Fully upgrading a 2012 MacBook Pro in 2023
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ม.ค. 2023
- 👍Don’t forget to like and subscribe! As a small creator, it helps a lot.
eBay Links:
SATA to USB Adapter: ebay.us/ncsrls
SSD: ebay.us/aMNmVx
16 GB RAM: ebay.us/MySiqp
Battery Replacement: ebay.us/SG7thE
*Note that some of these links may provide a small commission to the creator at no additional cost to you.
If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below. I try my best to get to every question and comment, so I’ll try and get to yours!
WOW. My 2012 macbook pro had gotten so bad that it ended up sitting on my dresser collecting dust for months. But my job required me to have a computer, so I could either buy a new one or try upgrading the parts like in this video...i'm shocked at how fast and smooth this beast is now! thank you so much for this video, saved me a lot of money.
Glad to hear it’s working out for you. It’s still a handy little laptop.
You can add a second SDD (or HDD) to where the optical drive was they're both full 6GBs slots I think.
I still use 3 of these for my photo Booths.
I have a 13" version of this laptop I upgraded it to an SSD, 16GB of RAM & even got an adaptor so I could use a newer Wireless AC (WiFi 5) Airport card in it and I dual booted "Ubuntu MATE" & "macOS Ventura" and honestly for what I need it for it works perfect.
@@arranmc182 Hi can you share the link to the wifi adapter?
@@natbrownizzle1387 RAM to 16 + the SSD is the move!
I bought a used MBP 2012 and it already included 12 GB of RAM and 128 GB of SSD+500GB of HDD for just $145, and then I upgraded to Ventura using Patcher. That was the best $145 I've spent.
I did the same to my 13 inch MacBook Pro. It makes a ton of difference and I now use my 2012 daily without issue. I also patched mine to Ventura
Is Ventura work well n smooth in MBP 2012? Wanna patch but a bit hesitate. How big is your SSD & RAM?
@@aswinvtomo it works fine on mine. I have a 1 tb ssd and 16gb of ram
@@carson2646 Do I have to reinstall my softwares on macos patch?
thanks a bunch for this, just ordered a new 16 gig RAM pair and a crucial SSD and can't wait to upgrade this old boy and see how far he can run.
This is such a great step by step video! Got a old computer as a hand me down, put in a new ssd and 16gb Ram thanks to your instructions. Would be great for students to know about this hack before school starts again!
Got one for freelance work in 2015, it’s been a daily driver ever since. Used for artwork, retouching, some light video and 3d it’s never let me down. I do use a render farm for the final 3d output but I can’t fault it. Got the 13 inch for my wife and looking for another for my daughter. All about the ports.
Thank you for sharing this. I updated my old macbook and now considering letting my 4th grader use it for school projects until I’m ready to get a newer used macbook for myself since this made everything so simple.
Bruuuuh ayou are a treasure! To think about doing this and sharing it!!!
Saving folks thousands!!! 🙏
An interesting video!👍It's also a good idea to give the laptop a clean and to renew the thermal paste.
Thank you! I love my new MacBook 💻 😊. First time Mac user!
Man do this it makes a huge difference in performance I’ve had mine since 2014 and it still out does some modern computers
For real. I think people underestimate how wonderful of a device this was/is?
Wow you have the exact same model, same tools, I did the same upgrade even the mouse is the same I dis not documented the process THANK YOU FOR DOCUMENTING this process this will help others.
Thanks for your help!
I still use a Mid 2012 15” Unibody MacBook Pro! I got it from a laptop lot with 5 other macbooks for $200 and repaired it. So i upgraded it to a 512 GB SSD and put 12 GB of DDR3. I still use this for light video editing and web browsing and it does it very well! It’s probably the most powerful laptop in my collection out of all laptops I have. This goes to show you don’t really need to waste money on a brand new laptop which most likely has soldered components.
Computers have gotten super powerful over the last decade. But the NEED for powerful computers by consumers hasn't grown significantly.
