User profile for user: keriah
keriah Author
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How to run macOS 10.14 (Mojave) on an M3 or M4 MacBook Air?

I am currently running Mojave on a 2017 MacBook Air that has its drive partitioned: one that runs Mojave and another that runs the "latest" OS. In the case of this MBA, that has been OS12 (Monterey) [... yes, I know - not the latest, but it was when I set things up.] Now I have some software that needs (at least) OS13. And I find that I cannot upgrade a 2017 MBA beyond OS12.


That has me looking at the newest (M4) MBA or possibly the M3. But I find that none of the "M" MBA Macs will let me partition/install an OS as old as Mojave. The recommendation is to install some virtualization software (e.g., VMware fusion) and install the older OS there. That, of course, is a whole new learning curve (how much memory to get? how easy to switch into the older OS? etc. etc.)


Does that sound like a good option? Are there others to explore?




[Re-Titled by Moderator]

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 12.7

Posted on Mar 12, 2025 3:55 PM

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User profile for user: Servant of Cats
Servant of Cats
User level: Level 7
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Posted on Mar 12, 2025 4:54 PM

You cannot run Mojave on a M3 or M4 MacBook Air.


Whoever recommended that you install virtualization software to run Mojave gave you bad advice.


Mojave is built for Macs whose processors use Intel machine code. The M3 and M4 chips use an entirely different kind of machine code. So no running Mojave on "bare metal."


There are versions of Parallels Desktop and VmWare Fusion Pro that run on Apple Silicon Macs. They create virtual machines that run the same basic type of code as the host CPU, that is to say, ARM VMs. An Intel-based OS won't run on an ARM VM for the same reason that it would not run on the bare metal of the ARM host CPU.


Rosetta 2 can run some macOS/Intel applications in translation – but it cannot translate system code, and it cannot translate code that supports Intel VMs. So Rosetta 2 won't let you run Mojave, either.

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How to run macOS 10.14 (Mojave) on an M3 or M4 MacBook Air?

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