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In this guide, we will fix up some issues that your Mac may encounter later on.
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Time to figure out what's wrong with your Mac, and how we're going to fix it.
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SIP (along with the graphics) is one of the main issues your Mac will encounter. With SIP enabled, you cannot run any root patches. Yet, with it disabled, you cannot give apps permission.
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For example, let's say you download Shazam from the Mac App Store. Shazam needs the microphone to work. When you open Shazam on a native Mac, a warning will appear asking if you will allow Shazam to access the microphone. Yet, when SIP is disabled, this warning never appears, and therefore you cannot access the microphone.
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There are two work-arounds for this issue:
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First, launch Shazam (or any other application that needs access to camera, microphone, photos, etc.) with Terminal.
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Second, allow access to microphone with root patching disabled only temporarily.
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Let's start with launching an application using terminal...
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If you try to launch Shazam, you'll probably get a notification like this, yet no way to fix it in System Preferences.
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So, open your applications folder and find Shazam (or any app that is giving you issues).
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Right-Click the app and choose "Show Package Contents"
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Go to Contents > MacOS > Shazam
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Search for Terminal in Spotlight.
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Open Terminal and drag the Shazam file into the Terminal window as seen in the picture.
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Press the Return key.
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This time when you try to access the microphone, Terminal will ask for permission.
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The second method will take a while, but it allows for a much more pleasant experience while using apps.
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Open up the OpenCore application and revert root patching.
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Before you reboot the Mac, however, go back to the main menu and choose "Settings."
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Head over to "Security" and uncheck everything under "System Integrity Protection."
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Go back to the main menu and choose "Build and Install OpenCore."
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Once completed, you can then reboot your Mac.
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Your Mac will act much, much worse upon rebooting, because no patches are installed.
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But, once booted, open every application that you downloaded and get all access possible.
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Once you have opened every application and requested all access, head back into OpenCore.
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Build OpenCore again, but with SIP disabled (more information on Guide #3).
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Reboot your Mac.
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After rebooting, head back into OpenCore again, and apply Root Patches (more information in Guide #4).
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Reboot your Mac.
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At this point you're probably tired of rebooting, patching, rebooting again, etc. But, that is last time you'll need to reboot. Once all patching is complete, your Mac will be back in working order, and most of your applications should now have access to your microphone or camera.
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The nice saying "I don't need an antivirus program because I have a Mac" kind of dies once you disable SIP. So, SIP is definitely not a bad thing. But, if you want to steer clear of malware, I would recommend you crank up your internet security.
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Block all cookies if possible (yes, some websites absolutely need access to cookies to work for whatever reason)
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Turn on Privacy Relay if you have iCloud+
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Turn Gatekeeper to App Store only (allows downloads only from the App Store, you can find this in the Privacy and Security tab in System Preferences).
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Steer clear of any shady websites. Avoid clicking on advertisements, and avoid opening links from spam emails.
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Simply clear your cache on normal occasions.
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And, just download a simple antivirus program for free for extra safety (there are hundreds out there).
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Ah yes, the unfortunate graphics will be the main issue that you will face in the future. Sadly, graphics are only ever getting better, which means that older Mac's simply can't keep up with the newer technologies. If your Mac has metal graphics, you have a chance. Yet, if you are running on non-metal graphics, your Mac will probably be unusable.
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Good news, OpenCore has developed significantly and running non-metal isn't entirely impossible. There are several work-arounds.
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We'll start with non-metal graphics fixes
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Then we'll talk about legacy metal graphics fixes.
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First of all, running macOS Big Sur or newer on non-metal will slow down performance drastically. To speed up you Mac, you can disabled several things that use up the graphics performance.
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Head into System Preferences > Accessibility > Displays.
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Choose "Reduce Transparency."
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While in Accessibility, you can also check "Reduce Motion," which will also may the UI less pretty, but may increase performance.
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There are some other issues that may be simply unfixable:
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On macOS Ventura and newer, Stage Manager is completely unavailable. Along with showing the Desktop using the trackpad gesture. The best work-around for this is to simply downgrade to macOS Monterey.
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Some screen savers don't work at all. In fact, they just show a black screen. "Drift," "Monterey," "Ventura" are examples of screen savers that don't work.
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Note here, the aerial screen saver on macOS Sonoma and Sequoia somehow works; but it's not pretty. You may also notice that the screen saver that has worked since the iMac G3 age called "Flurry" doesn't work very well on macOS Ventura or newer. The screen saver engine changed, and therefore requires much more energy to run.
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Some blurs may remain broken; even when you've checked "Beta Blur" inside of OpenCore. There are some blurs (like notifications) that will still remain broken.
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You may also notice that absolutely no blur will work on macOS Ventura and newer. I personally have had no issues with the blurs while running macOS Big Sur only.
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Let's talk for a second on some work-arounds for these issues using OpenCore
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Inside of OpenCore settings (I'm assuming you're pretty comfortable with the OpenCore UI by now), head to the "Root-Patching" tab. Under the "Non-Metal Configuration," you can activate things to make your Mac run better.
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Dark Menu Bar - This changes the text color on the menu bar depending on the desktop background. (Beta Menu Bar must be enabled for this to work.) (Also, by enabling Reduce Transparency, Dark Menu Bar does absolutely nothing.)
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Beta Blur - In some application windows, the sidebar has that nice translucency blur. If your window seems to act weird, try toggling this and see which one works better for you. (Also does absolutely nothing with Reduce Transparency enabled.)
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Beach Ball Cursor Workaround - Supposedly this makes the loading cursor actually spin (though this has never worked for me).
