Make this little beast even better by installing Sonoma on it! Tutorial is here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/o6yJoqah1a61ops.html Overview is here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/b7iHh6R82p-9pXk.html These machines are unstoppable!

Always like for videos about old Macs

I've just upgraded to Ventura and to be honest, I wasn't expecting much. I was expecting it to be slow and the cpu use to be intensive and the fan to be on the whole time. What I wasn't expecting was how well it worked, even with 4GB ram. I installed Ventura on the day an extra 8GB of ram was due to arrive and spent the morning with the original 4GB, and to be honest other than the odd slowdown here and there, it was useable. When I installed the 8GB in the afternoon though, it was an absolute game changer. I was shocked at how quick and smooth everything worked. I have been actively bidding on M1 MacBooks on eBay but after this, I am totally happy staying with this MacBook for another 2-3 years, that's how good I think it is. It is mental that something I bought secondhand in 2016 for $350AUD is still my main machine in 2023.

Also remember, while the design is 11 years old, they made this model until Oct. of 2016, so there are some out there that are much newer (show less wear, better battery etc.).

I love making old machines run new software… updated a 2013 iMac to Ventura and a 2007 Dell Optiplex 745 to Windows 11 a couple weeks ago

I have this!!! Boight it second hand in 2019, it was originally bought in 2015. So 4 years old when I got it. And its still going! Solid as a rock, has never given me any major problems. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

I picked up one of these back in 2015 or 2016, right before they went off the market, and I used it until I gave it to a friend after getting my 2021 MacBook Pro last year. I maxed out the RAM and swapped out the HDD for an SSD when we were all at home during COVID, and it ran great. The main reason I got rid of it was because the low screen resolution was making it too hard to use it for work. It was a great machine, though, and it got me through that dark period where the only MacBook Pros were the horrible 2016 models with the bad keyboards and slowed-down processors.

Awesome video. I still use mine daily and am planning on sending it in to Dossdude1 to have the CPU swapped to a Quad Core i7 kzfaq.info/get/bejne/r7KqrdCbl8mRh58.html . I'm curious what the performance on Ventura would be with it vs the dual core.

My 2011 Pro almost made it to 2023. Kept up to date as long as possible and no major issues till the end. Amazing

Just a tip if you have a pre retina Macbook Pro like the mid 2012 or older open it up and check the internal fan as you can buy newer drop in replacement fans that have more blades on them and help to keep the system running slightly cooler as the stock OEM fan has far few blades on them than all the replacement fans I ever buy now, its so cheap to replace the fan its one of the first think I change when working on old Macbooks.

Wow, what a great vid, thanks a lot for the grounded perspective. It’s so hard to control the urge to buy the new and shiny ones sometimes, but since doing some maintenance like fixing up the battery and cleaning the fans my old machine is admittedly working very well. And it’s barely half as old as yours over there.

I have proudly held on to mine since 2012, I swapped the DVD reader for a solid state drive and added more RAM. These mods significantly extended its life. For video editing, it's ok as long as you're not going into 4K, for everything else it's perfect. The only reason why I don't use it as much now is because the keyboard is giving up. My A S and D keys are not working properly so I usually just use it with a magic keyboard, which is kind of annoying. I'd try to clean the keys but nothing :(

Great video. I bought a 2008 regular Macbook new before my freshman year of college and after upgrading the RAM and installing an SSD that machine lasted me until 2019. Instead of getting another new machine, I decided to find a used model of the last fully upgradable Macbook and that led me to this same 2012 model. Fully maxing out RAM and installing an SSD made it feel as snappy as a brand new machine in basically every non-graphically intensive task. It's such a shame that in the 11 years since this machine was released, Apple has completely neutered its laptops from an upgradeability standpoint; getting 11 serviceable years out of a laptop is incredible user value and a great thing for the environment when that is scaled up to hundreds of thousands of machines in the wild. I actually just recently caved and bought a different used Macbook, this time a 2020 M1 Pro, but that 2012 is still being used as a daily driver for my girlfriend in grad school. It saddens me that we'll likely never see this kind of user-upgradeability again in Apple products. People argue that soldering everything to the board allows the machines to be thinner, but I actually prefer having a thicker laptop that allows for actual i/o ports and would trade size for upgradeability any day.