So much useful information. Thankyou.
brilliant, thank you, a big help!
Thank you for sharing this very vital information on on upgrading 2012 mac book pro, thanks very much appreciated.
Glad it was helpful!
that was a great thorough video, thanks
This has been really helpful.. not a teq head personally, however I followed your instructions to the letter and now works great! Cost around £105 ( $130) all parts from Amazon.
Upgraded 18 of these for a school. I was screaming at every point you made a mistake. You got there in the end, if you wanted to keep the files, I would recommend disk / OS backup directly to the new SSD before installation.
Can you explain how you would do that ?
@@dushaneperry4763 you literally get a sata enclosure and clone the disk over using disk utility, then it’s just a case of swapping them over
No sé recomienda hacer una clonación, es mejor instalar el S.O limpio y después pasar tus archivos como documentos música etc.
@@ELMAULOThere are reasons to clone. If you wanted to basically have a carbon copy of your system settings and would rather save time than set it up from scratch, then cloning is your friend. Don’t do cloning if you’ve got some weird behaviors by installing weird stuff you can’t remove from your Mac. Just do a clean install by then
Great video, Till I watched this I really didn’t know what more to do on my laptop. I will get those parts and hopefully it will be on because it couldn’t even switch on
I had upgraded the RAM to 16Gb years ago, however, our MacBook was still slow When I upgraded the hard drive to an SSD, (1 Tb), major improvement in performance. What used to take 5 min or more now takes 1 minute. There's a cloning utility I used to copy the old drive - took about two hours. Once installed - big improvement.
I refurbed my mid 2012 MacBook pro a few months ago and she is running like never before! I did run into one problem while making adjustments - the battery I bought from the link given was too large for my MacBook. I didn't realize you are updating a 15" whereas I own a 13" - duh! Thanks for this easy to follow video!
same here!
thanks bruh... I will be upgrading my 2012 MBP with Samsung 870 EVO SSD very soon🛐❤️
using macOS monterey on my mid 2012 macbook pro using OCLP and now works like a charm
Once you have reached Disk Utility, you could simply clone the HDD directly to the SDD, which could save you a considerable amount of time. Another option to consider is repasting the CPU with a fresh thermal compound after 10 years of use. This can help the Macbook run more smoothly and efficiently. Overall, it was a helpful tutorial.
You could also boot from your external hard disk.
You do this before putting new SSD in ?
Dude! So excited by this. I love my mid-2012 13” MacBook Pro, but in the time it takes to boot up or even close an application or file, I could go to the kitchen and wash all the dishes! I’ve been looking at the new ones and I didn’t want to buy one right away, so if this will work for a few more years, I’ll be super happy. Fingers crossed and thanks a lot. Also, where do I get a tool kit like yours? Amazon?
Will it last for more years?
I’m thinking about buying a used one from a store. 5-10 years old
@@wulu3519 Not sure, fingers crossed! I will say, though, that the battery does seem to go down faster than I would like, but I don't know if that's the quality of the battery or installer error.
I actually have one of these models and I did the RAM/SSD upgrade a few years ago. It's still a very solid machine for Adobe CC. Kind of wary about the quality of a 20 dollar laptop battery though. I bought a new 45 dollar non-oem battery when I did the other upgrades but ended up returning it because it was defective so I put the old one back in. From what I hear, off-brand batteries for old macbooks are kind of hit or miss.
The replacement 🔋s only last for 2-3 hrs unplugged. These are ideally best for a main home computer with the screen flapped-down when in sleep mode.
The iFixit battery is pretty good. Just be sure to get the high capacity one if available and do the battery calibration thing described in the insert card.
I was wondering just that (the Adobe CC support). So, it really would support working with Photoshop, Illustrator and maybe Lightroom? I dont need video or sound editing, just simple photo editing and vectoring.
