabled Safari sync multiple times in the iCloud options. I even get a screen saying that the information on this Mac will be uploaded and merged with the bookmarks on iCloud.com, but it's not working. I thought maybe it was iOS 18, so I tried adding a bookmark and deleting the bookmark.plist file to see what would sync, and indeed, nothing gets added.
I tried to understand, but it’s not my field. I suspect that maybe the problem is SafariBookmarksSyncAgent

Found a temporary solution :

- quit Safari
- put the ~/Library/Safari/Bookmarks.plist to the trash, it is not necessary to empty the trash
- launch Safari
- wait a few seconds

 

[amaze1499]

A new tab of what, Safari? I've already disabled and re-enabled Safari sync multiple times in the iCloud options. I even get a screen saying that the information on this Mac will be uploaded and merged with the bookmarks on iCloud.com, but it's not working. I thought maybe it was iOS 18, so I tried adding a bookmark and deleting the bookmark.plist file to see what would sync, and indeed, nothing gets added.
I tried to understand, but it’s not my field. I suspect that maybe the problem is SafariBookmarksSyncAgent

Open up a new Safari Tab/Window. Scroll down to the bottom of that tab. What can you see?
If you cant see iCloud it needs to be enabled first. Check the screenshots below.

After that you will see an option to enable Safari iCloud Bookmarks syncing, press ok and you are done.

 

[PeterHolbrook]

At long last, I took the plunge and updated my old cMP 5,1 to Sequoia 15.0. It was easier than I thought it would be. I simply went to Software Update and accepted the suggested Sequoia update. I had been somewhat hesitant because my GPU was quite limited, although metal-compatible (it's an AMD Radeon HD 7970 3 GB). In addition I would have hated discovering that the XtraFinder plugin was incompatible with Sequoia. Well, it isn't incompatible at all! I seems to be working just fine, sort of, the same as in Sonoma. So, in the final analysis, updating to Sequoia was no different from a point-release update of prior Sonoma versions.

 

[houser]

Open up a new Safari Tab/Window. Scroll down to the bottom of that tab. What can you see?
If you cant see iCloud it needs to be enabled first. Check the screenshots below.

Just realised I have this issue too on a rMBP 10,1 even though it is not vital to me at this time.
Tried the usual fixes with no results. Will probably wait for the next update combo.

 

[peppolone]

Open up a new Safari Tab/Window. Scroll down to the bottom of that tab. What can you see?
If you cant see iCloud it needs to be enabled first. Check the screenshots below.

After that you will see an option to enable Safari iCloud Bookmarks syncing, press ok and you are done.

View attachment 2431752
View attachment 2431753

Now I understand what you meant, because I set a blank page as a new tab and start page as a new window. Anyway, I tried doing what you suggested, I removed the plist and restarted iCloud, multiple times, but that option doesn’t show up for me.
I don’t get why they messed up something that’s already set in the iCloud settings.

 

[Steve Gosselin]

I tried checking on iCloud.com by using the 'Data Recovery->Restore Bookmarks' option at the bottom of the page, and there are no bookmarks archived in the last 30 days, hmm.

Same here ; no bookmarks.

 

[Tratkazir_the_1st]

@ronton3
Try some Linux LiveCD.

 

[nekton1]

First time installing an unsupported OS on my MacBookPro13,2. I completely wiped my disk, reinstalled Monterey (last supported OS) and then upgraded to 15.0 using OCLP. The installation process went smoothly, no issues there.
However, when trying to sign in to iCloud I encountered several issues. Passwords were not syncing, also files in iCloud Drive weren't loading and Messages in the Cloud didn't turn on at all. Then I tried to open the Messages app, which completely crashed and resulted in the spinning beachball, and I had to force close it. Same thing happened with Contacts and Maps (iirc). Also some third party apps weren't working for me at all (WhatsApp and Creative Cloud).

Compared to you, @nekton1 , I did get a 2FA request, but I still think there might be some issues on the MacBookPros13 series with iCloud and Messages.

Ultimately decided to uninstall Sequoia and install Sonoma 14.7 instead. Running very smoothly and no issues besides some rare graphic issues (flickering icons and text) and my internal screen randomly turning black from time to time when connected to an external display.

Thanks for the detailed report and welcome to the club ffff14P. Let's hope the devs can figure what's missing in the OCLP install for the MBP 13,x series.

 

[OKonnel]

Just spent some time testing 15.0 on my iMac 14,2. Mostly working well but a few issues I've noticed.
The Sequoia dynamic wallpaper doesn't load (all the previous ones are ok), I just get a blue screen either dark or light. The Sequoia landscape wallpaper works fine.
Continuity camera with iPhone not working. Just a black screen when connected. I seem to remember this was an issue for a while with Sonoma.
Airplay receiver works for Music but not for video.
Normally I wouldn't move to the latest OS version until the .3 release. Certainly staying on Sonoma for the time being.

