Run modern macOS on your old Mac.
OpenCore Legacy Patcher brings macOS Big Sur through Sequoia to the Intel Macs Apple has retired. Free, open-source, reversible — and it has kept more than a hundred Mac models alive past their expiry date.
What it does, in four parts
OCLP is not just a hack — it's a careful re-creation of the boot-time environment a newer Mac would have. Four pieces, working together.
OpenCore boot injection
Installs the OpenCore bootloader to your EFI partition. At boot time it injects a supported SMBIOS, missing kexts, and ACPI hooks — so macOS sees a Mac it knows how to start up.
Root patches for missing hardware
After macOS is installed, OCLP applies kernel-level patches to bring back what the new OS dropped: Metal acceleration for older GPUs, legacy Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, non-Metal frameworks, and pre-AVX2 codecs.
Installer creation built-in
The app downloads the macOS installer you choose (from Apple's authenticated AppleDB source as of v2.4.1), writes it to a USB drive, and adds an OpenCore EFI that the unsupported Mac can boot — all in one flow.
Reversible by design
OCLP keeps your stock recovery partition intact and writes only to the EFI. The bundled uninstaller PKG, the in-app revert flow, or an Internet Recovery reformat will return your Mac to a stock state.
Hardware-first documentation
The official Dortania guide covers every supported model end-to-end. The patcher itself surfaces warnings when something on your specific Mac is known to be tricky (T1 chip, USB-1.1, legacy GPU).
Community + open source
Released under the 3-Clause BSD License on GitHub. Active issue tracker, pull requests welcome, and contributors are credited in every release. No telemetry, no ads, no paid features.
Get OpenCore Legacy Patcher v2.4.1
The signed OpenCore-Patcher.pkg installer, hosted directly on Dortania's GitHub release page.
Direct link to the official v2.4.1 release on github.com/dortania. We do not mirror or repackage the installer — you get the same bits Dortania publish. See the full download page for SHA-256, the uninstaller, and system requirements.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is OpenCore Legacy Patcher?
OpenCore Legacy Patcher (OCLP) is a free, open-source tool maintained by the Dortania team that lets you install and run modern macOS — Big Sur, Monterey, Ventura, Sonoma, and Sequoia — on Mac models Apple has officially dropped from support. It uses the OpenCore bootloader to inject the SMBIOS and drivers your unsupported Mac needs, then applies root patches to bring back graphics acceleration, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and other hardware features as needed.
Is OCLP safe? Will it brick my Mac?
OCLP is widely used by tens of thousands of people. It installs OpenCore to the EFI partition without modifying the recovery partition and is fully reversible — you can return to a stock OS install at any time. That said, you are running an OS Apple did not certify for your hardware, so always: (a) back up with Time Machine first, (b) read the Dortania install guide end-to-end, and (c) keep a known-good bootable installer USB.
Is it free? Are there ads, telemetry, or a paid tier?
Completely free. OCLP is released under the 3-Clause BSD License on GitHub. There is no telemetry, no analytics, and no paid tier. The project accepts donations through its OpenCollective page — these are optional and go to hardware-testing costs.
What's new in OCLP v2.4.1?
v2.4.1 (released September 1, 2025) is a small follow-up to v2.4.0 — it switches the installer-download source to AppleDB to fix a bug where the wrong or missing macOS installers showed up. From v2.4.0 it inherits: ApplePay fixes on T1 Macs running macOS 15.5, USB-1.1 camera support on Sequoia, lower CPU usage on the GUI thread, and several smaller stability fixes. Full v2.4.1 changelog.
Which macOS versions can I install with OCLP?
OCLP supports installing macOS Big Sur (11), Monterey (12), Ventura (13), Sonoma (14), and Sequoia (15) on otherwise-unsupported Macs. The exact target you can run depends on your Mac model — for example, a 2012 MacBook Pro can run Sequoia, while a 2008 Mac Pro tops out around Monterey. See the supported Macs reference for the model-by-model breakdown.
Does OCLP work with Apple Silicon Macs?
No — and they don't need it. OCLP exists to extend macOS support on Intel Macs that Apple has dropped. Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3, M4) Macs are still officially supported by Apple, so OCLP isn't necessary on them. The OCLP installer itself runs as a universal binary on both Intel and Apple Silicon, but its patching targets are Intel Macs only.
How do I update OCLP to a new version?
Open the OpenCore-Patcher app, let it check for updates, or download the latest OpenCore-Patcher.pkg from the download page and run it. After updating, choose Build and Install OpenCore to refresh the EFI, then reboot. Root patches usually do not need to be re-applied unless the release notes call it out.
How do I uninstall OCLP and go back to a stock Mac?
Three options: (a) download the official OpenCore-Patcher-Uninstaller.pkg from the same GitHub release and run it, (b) use the in-app Revert Root Patches + Uninstall OpenCore flow, or (c) reformat the drive and reinstall the last Apple-supported macOS for your model via Internet Recovery (Cmd-Option-Shift-R).