@@victorhugosanchezhuerta5715 I have a 2015 model I use mainly so my 2012 has just been sitting, but I remember Photoshop and Illustrator working fine on it. I may have older versions though, so if you plan to use official Adobe CC current stuff you should check the Mac OS requirements they need and be sure the Macbook supports it. I'd guess it would be fine, but for a 12 year old laptop I'd verify.
I have a 2010 mac book pro which i upgraded in 2019. these machines are really hard to kill!
Thanks for the clear, easily understood demo. I'm wondering what's the latest version of the OS that runs adequately on the upgraded machine.
It's gonna still be Catalina, I'd say. I have this machine myself. Used to have 16GB ram in it. (One ram slot died lol) Extra ram makes it faster at compiling code. Doesn't change the OS compatibility for the model.
Thanks for this bro. I haven’t used this MacBook in years. It was my last apple laptop since I went back to traditional PC. Now I can revive it and give it to my 7 YO son! 😂
I hope I can upgrade my mid 2012 macbook pro, you make it seem so easy. My macbook has sentimental value to me. :)
They were wonderful machines, and fortunately, very durable. Even if something is broken on it, finding replacement parts and upgrades is super affordable.
I've worked on those MacBooks before, and they're really simple. If you're nervous, check iFixit's repair guide. Also, remember to keep the screws organised, as some of them are different lengths. You should also clean out the fan while you're in there, they tend to clog up with dust
I also have but no battery it's totally dead😢😢
i have a 2012 macbook pro and i just followed this tutorial step by step. it’s definitely as easy as it looks. i just knew i was gonna brick my computer 😅
Just upgraded the ram and swapped the original hdd with a Samsung ssd. Night and day.... never seen this macbook pro this fast.
My exact macbook! Thank you so very much! Im new to the pc and mac and I'm asking professionals whats best before I do it. This is gunna sound dumb but what CAN'T i update? Because Im looking to gut it to get it up to close to modern lol
Great video. What’s the newest version of Mac operating system you can put on it? Ares is a 2013 . Or would you buy a newer one for college student? Thank you
Awesome video! I plan on doing this to my old macbook that i have lying around. Instead of transferring everything from the old hard drive can you just take programs from it and install that on the new hard drive? I bought logic pro many years ago and dont have the disk anymore to re install it and thats the only thing i want thats currently on the system.
Wow this is very interesting thanks
Glad you enjoyed it
You would want a second ssd for recording audio and video. Because it will not interfere with OS read write.
I'm not a computer savvy guy but how would you install the second SSD? I'm interested in audio engineering
can you elaborate on this pls? cheers
@@Presidential.44 You remove DVD and fit an SSD with adapter.
@@Presidential.44 If your computer has an USB3-interface, you can use an external ssd with an adapter, like an usb-stick... I used to start my iMac from external SSD, bc I didn't want to use the slow internal HDD.
another modification I would do if you didn’t need the cd drive is exchange it for another ssd slot i which is what I did for my 13inch just a little bit more space if needed
For those that aren’t used to working on their own computers, you gotta love an instructional video by a guy making mistakes left and right. 😂
surprise you didn't link your tool kit. i need a good recommend..does the tool kit work for all 2012 sizes and release time ? thanks
What do you suggest to reinstall High Sierra instead of Catalina? Which key combination I have to use to start Mac, format SSD and then install High Sierra (from a a bootable pen drive)?
thanks for this guide, watched it because i need to know to work on a macbook since i'm buying this exact model from eBay since i want to fix it
Good luck with it!
@@nerdyneighborthank you, telling from the pictures tho I can tell that the thing is definitely gonna need an entirely new screen assembly lol
Just curious, do we need to purchase the sata adapter if we don’t have anything to transfer over from the old hdd?
You can also use open legacy patcher to load current os. i’m running ventura on my 2012 mbp: no probs.
How do you do that??
Is there a way to upgrade the Facetime camera , stock one is 720p. Already did the upgrades in the past, even in 2023 a great machine. :-)
Hey NN,
Nice detailed, procedural video !