WOW, that's the video i need to upgrade my old MBP12, thank you so much, you couldn't believe the favor you do for me!

followed your tutorial to install ventura.....ready to go for another 3 years......amazing classic machine

I wanted one of these so bad back in the day cause it was one of the last MacBooks with an optical drive and one of the last MacBooks with substance.

Thanks so much. Learning that I an upgrade the OS using OpenCore was a real gem.

I have 3 Macbooks, (#1)2014 Pro 13" 8 gig ram. 121gig SSD, (#2) 2014 Pro 15" 16 gig ram.512gig SSD. NVIDIA dedicated graphics, (#3) 2022 Pro from work. They are all awesome beasts. I paid Micro Center $50 each to replace batteries on the 2014's. If you get a chance to buy a 2012, 2013 or 2014 Pro cheap, jump on it. These machines are beasts and absolutely fantastic. Fun fact: My older MacBooks are more reliable than the new one. The 2022 Pro has overheating issues. Good job Eevnos

I have had this machine since launch June 2012. Still running strong Dual SSD, 8GB ram, new battery, new thermal paste, OSX , Windows 10 and Ubuntu running natively. It also served as my 24/7 Plex server from 2016 till the 2019. I have other newer pc's and apples. But the versatility of this MacBook is unmatched to this day!!!!

Thank you for this video. This very laptop is the one I'm using. I bought it 10 years ago and on day one I maxed out the ram as well as added an ssd. It has treated me well and am now finally considering moving to a newer machine but they are so pricey now.

I still have this machine, it was my first macbook ever, back in the 2012. Now my niece uses it for education and it just works! I installed SSD, 16 gigs of ram, renewed battery, thermal paste, and it works just fine. This is the best laptops Apple ever made, agree! In terms of gaming - I used to play Knights and Merchants on it, and it was good, so, depending on what kind of games you want to play, but definitely it runs some simple stuff!

I just have updated my MBP 2012 to Ventura ofcourse I follow your tutorial and it was successful. Perfomance is superb, the feel of 2023.I can now install any apps which I were not able to previously. Great and informative content.

I just ordered a used one off of eBay ! Wish I watched this video beforehand but the laptop is on the way from California!! All for $99 !!!! What a deal !

I have the exact same MacBook Pro. I have installed an SSD, but I'm still running 10.15. It holds up very well in 2023.

Proud user of macbook pro mod 2012 here, I have been using it for around 8 Years already and still going on , fully upgraded the ram to 16 gigs and swapped the hdd with ssd. Instead of updating the OS I am using browser based app for documentation and things and live boot linux for retro gaming. This laptop is awesome especially when it's running on linux it's even faster than some brand new windows 💻 🥰🥰🥰

My mom still uses her 2010 white polycarbonate MacBook. It's running High Sierra, but she only uses it for web browsing, email and some word documents. I've really impressed that a 13 year old computer can still be usable.

Still using Macbook Pro 2012 with 512Gb SSD and 16Gb Ram in 2023. I'm using Ventura in my Mac which was installed via OpenCore and still worth it 🙌🏼

Mid-2012 MBP, 15", 2.7 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, 16GB RAM, 1TB OWC SSD. I just swapped out the optical drive for a spare 250GB SSD that was sitting around unused. I cannot express enough how awesome and solid this machine is. I have a hot-rod 2018 MBP, so fragile, cost $800 to replace a broken screen. I also have a great HP laptop for Windows applications. My 2012 totally holds up and is my everyday non-work computer although I do video encoding on it as an overflow workstation. I just breaths a little heavy on the h.264 video. I'm convinced this 2012 body could stop a 9mm bullet. Hope I never have to find out.

Still rocking my 2010. Works great surprisingly 😂

Glad I found your video! I was looking at getting a newer imac and then remembered I had a 2012 macbook pro i upgraded but haven't used in years. I dusted it off and found that in clamshell mode I can connect and run two apple thunderbolt displays daisy chained to it. That is two 27" 2k GORGEOUS apple monitors that really are giving this thing new life. I want to do a fresh macOS install and get it in as best shape as possible. But I am actually really excited to get it to it's max potential and start playing with it again!