Hello @Marfan-58 and welcome back. We have the same iMac 14.2 and the “Sequoia Dynamic” wallpaper also works poorly in mine; but it is a known problem well described in the OCLP issues diagram and affects nVidia Kepler video cards.
“Continuity Camera,” on the other hand, works fine in my iMac with the iPhone 12, but YouTube Airplay does not work (grey screen) even if I use Reflector 4. If I use YouTube from Safari, however, the videos play in the Mac even if I select “Share” and then “Airdrop” and Reflector reproduce also all iPhone screen in use. So, perhaps this could be a problem related to the YouTube App.
Try doing a deep reset of NVRAM at startup by holding down the OPTION+CMD+P+R keys together until you hear the startup sound (Gong!) four times. Then reboot by holding down Option and re-enable OpenCore by clicking on its icon.
Maybe everything works fine for me because I did it before and after installing OCLP 2.0.2 Nightly and Sequoia...? Or maybe it is because I have an nVidia GTX780M with 4GB of VRAM?... I hope you can solve the "Continuity Camera" problem.
Hi

 

[OKonnel]

I have the same mac and I have one question: ¿what about backups with time machine? In my case, It is very slow... with many errors like this: "Make sure your backup disk is plugged in, turned on, and securely connected to your Mac. If your backup disk is on a network, make sure both the disk and your Mac are connected to the network. If the network is experiencing problems, your backup disk may not be available ..."

Hi @cmedina90 , so far I have not received any messages from Time Machine and everything seems to be working fine.

I have Time Machine on an external Western Digital Black series HD (7.200 rpm) in a USB 3.1 bay and it is formatted in APFS with Case Sensitive encryption, as recommended by Apple and as automatically proposed by macOS.

In your place I would first try starting over and maybe replace the drive...

 

[amaze1499]

Now I understand what you meant, because I set a blank page as a new tab and start page as a new window. Anyway, I tried doing what you suggested, I removed the plist and restarted iCloud, multiple times, but that option doesn’t show up for me.
I don’t get why they messed up something that’s already set in the iCloud settings.

I assume syncing works between iCloud.com and all other devices?

In this case and only if have a working backup and you feel ok with the possibility to loose some data:

Navigate to

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari/Data/Library/Safari

rename to old.Safari log out and back in. Restart iCloud syncing.

Sometimes the sqlite.dbs contain inconsistent data.

 

[ofey]

So all my Macs are up to Sequoia 15.0 patched OCLP 2.0.2 except for the non-metal capable 2011 27" iMac 12,2 which is still on Ventura 13.7.
Everything seems to work well, except the new phone mirroring function (yes I'm on iOS18), anyone else?
Can I push the iMac 12,2 further without upgrading the GPU? Do I need to?

 

[TOM1211]

So all my Macs are up to Sequoia 15.0 patched OCLP 2.0.2 except for the non-metal capable 2011 27" iMac 12,2 which is still on Ventura 13.7.
Everything seems to work well, except the new phone mirroring function (yes I'm on iOS18), anyone else?
Can I push the iMac 12,2 further without upgrading the GPU? Do I need to?

iPhone mirroring will never work on a unsupported Apple system it requires newer hardware nothing can be done software wise.

 

[jonobin]

How's performance/stability wise Sequoia on unsupported macs compared to Sonoma/Ventura?

 

[roronl]

^^^ With enough available ram memory it is an improvement. If you are very low, I advise against it.

 

[OKonnel]

How's performance/stability wise Sequoia on unsupported macs compared to Sonoma/Ventura?

Ho @jonobin! Let me give you my opinion regarding my late 2013 iMac (see my signature below).
Assuming that with Catalina the performance of my the Mac was 100%, with Big Sur the performance went sl 110-120%, with Monterey to 150%, with Ventura and Sonoma to 200%, but it is difficult to say in what percentage Sonoma was smoother and snappier than Ventura. The fact remains that I would never, ever go back to Catalina, which, moreover, I installed anyway in the internal SSD that belonged to the Fusion Drive.
Regarding Sequoia, so far I would say that it represents an evolution of Sonoma in many small respects, but performance is now so fast that it makes my Mac look like a new Mac and it is difficult to notice further speed increases. Of course, even if the applications are equally fast, it is clear that the hardware has limitations and for example one cannot expect Final Cut to work as it does in a Mac M3 and convert movies in lightning fast times... Nevertheless, I work well with it and Photoshop and even Autocad 2024 satisfy me as well.
Well, Sequoia has made a small and important change that until now (it seems to me) had not been noticed and reported by others.
Until now, then, when trying to eject an external device such as a disk or USB stick or DMG image inside which a program was running or a file was busy or Spotlight indexing was in progress and so on, macOS would pop up an annoying window warning that ejection was not possible. The user was then forced to click to close the warning and try again later, often with the same result.
With Sequoia, on the other hand, a warning message appears with a "Close when done" button, and this is a real relief because you continue to work quietly...