If you load the new SSD from an external drive backup INSTEAD of from the old HDD,
do you need the SATA-USB cable?
You shouldn't have to, no. But I've actually never done it that way before because I run out of the freespace with icloud, and I don't like paying for icloud. Lol
I wondered the same thing. I have a gigantic external drive from work, because they were sold out of everything else and I needed to move stuff from really old iMac to my blazing fast new one. My IT guy was concerned that I might have issues with some of the old files, etc., and told me to examine everything before I moved it and not move everything at once. Just to be safe, I think I’ll copy everything to the external drive and then follow your instructions for comparison. I’ll let you know how this goes. I’ve never done anything except replace the battery in the olden days when it was accessible from the outside and you could just pop a new one in.
@@helenmacqueen8856 I used a SATA-USB cable.
All the instructions worked great with a few exceptions:
1. When turned on ther was a 3 beep sound continuously. It stopped when I reset the rams.
2.When the system opened it showed OS Lion no Catalina
3. Not sure what to do....help.
I did the same on my 2009 macbook pro, still running in 2024. You replaced the battery, you did not upgrade it, right?
El problema es que el procesador va a estar todo el tiempo al 100% de su capacidad dado que los navegadores cada dia requieren mayor procesamiento.
I did the same upgrades with my 13" 2012 MBP. I swapped the HD tor a 1TB SSD, the RAM, battery & sprayed the dust from the fans. I also upgraded the OS to Ventura via Open Core Legacy Patcher. It's a good backup device
Me too on 15 inch 13inch and Mac mini 2012. its great fun. Make sure you use OCLP 0.6.4. to fix bugs with 2012 models.
@@mikepxg6406 I need to try that with a Mac Mini.
Did similar. Very happy with improved performance and wringing a few more productive years out of laptop. Can I suggest renewing the thermal paste to help ensure good cooling. And compiling list of tasks on paper or phone in advance. Helps to ensure no mistakes, doing all the steps and in the correct order...
@@davidgraham9577I should have removed the thermal paste. What I did to help with cooling was drilled some small holes in the bottom plate to allow for air to flow out & it makes a difference
I did exactly everything you did it was running so much better. I add the HD & I can not get it to work. I'm running High Sierra. It keeps saying "'recovery server could not be contacted"... please HELP.. TY
Question… is the replacement battery an actual upgrade (as in more capacity than oe) or simply an equal replacement, assuming the oe is dead?
Where can I get these components cheaply in Europe? Any recommendations/links would be greatly appreciated?
Nice I have one idea please let me know if it is possible to do I see many MacBooks Air M1 very cheep and I have late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina I’m wondering if it would be possible to put MacBook Air inside 2013 retina MacBook and is its display ports and cooling system ?
Can these steps be used to upgrade a 2012 MacBook Air. Looking to upgrade my MacBook Air 13in to 2023 saving money.
Is it necessary to upgrade the operating system as well??
Great video dude, just a couple questions. Is it possible to reapply the thermal paste on the CPU, and would it even be worth it? Secondly I’ve heard that it is possible to use bootcamp on the Mac in order to access windows, is this possible for the 2012 models?
Great question! I’ve been able to do boot camp before. But that was for Windows 10, which is obviously still a great operating system, but it’s getting older.
I’m thinking re-doing the thermal paste shouldn’t be too much harder. I just bought another one of these models, and I’ll try it out on that.
It definitely is possible to reapply thermal paste, that was the first thing I did when I upgraded my 15’ 2012 MacBook. The fans kick on much less due to it being more efficient.
Definitely can run bootcamp on the mid 2012 MacBook Pro.
2:52 I have updated several MBP 2012 models and it’s a
Snap to upgrade
This was great. I'm a PC guy and I've upgraded my PCs, but my wife is a Mac user. She has an old MacBook that the Mac store won't touch because it's too old, and she wants to speed up, if possible to make it usable!