Best EVER!! Just in upgrades it’s A BEAST!

My MBP 13in 2012 that im watching this vid with runs like new. I acquired it from a collage student who somehow managed to go through 4 years at UNC and not put a single scratch or blemish anywhere on it. I maxed the mem to 16GB, replaced the HDD with a SSD and replace the SuperDrive with a second SSD. Also installed Open Core Legacy Patcher and installed Sonoma 14.0 "23A344" and Windows 10 via Bootcamp partition and it runs perfectly. The only thing ever to be replaced because it "broke" was the MagSafe jack and the battery which I replaced for the first time 2 years ago.

I put Linux on mine and use it daily for college note taking and homework. It's exceptional. Way faster than a Chromebook, way more stable than a Windows 10 machine of the same price range (I bought mine for $230 with the SSD installed and RAM already upgraded), and it's built like a tank for hands-on classes. The only place it really suffers is the battery life. I can get around 3.5 to 4 hours of battery life with a newly replaced battery.

I was really considering finally giving in and getting a new Macbook Pro. Figured it was finally time for an upgrade after 12 years. I've upgraded its internals and thought I had finally hit a wall after the OS was no longer supported. After seeing this video and seeing that I can upgrade my MBP to the latest OS with good functionality using OpenCore Legacy Pro, looks like i can hold off a bit more longer :)! Thank you for making this video!

Just ordered a 16GB 512 GB SSD Macbook pro 2012 from ebay apple certified refurbished for $250 to replace a previous one that was performing great, but left out of town in a rush lol. These are really good cheap computers and I refuse to spend thousands on a newer one. I'll look into upgrading it from Catalina if it isn't too much of a pain, if not I'll roll with what's on there. Thanks for the video...good to know I'm not the only one that still rocks with these old computers ;)

I’ve collected more than a few MacBooks over the years this is my favorite..it’s great😊

Are you still using one of these amazing computers? If so, how is yours holding up?

This remains being my main laptop, I use it for voice over recording, video editing and 2d animation, I wish I could upgrade but it seems Apple will never offer 512gb MacBooks as their entry level model, and the prices (at least in Mexico) are insane

Ironically I got mine for doing school stuff (composing music with Logic, word processing etc.) and I honestly havent had many issues with it other than the screen resolution not being as high as I'd like considering how large individual tracks are in GarageBand/Logic, but other than that, I love the thing. I mostly chose this model since I know them from primary school since I used them back then. I personally use a Windows PC and a Samsung S9 so I'm nowhere near Apple's ecosystem.

If anyone is wondering how to get Mac apps to work on older machines: sign in with an Apple ID that has once downloaded the app in the past on, for example another device > go to account > downloads / purchases > click on the cloud download icon > its gonna say: the newest version of "app name" isn't supported by your OS anymore, do you wanna download the latest compatible version? > click yes / download

Until last fall, I used a MacBook Pro Mid 2012 for browser work as a QA engineer. I changed the hard drive to an SSD and the 8GB of RAM to 16GB, and it was perfect for browser work! I never had problems when I used many tabs in Chrome. About gaming, I lauched Warhammer 40 000 Dawn of War 2 and Mount and Blade Warband. Yes, coolers were working at that moment as engines on airplane but I did not have problems in these games. And maybe the best part of this Mac is the screen. The screen is far superior to that of low-level laptops and comparable to that of middle-level laptops. It's really great Mac even for 2023!

I'm using 3x 15" Mid 2012 Unibody MBPs (2.3, 2.3, 2.6) 16GB of ram on all of them, and only 1 of 3 is running an SSD currently, for personal and work. They've worked great besides my main one that occasionally had ram issues after a drop (ram slots are surface amount rather than through put), so eventually I'll get that fixed, but they're great machines for the price. They hold up really well. I run 10.13 High Sierra on all of them.