 

[ScoobySnaxxPA]

So, I have a late 2013 27” iMac, and Seqouia works great!…. Well except that AirPlay and the dynamic wall paper are hosed.. It connects to my AppleTV, but the screen is black, only audio gets through no picture. I am assuming this is a Kepler issue since there are no other issues. I updated to Sequoia 15.1 to see if that would fix it, but it didn’t, although 15.1 seems zippier than 15. I know the metal 3802 patches are still a work in progress, but I will have to go back to Sonoma because I use AirPlay with the appletv everyday.

 

[jonobin]

Ho @jonobin! Let me give you my opinion regarding my late 2013 iMac (see my signature below).
Assuming that with Catalina the performance of my the Mac was 100%, with Big Sur the performance went sl 110-120%, with Monterey to 150%, with Ventura and Sonoma to 200%, but it is difficult to say in what percentage Sonoma was smoother and snappier than Ventura. The fact remains that I would never, ever go back to Catalina, which, moreover, I installed anyway in the internal SSD that belonged to the Fusion Drive.
Regarding Sequoia, so far I would say that it represents an evolution of Sonoma in many small respects, but performance is now so fast that it makes my Mac look like a new Mac and it is difficult to notice further speed increases. Of course, even if the applications are equally fast, it is clear that the hardware has limitations and for example one cannot expect Final Cut to work as it does in a Mac M3 and convert movies in lightning fast times... Nevertheless, I work well with it and Photoshop and even Autocad 2024 satisfy me as well.
Well, Sequoia has made a small and important change that until now (it seems to me) had not been noticed and reported by others.
Until now, then, when trying to eject an external device such as a disk or USB stick or DMG image inside which a program was running or a file was busy or Spotlight indexing was in progress and so on, macOS would pop up an annoying window warning that ejection was not possible. The user was then forced to click to close the warning and try again later, often with the same result.
With Sequoia, on the other hand, a warning message appears with a "Close when done" button, and this is a real relief because you continue to work quietly...

That's a nice feedback! I'm planning to upgrade a machine that's natively running Monterey (Mbpro 13" 2015 with 16GB of ram) that will not be doing hardware heavy tasks, just some browsing and some light software development, for doing work related things I'have another mac. Is a 16GB usb key enough to do the upgrade?

 

[ScoobySnaxxPA]

BTW the iMac is a core i7 with the NVIDIA 780m and 1tb ssd

 

[OKonnel]

That's a nice feedback! I'm planning to upgrade a machine that's natively running Monterey (Mbpro 13" 2015 with 16GB of ram) that will not be doing hardware heavy tasks, just some browsing and some light software development, for doing work related things I'have another mac. Is a 16GB usb key enough to do the upgrade?

Yes 👍🏻
But you can also proceed by downloading the installer from the MrMacintosh site, run the app from Applications and when finished open OCLP and run the Post Install Patch.

 

[OKonnel]

So, I have a late 2013 27” iMac, and Seqouia works great!…. Well except that AirPlay and the dynamic wall paper are hosed.. It connects to my AppleTV, but the screen is black, only audio gets through no picture. I am assuming this is a Kepler issue since there are no other issues. I updated to Sequoia 15.1 to see if that would fix it, but it didn’t, although 15.1 seems zippier than 15. I know the metal 3802 patches are still a work in progress, but I will have to go back to Sonoma because I use AirPlay with the appletv everyday.

Sorry, @ScoobySnaxxPA, but I don't understand what you mean when you say you have to use AirPlay to see AppleTV+.
I open Apple TV directly and see everything fine. Only after the first installation Apple TV was not working and giving black screen because even though I had installed the Post Install Patch, it had not downloaded and installed the Metallib libraries. So I did the PIP again and this time I saw that it downloaded the Metallib PKGs and installed them; after that, when I restarted the Mac, everything worked fine. But are you connected to the Internet when you start the PIP? Check well, or redo the installation with the USB stick. Anyway, I started the Installer downloaded from MrMacintosh and upon completion did the PIP which, as I said before, I had to redo to get the transparencies, Apple TV video, etc. to work.

 

[amaze1499]

Yes 👍🏻
But you can also proceed by downloading the installer from the MrMacintosh site, run the app from Applications and when finished open OCLP and run the Post Install Patch.

I might be wrong, but I want to believe the 15.1 OTA download was a bit over 16GB. It's probably better to use a 32GB USB stick from now on?