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Beta Menu Bar - This is a custom built menu bar. It changes colors and rounds the edges for menu items just like on a native Mac. (This is the one feature that is still in beta, it has been in beta for years now. If you have issues with the menu bar, disable this.)
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Disable Beta Rim - Honestly, I'm not entire sure what this does. My Mac has acted the same both with and without this checked. But, I believe it adds edges to the windows so they look more like a native Mac. If someone else knows, drop a comment down below because I'm not entirely sure.
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Disable Color Widgets Enforcement - In macOS Sonoma and Sequoia, you can add widgets to the desktop. If the colors do not change while looking at the desktop or an application, you can check this. This gives the Mac one less thing to do. If the colors to change, you can leave this unchecked so the UI is nicer.
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There are some issues that you will face using built-in applications. We'll talk about these first, and then we'll talk about applications that you download later from the App Store.
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All DRM Content is unavailable in macOS Big Sur and newer. This includes things like DVD Player, Music Videos, Movies, DRM Content is Safari, etc. Good news, there are a few work-arounds for the DVD Player and DRM Content in Safari.
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For the DVD Player, you can get a third-party application. I recommend Final Video Player: Final Video Player in the App Store
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As for issues in Safari, I would recommend using a third party browser that doesn't require metal graphics to run. Firefox is an excellent example of this. Firefox Download
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Maps simply don't load in macOS Monterey and newer, because they require metal graphics to work (this includes MapKit, so any application that requires maps [like Find My] will not work). The best work-around for this if you want to use the app is to stay on macOS Big Sur.
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If you are okay to not use the app, you can use Google Maps directly on the web, and this does not require metal graphics to run.
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Photos may act a little strange. First off all, they will not curate (organize each photo into a nice organized grid). If you use iCloud Photos, the colors will be muted until you download them (they will remain muted even after downloaded in macOS Ventura and newer).
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There's no patch to fix this, so you have to know that photos may not behave as normal...
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As far as I know, these are the issues and potential work-arounds for built-in applications, but if you have an issue with some other application, drop a comment down below.
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So, let's dive into some applications that you will download, starting with Apple's Applications.
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GarageBand simply doesn't work. It requires Metal Graphics to load the timeline. If you want to use GarageBand, you must download an older version.
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iMovie also simply does not work. It too requires Metal Graphics to render video playback. You will also have to download and older version if you want to use it.
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Pages, on the other hand, works flawlessly. I personally have not experienced any issues with running the latest version of Pages.
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Numbers, too, works flawlessly. I have not had much experience using Numbers, but I have not encountered any issues.
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Keynote works great until you want to present it. The app (or maybe even the computer) will crash when you try to preview a transition or present the keynote itself. You can edit fine, but if you want to present the keynote from the Mac, you will have to download an older version.
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We covered almost everything in non-metal. Now, let's turn our focus to legacy metal.
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What is Legacy Metal? Think of "Legacy" as "Old." In other words, Old Metal graphics.
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Throughout the years, Metal has changed and become better and more power efficient. In 2022-2023, Apple shifted gears with macOS Ventura and eliminated all machines with the older Metal Graphics system. Therefore macOS Ventura and newer have many bugs that are graphics related.
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Most of these bugs, however, have many work-arounds. The main thing you will need to remember is that running macOS Ventura and newer will slow down a machine with Legacy Metal.
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There are nine graphics systems that fall into this category:
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Intel: Ivy Bridge (HD4000) - Haswell (HD4400/4600/5xxx) - Broadwell (HD6xxx) - Skylake (HD5xx)
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Nvidia: Kepler (GTX 6xx, GTX 7xx)
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AMD: GCN 1-3 (HD 7xxx/8xxx/9xxx, R7/R9, FirePro D300, D500, D700) - Polaris (RX 4xx/5xx) - (Hosts lacking AVX2.0) - Polaris (Radeon Pro 4xx/5xx & MacBookPro13,3/14,3) - Vega (RX 56/64/VII _ Hosts lacking AVX2.0)
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To determine which version you have, simply check out About this Mac
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In Overview, you can see the model number. Verify that number with the chart above to determine which system your Mac has
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Photos app fails to edit portrait photos on macOS Sonoma and macOS Sequoia. (Best work-around is to downgrade to macOS Ventura)
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Safari fails to reproduce DRM content (Best work-around is to use a third-party browser {I highly recommend using FireFox}).
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Paravirtualized Graphics is unavailable on macOS Sonoma and macOS Sequoia {This system is mainly used on high graphics demanding games} (Best work-around is to downgrade to macOS Ventura)
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Live Text is broken (You can use third-party OCR software)
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Metal's Mesh Shader feature set unavailable {This is a developer feature for graphics intensive content} (There are no work-arounds for this)
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Green Artifacts on QuickTime Timeline for .mov (There are no work-arounds for this)
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This Graphics system has the same issues as Intel Ivy
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You may notice that Native Metal 3 eGPUs may report as Metal 2 (This has no affect on your Mac)
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Safari fails to reproduce DRM content (Best work-around is to use a third-party browser {I highly recommend using FireFox}).
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Metal's Mesh Shader feature set unavailable {This is a developer feature for graphics intensive content} (There are no work-arounds for this)
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MacBookPro14,3 has been tested by the OpenCore developers. They have proven that this MacBook model has not had any of these issues. So, great news for those who have this model!
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We've reached the end...
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If you have been left with an issue that is not covered in this guide, PLEASE drop a comment down below. It takes everyone to keep these old Macs up and running.
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Hopefully this will cover most of the issues that your Mac is facing. If you still have issues, drop any comments in this guide, and we will keep adding fixes to this guide.
Hopefully this will cover most of the issues that your Mac is facing. If you still have issues, drop any comments in this guide, and we will keep adding fixes to this guide.