I have 2 2012 MacBook pros. 1 with 16 gigs of ram, 250gig SSD running Kali Linux and it works great! The other I have gutted and am using a HDMI controller to run the screen and connect a cell phone to that with USB C lol.

i still using this machine, the best macbookpro ever i think. bought new back then for about 1500$, 10 years ago, and never had any issues at all, at all, maximize the specs, 16GB RAM 1TB SSD and 2TB HDD in the superdrive with caddy, this machine working very, very well, been bought several newer macbookpro untill i got stuck with the butterfly disaster in 2017mbp, and thats enough for me at all to buying newer model from apple. straight back to the MD101 and life goes on.

Thank you. Your video convinced me to buy it. I have an M1 but hate the lack of ports and lack of storage. I found one of these for $167 and with a 1TB HDD.

This just helped me make my choice. Thank you for being thorough.

I have 15 inch mid 2012 macbook pro. Still this day i use it for web developing and pen testing with kali on virtual box. It works all good no complaints.

I have the early 2011 MacBook Pro 13 inch with i7 processor and 16gb ram. I had two hdd hard drives inside. It needs a battery but works well while plugged in. I had it on offer up for $99 and changed my mind from selling it. I had an extra 250 gb ssd drive in my 2012 Mac Pro and decided to pull it out and install it in my MacBook Pro. The ssd drive makes a huge difference in speed. Glad I kept it. They don’t make upgradable quality MacBook pros like they use too.

Great video! I've given this a go in the past with mid-2012, trying to combine the OCLP boot patches with Kryptonite for eGPU support and it kinda worked but had major issues with video playback above 480p (yes that's correct, and even KZfaq videos were failing to play), this was a couple months back and OCLP has since been updated to appear more stable. I ended up rolling back to Monterey and managed to get full eGPU support back with no issues - looks like it might be worth another go! I created OS partitions and have two internal SSDs so not worried about losing data or having to roll back again. I'm using a Blackmagic eGPU (AMD Radeon 580 8GB) and seems to give me the best of both worlds (or at least as much juice as a mid-2012 can give!). Your videos have been an inspiration!

My machine is a 2012 macbook pro exactly as yours. I installed the Ventura latest software using your instructions and it works pretty well. The only different thing is that my macbook has 480 ssd and 8 gb of RAM instead of 16 as your machine. This leads to some apps quitting while using them especially Safari when I have other apps open in the background. Overall I am happy with the user experience considering a 11 year old laptop the update really solved the problem I had with the software installation and updates I had on the Catalina. I think it is a really decent machine for photo editing on photoshop even in 2023 didn't encounter any lagging. I am going to update the RAM to 16 gb as quick as possible because I believe I will a have a smoother experience and the trouble with the apps crushing will be solved.

im on my 2012 macbook air and it still runs pretty smoothly for a 12 year old labtop

I had a 2008 original unibody MacBook. Amazing machine.

indeed, this is the best laptop I have ever owned. it has been serving me very well MashAllah and I see no need to upgrade to a newer laptop till now

Just got one of these as a retro gaming Bootcamp laptop + scanning laptop because Big Sur doesn't support my CanoScan 600F. I was shocked to find just how thick these things used to be. I've gotten so used to my mid 2015 Pro, to the point of rewriting my own memories, thinking they were always this thin. I remember buying one of these brand new in store early 2012, and it was the most luxurious piece of tech I'd ever held. State of the art, now retro.

I got one of these for £60 and put a SSD and 16gig in it and it now runs Sonoma great.

i have MacBook Air 2012 and I'am so happy the laptop is so great. And I used your video how to install on unsupported MacBook macOS Monterey

Thanks for the video, well done. I have a 13 and a 15 inch MacBook Pro running Ventura and I always reference installation video from the Monterey install. That video was very well done and helped me a lot. Thanks.

Thanks for all your work! great explaining,appreciate 😍

I'm still using my Macbook pro mid 2012 as my main work and personal machine running on MacOS 14 Sonoma with 4gb of ram it came with and boy oh boy!! It runs way faster than it did on Catalina. This machine is a beast even to this day!!

i have a 2013 macbook pro 15 inch with a core i7 and 16 gb ram. its great i have no reason to upgrade. sadly the ram is soldered but 16gb is plenty enough. love it got it for $130 fully working

2012 Pro Army ✊🤘💻 One of the last truly great Macbook's till Steve Jobs passed & the new Regime took over & screwed everything up.

