You may want to check reduce motion and reduce transparency (for me i check on increase contrast) at Accessibility>Display. It will help for stage manager function.

I gotta say how well the 2012 MacBook Pros have held up over the years is insane, I have one that I mostly use for ripping DVDs these days, but if I replaced the battery it could be my daily driver. Easily my favorite laptop of all time.

Machine is a mid 2012. Did the upgrade from Monterey and it runs without any lag, I'd say quite snappy for its age. 500gb ssd, 16gb ram, design software loaded (Photoshop, Illustrator, indesign all perform satisfactorily ) .Bluetooth and WiFi work well

Hello, I am Korean. I thought about purchasing the 2012 mid macbook pro as a used one, and then I thought a lot about what to do with MacOS. But I saw your video on KZfaq, and I was able to get a lot of help. Thank you. There may be some errors in this article due to the translation machine, but I believe you will understand😀

I bought this model the other day after watching your video. I havent had any problems using this 11 year old machine. Its been working just fine for me.

I have a 15" mid-2012 MacBook Pro, currently on Big Sur (11.7.1) via OpenCore. I've noticed that Big Sur actually performs generally better than Catalina did -- better benchmarks and everything -- so I'm sticking with that for now. I think the highest I'll go with this machine is Monterey, and only when Big Sur support drops next year, just to buy me an extra year of use out of this machine (maybe by then I'll be happy enough with what Apple's making to sell a kidney to finance a new base-model MacBook Air or something). Really, the only disappointment I've had is that OCLP disabled my ability to use an eGPU (which I had enabled under Catalina via Kryptonite). The 15" does have its own discrete GPU in the NVIDIA GT 650M, so it's not too big of a deal to me (especially considering the fact that, as mentioned, Big Sur seems to perform better than Catalina did on the hardware its given), but on a 13" with only the HD 4000 graphics available, losing access to the external RX 580 would be a dealbreaker, even with the i7 model. I don't do much gaming, and the gaming I DO do is generally streamed via Steam, off a dedicated gaming PC. That said, native Mac games seem to run better under Big Sur vs Catalina, and Parallels seems to handle light gaming much better as well. I'm really not sure why that is, but it does go to show that support for these machines was potentially dropped prematurely (or, at least, arbitrarily) by Apple -- particularly when the 13" version of the mid-2012 MBP is technically still on the "Supported" list.

I just installed Ventura on my Macbook pro 2012, and the Continuity camera works! You must first connect your iPhone via wired cable, then you can do it wirelessly.

This is great news. My 2012 15 inch MacBook Pro is still on Catalina but I was considering upgrading it to Ventura. Glad to see it works as well as it does.

Great work with these videos mate. The amount of perfectly working hardware that is discarded each year is a shame. Thank you for your contribution and may the Apple gods keep the updates coming for as long as hardwarely possible✌️

Yeah definitely want to see how it will work when you upgrade the Wifi and Bluetooth chips.

I have a M2 Macbook Air with Ventura and the settings menu are as sluggish as well. It's definitely a Ventura issue. On those older Macbooks with opencore, I'd stick with Monterey 12.6.3, still plenty of support and runs very well.

Great video, I can confirm the firewire port works correctly, I tested an Apogee Duet Firewire and a LaCie fw800 enclore on my mid-2012 i7 13'' MacbookPro and both works well !

I was an Android and Windows guy a few years back, but I have almost moved to Apple products. Your videos helped a lot. Thanks for your time. Cheers !!

Yes, please do a WiFi upgrade video.

the best thing about these non-retina 2012s is that they are the last macbook pros which are actually still upgradable

Thanks so much for your extremely easy and thorough videos! I was able to upgrade my mid 2012 MacBook Pro to OS Ventura and it’s running faster than ever! I’m able to upgrade my Adobe apps and Microsoft too. Thanks a million!

Recently got a mid 2012 i7 And your videos helped me out THANK YOU!!!!

From my testing, Ventura MBP 2012 FireWire 800 (FW) port is functional using external HD and Audio Interface (MOTU 828 MK3 FW)

I've done all my older pros using your video and they all work perfectly

concerning the lag in system preferences i can say that it has been an issue with macos its just that while clicking on a tab in the previous versions of macos, the system preferences would display loanding siri and passwords for instance. but in Ventura it seems to appear as ipad or iphones interface where we expect tabs to pop up instantly but the MBP 2012 is still a decent machine. I use it for light works and Djaying and it works 100% for me

I'd really appreciate a video on how to upgrade the Bluetooth. The current option that I'm looking at involves shrinkwrap with a 12+6 to 30pin adapter. I'd really like to know if there is a better option. Thanks for the great videos!