I have a separate partition with windows 7 on my unit. Would it be better to clone my drive prior to doing the swap, or will I have to reinstall windows partition regardless?
Hi, really good video. I have an MBP 2011, 13 inch. Just before retina came out. I would like to get a decent battery for it, can i get a battery that will last for 5 hrs or more? Would love to know your opinion on this, the repair shops in romania tell me that’s not possible.
IMHO, your repair shops are wrong. Unfortunately there are a ton of cheap and low-quality batteries on the market… If you want the original capacity and run time, you have to choose wisely. Good batteries are quite expensive. around 90 - 110 euros.
I have a macbook pro model number a1278, I noticed this video a year old. Is there any updated battery ram or SSD?
How’d you get it straight to Catalina? Mine would only do Lion and I then had to download El Capitan to a flash drive, install, then I was able to do Catalina.
2012 MacBook Pro i7 13” and i7 15”.
Did the following upgrades and booted my computer up with my Apple ID sign in. I already upgraded to the newest software before doing the add parts. Now when I plug the old SSD in with the sata nothing pops up and doesn't show. How do I go about accessing my old stuff?
My MacBook pro mid 2012 got Question mark logo on a folder while reinstalling the OS X
HOW CAN I FRESHLY REINSTALL OR UPDATE THE MAC OS TO LATEST ONE ?
I updated my MacBook Pro mid 2012 13” yesterday. Mines had the only option to install Mountain Lion OS, it stalled just fine but I am not able to use it. Web pages and the Apple Store don’t load. The laptop is fast but nothing else works well.
Does anyone else have this same problem?
So what are the next steps after USER is drag and dropped onto the desktop?
My mid 2012 mac pro installs mac os mountain lion instead of Catalina. How do I change this?
I replaced the DVD with a second 1Tb SSD because Boot Camp wouldn’t install Windows 10 onto the 1Tb that OSX is installed on. Now I have OSX on a 1Tb SSD and Windows 10 on a separate 1Tb SSD.
Hello, during the change up of the RAM, I am having trouble, my computer started to beep, I don’t know why, I only change RAM from 2 gb each to 4 gb each, Do you have ang solution, I have a Macbook mid 2012
If i am upgrading my 2012 macbook pro to gift to my niece, is the last step with the ssd neccessary? Im assuming you do the last step to transfer your personal files and thats it?
I would do these to my old MacBook pro but Im confused?? Right now it’s running Sierra …how do i get it to run Catalina? Sorry if it’s a dumb question
Any suggestions for battery draining?
i got my macbook pro late 2011. already upgrade. but... have some issue with the graphic card.. can you solve it ?
Having trouble, after reformatting the new hard drive that was installed, I went to do the Catalina install and somehow I had lost my Internet connection and I cannot seem to get it back. Earlier in the video it shows how to get connected to your Wi-Fi router which I did but somewhere in the reformat process it lost it and I can’t get it back so I don’t know what to do.
Do you have to transfer HDD to the SDD for iOS to work or is it just to transfer personal data/files?
Hello, with these upgrades you put in, will this allow me to upgrade the software to the newest updates? My laptop no longer supports some apps that need the most recent macOS updates. Is this the way to do it or there is something else I must do? Thank you for the video hope get a response back from you. Much appreciated.
I would like to know this too.
When I go reinstall macos I only get the mountain lion option. How do I get it back up to catalina? or further? thanks
Done, thanks... any way to add hardware to optimize parallel functions to use AI Jasper?
Upgrading the RAM and SSD would make the biggest difference. Anything beyond that would be a lot of effort for very little increase.
You should have changed the thermal paste too
When I replaced mine, it would only allow me to install OS X Lion. What am I doing wrong?
Will I be able to edit 4k video content on my laptop with this upgrade?
I have this same model but , I wonder if it supports nvme ssd with sata slot ?