Using a 2013 13” here. I’ve stuck to Mojave on my machine. As a writer, I don’t have a terribly intensive workflow, leaning primarily on Scrivener and web browsers for research. Love the machine and just can’t stand to move on when it does everything I need to do without any issues.

Just bought a 2012 MBP with 8GB ram and ive fitted an ssd and Ventura all for £300 ($385) its fantastic :)

This laptop is Amazing, I still have mine. Just use it from time to time because the battery is damaged. but I just don't want to throw it away. I am so grateful about this laptop that I just don't want to split apart from "her".

I think Ventura is the best for outdated Macs, The chance to get fan spinning is lower than Big Sur 😂

Thanks again for making these, using your guides i'm running newer OSs on two 2012s. Still have ableton and sibelius at their most recent versions!

good video, i'm really happy that you are showing older tech instead then newer ones, i also have a 2012 mackbook pro but is the retina one and i installed mac os monterey instead of ventura. This metod worked with my early 2009 24' imac and i installed mac os big sur.

Thank you for these videos. I was able to update my mid 2012 13 inch macbook pro.

These are such great machines. I use a 2011 iMac, upgraded cpu (i7-2700k) & SSD. Brilliant ! I prefer the retina MacBooks for running Ventura, but I found Catalina runs well on the Unibody macs

after watching your previous video where this machine can be upgraded to Ventura using Open Core Legacy, I am planning to do so since the hardwares have been upgraded as well. going to see how mine will hold it up in 2023. 😁

Got my 2012 Macbook Pro as a gift (hand-me-down). Its superb. Upgraded the SSD and ordered RAM and new battery. As for the iPhone connection in facetime - works great with Sonoma and OCLP. Seems to only activate the main camera however not the selfie camera. This is probably fine though because the picture is better. Way better than the camera on the laptop too.

i stil using this in 2024, with catalina, maxed ram to 16GB, remove the superdrive and replaced with 2TB seagate, using another 2TB Samsung SSD in the main bay, and surprisingly it work like a champ for my usage ( email, youtube, web based work, documents, pdf, music editing, light photo and video editing ) everything is just works, no issues. since i bought it back then at 2013, only battery has been replaced once, after 4 years usage, and by today standart, it still works fine ( 4-5 hours in a single charge )

Considering picking one up on Facebook market. I prefer this thick design over the new 2022-2023 macbooks.

I'm still using the 2012 macbook pro. Although I can't use programs like Da Vinci Resolve or Xcode, Is great with programs like Final Cut or Visual Studio. I also use it for Illustration, and edition.About 2-3 years ago I changed to an SSD storage. Great choice overall. Considering that it has lasted more than 10 years, it's an awesome investment. So, probably my next computer will be a macbook as well. For now, I will keep up using this one as a desktop computer. Nowadays It's hard to find so many ports for a laptop.

I use my macbook air 2014 and my mac pro 2010 on Ubuntu I could not be happier! It is like breathing fresh air again!

ive got the MBP 2012 15" running sonoma ofcourse ive follow this guys tutorial continuity camera is running with no problem just an update this is the date May 11 2024

I noticed the poor resolution on my iPad Pro as well from a few different models when using sidecar but I noticed it is fine when you drag something over to it .

I’m using it for front end web development, ux/ui design, web browsing, studying. It has 8gb of ram and 240gb of ssd. And it gets the job done pretty well. It definetly doesn’t feel like an old pc that’s for sure. Thank you for this and many videos about old apple hardware.

I pre-ordered a 15" fully specd mid 2012 MBP back in the day and fast forward today its literally my favorite machine. Dual SSDs, maxed out ram, triple boot and on the windows boot it still plays GRID Racing on a 40" screen with fairly high graphics settings with no hiccups. Of course I do have a gaming PC for that but it still fun seeing an old laptop shrug off modern life. I also paid extra for the upgraded screen option and it's just great. Still on its original battery too.

I am using a mid 2012 MBP 13 inch i5. I upgraded to 16 GB RAM, SSD and a new battery. I recently installed Monterey and it runs great.