New subscriber here, great content. I just upgraded my mid 2012 MBP 13 to Monterey from Catalina a few days ago. It's running great although I can't speak to multi drive function, I swapped it out for a second SSD during a major upgrade several months ago (RAM, SSDs, battery). However, I'm reluctant to make the move to Ventura since I had heard on KZfaq it's glitchy on some machines.

Amazing video!!! Could you please do an up-gradation on the wifi and Bluetooth… 😊

Please make a video on upgrading the wifi Bluetooth card not a lot of videos out there and it is needed for these machines to be even better

Thank you for this video! Excited to give the old mac a new life.

I was able to upgrade my Macbook Pro 2012 i7 variant to Ventura yesterday. IMO, it was snappier than when it was on Monterey.

Thx no one has done this yet! I was skeptical about using and old mac but you showed me it’s working fine! Great

Hi there. I’d be interested in watching a video on upgrading WiFi and Bluetooth if you found the time to make it. Thanks for todays informative vid.

Well I don't have 2012 MBP but I do have the 2016 one, can tell you one thing, it works fluid with OpenCore shame on Apple for dropping the support for it early.... Plus I like the Stage Manager feature pretty neat :D

You have really put some love on this video. It might have taken some time. Good job!!!

Thanks! Super clear explanations, install worked smoothly just like with monterey

It works great, decently smooth. I have exactly the same MacBook Pro 13" mid 2012, the same RAM ans SSD. It requires some efforts, but one can adjust this laptop to work still great!

yes please do an airport card upgrade video! I'm using my 2012 MBP with a bluetooth speaker and sometimes it's really not good!

OpenCore working almost as well on my 2008 13” MBP. Nice to breathe useful life from older hardware.

THANK YOU for this testing! In the past, I know things were NOT this smooth because in 2021, with a Mac Mini 2009 I tried running one of the newer unsupported OS. Things like internal wifi did not work possibly due to the 32->64 bit transition and missing 64-bit drivers. I'm amazed this all works now!

when lid is closed it doesnt go to sleep then when opened you got your desktop right there no lock nothing

Excellent, thank you. I have a Late 2012 MBP which is 'stuck' on Catalina and no Apple OS updates. I hadn't even heard of Open Core Legacy Patcher until a few days ago.This looks like a good option to continue the lifespan of the MBP, especially given that it is still going strong.

this video was informative and fun to watch keep up the good work:)

Hey mate, would you mind doing the video on how to upgrade the bluetooth? That would be awesome!

Don’t know how or why but my continuity camera works! Specs: 500gb hdd- 10gb ram and iPhone 11

Great video, probably the best macbook pro ever made, given the fact you have everything required to transfer data, i installed a bluray writer into mine, and it still looks as good as new, installed big sur without any issues, ventura will be my next upgrade.

Your video inspired me to upgrade my 10,1. Cheers, Didnt solve my overheating issues, so I guess its time for another heatpipe replacement.

Oh, well. I wanted to update to Ventura because of the continuity camera. Thanks for this follow-up video!

Great video! Thank you for posting and best of luck with your channel

Please do a video about how to do an update the wifi and bluetooth on these machines.

Thanks for your tutorial and vids. In search of more performance, I went as far back as El Capitan on my Macbook Pro Late 2012 (10,2). I thought the older versions would be less resource hungry. Perhaps it is on paper but I just installed Ventura just to try, thanks to your helpful videos, and boy, it really runs much better!

Excellent content. Thank you. I have the same mid-2012 i5 machine that I picked up refurbished from Apple in January 2013. I upgraded it over the past 4 or 5 years (16GB, 1TB Samsung SSD, new battery, replaced keyboard, refreshed the thermal paste). With 10.15.7, I thought this would be it...until I saw your video followed by the video that you install Ventura. I'm inspired to take that plunge. Thought about trading this in a few years back until I priced out memory and storage options. After watching this video, I'm curious as to how long this laptop can remain in service.

Yes it's excellent. Especially on a 15 inch with high resolution anti glare display.

First time I installed it as an update and noticed very poor performance then i did it as a clean install and the performance improved a lot

late 2012 Mac mini 16 gig with ssd, will attempt to try Thank you, a very informative video. You definitely put a lot of work into it.