I just got a new Mac, giving my old Mac 2012 to my daughter. I do not know if to risk and trying to upgrade... could be better, or could be a bad idea...
the only reason i remove the CD drive is to replace it with 2TB HDD for data storage.
from my personal experience, store data in SSD could be ended in disaster since SSD never warning you if any fault happen.
so use 2TB Samsung SSD in main bay for system and remporary data, and another 2TB seagate HDD in superdrive bay for cold data storage
If you use Opencore you can upgrade to OS 11/12/113/14
Since you’re already opening, would you consider reapplying thermal paste? Or not worth it…
No, would probably totally be worth it. I just forgot.
hEY DOES THIS NEED A 1.35 v RAM OR 1.5 v RAM - pc3l VERSUS pc3? GETTING confused - please help (i have the A1278 - mid 2012 macbook pro)
Great Video!
what is the largest GB capacity that I could use on my 2012 and what brand model do you recommend.?
16gb is officially what you can have for ram. You can use any SSD you want. (its a Sata 2.5) I would look at 1tb or more. In general a larger capacity SSD will last longer. Brands like Samsung, Crucial, WD and Sandisk are cool. Google the model and maker before you buy. The 2012 can run the latest OS from Apple but will require a patcher. I use Linux on mine but the patchers aren't hard to use.
Consider buying an external enclosure to load MacOS unto the SSD. This way you can make sure things are working fine before you replace the drive in the laptop.
Thanks, @a.lawrence4969! I couldn't have said it better myself. Another brand I would include in that "trusted" brands list is WD (Western Digital). For the video, I used a TeamGroup, which has been a pretty reliable brand for me, and they're always really well priced. So I would feel totally comfortable recommending that brand too.
When click reinstall macOS a window pops up saying the recovery server could not be contacted ! 😢
Update: I quit and put the OG sata back on but kept the 16gb.
Question: if my one is already 16GB 1600 MHz DDR3 is that necessary to upgrade? And will this allow me to be able to access the apple internet? At this point it is only accessing Mountain lion that won’t communicate with apple :(
I had a custom from then to 16 and 1TB which is why I still have it but the OS will not upgrade beyond 10.12.6 so chrome will not and other sites depend on that... So ridiculous that it will basically just be storage.
hello thank you for this awesome upgrade content, is the OS also upgradable for this machine? thanks for answering
The most recent officially support macOS for this model is Catalina. But dosdude1 has a way of patching it to newer macOS versions.
Can you do this for model A1278
16:47
I see this is abnormally LLLLLONG!
Is it OK and is it because transfer is over USB 1 and not 3 or something or am I doing something wrong?
Will the ssd and ram fit on a A1278? Macbook pro 2012 model
I have a MacBook Pro 13 in (mid 2012) with a 1TB HDD. I don’t really wanna change the disk drive, I have a lot of software on it that I don’t think will work with a newer macOS (particularly creative suite CS4). Would upgrading the RAM only from 8 to 16 gig make a significant difference to make it more usable? It’s still on macOS Sierra
You can not change the disk, but change the operating system to ssd, an optibay adapter is installed instead of the disk reader, your previous disk is transferred there, Ssd is installed instead of the regular place, and the operating system is installed on it, as a result, the laptop works 10 times faster and with a volume of 1000gb hdd + xxxgb ssd
An increase in the amount of RAM gives a difference only when it is critically lacking, the best result will be given by RAM with DDR3L 2Rx8 8gb 1600Mhz chips, two of these will give a difference of 20% in application speed but no more, only ssd will give the biggest difference, even replacing the processor with a more powerful does not give such a result as ssd
What if I get a ? while downloading Catalina?
How much does a service like this cost
Good video because I want to upgrade the SSD from 250Gb to 2TB so I can upload my music library and not have it on a external drive. Any suggestions for cloning software. My computer also has Boot Camp.
Also interested if anyone else has done the same, because I also have bootcamp