Well, I know my Mac could be faster, but for the time being, I'm saving up to buy at least a 500GB SSD for it. Also, I have 8GB of RAM, so for the time being, I believe an SSD is the most important upgrade for my MacBook Pro 2012. New subscriber here, keep up the good work with the videos!

I love mine. Use it primarily for design. Works great. Running Mojave. I should upgrade but I have no performance issues at all

I use an early 2011 MacBook Pro with Logic Pro X every single day. I have upgraded RAM to 8 gigs and 256 SSD. I hope this thing lasts forever tbh. I can upgrade or replace everything of course. And it’s all inexpensive and extremely easy to do. I mean I’d probably love having the newest, most powerful Mac available. But I’m certainly not spending my money on it when the one I have functions flawlessly. It’s still running on Sierra too. I only use it for music production and a few necessary apps. But I absolutely LOVE it. Oh, and it has the light up Apple logo on the lid as well. Viva old Apples.

Man i was searching for a video like this, i dont upgrade because i know my mbp couldn´t suport universal control but after your video i will upgrade, this is amazing a computer 11 years old and still surprise what how can they handle it

Mine is still running! The battery is shot, so it doesn't last more than 45 minutes, but when connected to power, you never know the difference!

On my mid 2012 MBP 13 I upgraded the RAM and SSD (16/512), installed a new battery and, while I was poking around in there, refreshed the thermal paste. I also replaced the multidrive with a hard drive cage and added another 240GB SSD. I'll never get back what I invested in it but it's an amazing machine for its day.

When I see a new movie on your channel and see it's my MacBook Pro 2012 I go and see it!

I still use Mid 2012 MBP with 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD upgrade, and latest Ventura with OpenCore!

Mine is an iMac 2.6 mini popped in a 2TB SSD 16 memory’s…. Computer itself only cost me 50 bucks.!!! Made it Ventura and BANG ITS A MODERN BEAST!!!

I'm still using it :) When I ordered it from Apple i doubled the ram that was offered and it's still runs good. Sometimes for a day or two it get's overheated. But I just let it rest and then it works smoothly after a day or two.

watching on my 2012 macbook , works great till date

You are absolute correct with this machine. But the 15inch is better than the 13inch, just because of the screen options.

I acquired a mid-2012 MacBook Pro yesterday, and installed a 1 TB SSD, 16 GB of RAM and a good battery (all drawn from a mid-2012 MacBook Pro that I spilled iced coffee on 😬). This MacBook Pro runs extremely well, and is still fast and capable. I installed Mojave on my MacBook Pro, as I believe that if your Mac can still run Mojave, you should keep it there for 32-bit application support. Photoshop CS5 and many of my favourite Mac games are 32-bit and thus don't run on modern Macs - including the Half-Life and Portal series, which I'm still angry about - so it's nice to have some Mojave Macs for legacy applications.

I have the exact same comp / ram but original 750gb HD. use it every day. Banger of a system.

Still use mine that a bought brand new from apple back in 2014. Great computers.

Moore's Law definitely started slowing down with CPUs around 2011 with Intel's Sandy Bridge. Anything faster than that doesn't really help with light to moderate computing. Since Sandy Bridge we've mostly been lowering power consumption and increasing graphics. GPUs slowed down in a similar way in 2017 with Nvidia's Pascal GPUs. People buying used tech nowadays can get amazing machines that operate fine today for 1/10 the cost they originally sold for. It's a great time to be a tech lover.

Just got an amazing deal on a stock macbook pro who looks like new! No scratches, no dents, battery health is amazing, the keyboard feels so good, and yes, this is the last great Steve Jobs era macbook pro! I wacked 16gb in this thing and a samsung ssd, and this thing flies with ventura on it! I like this laptop!

I have 2, mid 2012 13 inch MBP - I was amazed how good they were - bought unmodified ones that were in great shape and maxed ram and added ssd in both and these are just super high-quality machines that don't cost much and are wonderful to use. And I am no Applehead!

I have one of these and it still is a good performer. And I’ve upgraded it to macOS Ventura with open core Legacy patcher and changed the 500 GB HDD for a 500 GB SSD

This macbook is literally better than my M1 is some ways