I had to do a clean install of it, because trying to update it from Monterey (also using OCLP) borked it. Interestingly, I could boot a 2017 iMac from that drive, via Tunderbolt and Target Disk Mode, but the MacBook would always KP when trying to boot it. Fortunately, I had done a Time Machine backup, and restoring from it worked for the most part (I had to reconfirm all Privacy prompts, and redownload my OneDrive files, but that was about it for changes to my setup). Now it works like butter, considering just how old the machine is and especially how bad equally old Windows PCs are by comparison.

Just installed this on my 2014 MacBook Pro wanted to use logic but needed 12.7 or later so just downloaded 13.3.1 and it works completely fine

I have 2014 MacBook Pro and I've stopped using it in 2021 because keyboard started to show age and batter replacement while it was a success.. Not sure if I want to carry it around with a third-party battery. But I was just bored with it and tired of the fan noise and upgraded to M1 Mac. It's interesting to see that 2012 Model, especially if it's on i7 is holding up that well.

Excellent video! Thanks!

Firewire does work. Confirmed.

i know how to fix the facetime hand off and continuity cammera , you should upgrade to macos monterey using open core then open software updates and ventura upgrade should be there i upgraded using this way and both worked for me I have same MBP as you do with 4 gigs ram and the spiny drive

Thanks sir, I am also updating my old Macbook pro mid 2012. I think these videos will help.

MacBookAir 6,2 works great. Only issue - weather app bombs consistently. Not a show stopper, but I thought I'd let you know. Thanks.

Currently running Ventura on my mid 2015 MacBook pro 15 inch. Some things I've noticed: Wifi disconnects when sleeping Profile picture disappears after sleeping Settings menu is a bit laggy Rest of the system works fine. Performance is good.

Universal control just worked for me.

Under MacOS Ventura, my 16GB RAM Macbook Pro M1 Pro runs slowly and consumes a lot of memory. I use graphically intensive applications. Using Time Machine, I reverted to the default system (Monterey).

I followed your guide and installed ventura on my mid 2012 MBP and it works fine. You are a gem. the only feature that is missing is airplay receiver. it worked on Monterey, that's why I am assuming it should work on Ventura too. can you throw some light on this?

Universal Control works on my 2012 MacBook Pro 15". I have upgraded my bluetooth/wifi (so unlock with Apple Watch worked) so that may be why. Mine also has a dedicated GPU but i dont think that matters as much

@Evnos- I like how you like to get as much use from older macs, I'm the same way. I managed to instal Open Core patcher to my Mid2010 MacBook pro and I was able to upgrade to OS Monterey. I must say, everything is working near flawless. When I had Big Sur I wasn't able to use my monitor extension , pretty much all my video card settings were inactive and now with Monterey everything works. It blows my mind using a 12 year old mac running Monterey. I guess it goes to show you that Apple just wants you to to keep buying the latest newest shiny mac. - Not that I have anything against technology, especially when it comes to serving ones needs. But on the other hand, Apple makes exceptional products even if they are no longer supported. Which brings me to my original point, I like yo get as much life from my Macs as possible and now I will hang on to this 2010 MacBook Pro as long as I can. I have to ask you or anyone who reads this. DO you know if there is a patcher that will allow me to run High Sierra on my late 2007 Black MacBook A1181. I would love to have High Sierra or Mojave on that machine. And now all we need is some sort of patcher for the iPad. I'm still using my First Gen iPad- mainly for bluetooth and reading. :)

It sounds like it’s all good with the 2012 MacBook Pro then. I have no need for sidecar or using my trackpad on another apple device. That’s great to hear Final Cut Pro and GarageBand work well on it.I must snag myself on of these 2012 MacBook Pro’s.

You are Goodman keep this value.

Thanks for the info Vince Vaughn!

Yes please post a video on upgrading wifi and Bluetooth on 2012 MB Pros

was considering buying a 2012 macbook pro, this sold me, i dont care about the apple device integration because i dont own any other apple products lol

This is great i have a mid 2012 that i mainly use for nvr config-appreciate the info

I am still using my late 2013 MBP on Ventura for work and desperately waiting for the MBP M2 Max... hell please don't delay anymore

love your t-shirt!

Mid 2012 MBP with i7. Upgraded ram from 8 to 16 gigs, and to ssd. Sticking with Catalina since its running great. Good to know there are options tho.

Continuity Camera might work now. It was a bug which got fixed by the OpenCore team.

I was able to get universal control working with my 2020 iPad Pro in my mid 2012 MacBook Pro both running iOS 16 and Ventura. My MacBook Pro does have a Samsung SSD in it.. maybe that’s the ticket. It is allowing me to click and drag photos from my iPad to move to the MacBook. But it seems like that’s the only size of a file I can move right now.

Universal control worked for me

Great content, and awesome Stargate shirt!

What are you currently running on your MacBook Pro?

I have a Macbook Air Mid 2012 with ventura it works great!

hackintosh has very few issues if you use the correct hardware and sometimes kext. your mac is now basically a hackintosh, not sure if i want to bother doing this to my 2015... like that shirt, they need to bring the show back.

Its good for now?

Universal Control works (at least with Monterey) together with my iPad Pro 11 (2020) when upgrading the Wifi/Bluetooth adapter. I have a 2015 MBP Airport card in mine.

Thanks for testing all this. Very good video. I still use my MacBook Pro 20212 15" (I7, 16GB, dual GPU) as my daily driver. I noticed that Microsoft Office doesn't update anymore on my Catalina Mac and also Fusion 360 now has a banner stating that Fusion 360 will require at least Big Sur from March 2023. Would it be worth it to update my MacBook via OpenCore Legacy Patcher? Also, I use Cubase Pro 12 on my MacBook... and DaVince Resolve 18. All in all it's no speed machine, but everything still works and I still love my MacBook very much. Would be great if I could use it for a couple of more years. :) Thanks again!

Hi, incredibly helpful videos! Any thoughts on if one should upgrade only from Catalina to Big Sur or go all the way to Ventura MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012, i7, 16 gB, 1tB SSD). Also, any thoughts/feedback on running VMWare Fusion / Windows 7?

Nice video , thanks for the tutorial….Actually tried Ventura using OCLP on my MacBook Pro late 2011 but did not work properly, then tried Monterrey but it was having issues, like the photo booth , FaceTime, even maps were not showing so I decided to format the SSD and installed high sierra, and then installed Big Sur with Open Core Legacy Patcher 0.6.7 So far everything is working ok As for now I will stick with Big Sur until it’s no longer supported

At least Monterey on this very machine is AMAZING! Still best MacBook Pro ever because of upgradability and structure!

I like so much ur videos!

All I see is your Stargate tee-shirt 🤩

Ive got 2 2012 Mac Minis, and I’m thinking about putting Ventura on one of them (Both Mac Minis are i5 models, i have not yet gotten around to doing SSD upgrades to either of them, and i think they could both do with RAM upgrades as well (one has a 500GB HDD with 4GB RAM (2 2GB sticks), the other has a 1TB HDD, with 8GB RAM (1 8GB stick)))

For a 10 year old machine its holding up fairly well. Im ditching windows, and i bought a cheap 2015 macbook pro with a cracked screen which is fine, since it can be docked. Seeing how well the 2012 version is holding up, i might give it a go on mine aswell, even though Monterey is fine. :p

I'm very curious about the update for the Bluetooth/WIFI card. I have the same exacMacbook you have in this video. Can you at least speak to where I can obtain an upgrade card and how much updating can be done to this? I have the I5 processor and 10.15 Catalina stock.

The fact that my MacBook Pro 2012 can connect to my HomePod is amazing. The automatic switching with my AirPods Pro maxes works well just have to hit connect. only thing that doesn't work for me is messages.

mid 2012 MacBook pros are like windows XP. Went on and on and on...

nice vid. i still have one of this old boys, macbook pro 2012 13' :)

Yes FireWire works great!!!.. Used my old Apple monitor camera over 16 years old works like new!!!

I AM REALLY INTERESTED IN THE UPDATE OF WIFI AND BLUETOOTH ON THE SAME MACBOOK PRO 2012 AND ALSO 2010

Firewire Works! I have an Western Digital My Passport Studio and setup Time Machine on it!

Thank you very much.

I love Ventura on my MacBoo Pro 2012. The only issue I'm noticing is with the bluetooth; it lags a lot. Using my mouse via USB works fine for me

Thanks for your videos. I updated my 2012 MacBook Pro to Monterey using your video and it works perfectly. My question is, can I now go ahead and update straight to Ventura through the apply update system or would I need to use the same process as before??