You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!
When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.
When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.
Hi,
I have a Macbook Pro (Late 2012) Retina 15". I had to replace an old faulty SSD. I was running Windows 10 (only, without MacOS on a partition). I am buying a new SSD and it looks like I may need to upgrade the firmware.
My question is, is it possible to update the firmware for my Macbook without MacOS at all? Is there a way to flash the firmware via a bootable USB or similar?
GISVPN wrote:
Hi - thanks for the follow up reply. If the new drive does work (it is an NVMe one)
Unless you had macOS 10.13+ installed at some point on this system, then the NVMe SSD will not be recognized by the computer. The system firmware included with macOS 10.13+ allows the use of NVMe SSDs.
and I am able to install Windows 10 on it, is there a way to update the firmware without macOS running? There is nothing in macOS Recovery that I could use for example?
I am not aware of any other way.
I guess the question I am asking is... is the only way to update the firmware on a Macbook via macOS being installed and updated with that firmware in the update?
Yes. If macOS 10.13+ has never been installed on this computer, then you will need an Apple SSD to be installed internally and properly formatted so the macOS 10.13+ installer can update the system firmware. Afterwards (once the system firmware has been updated) you can install and use your NVMe SSD.
GISVPN wrote:
Hi - thanks for the follow up reply. If the new drive does work (it is an NVMe one)
Unless you had macOS 10.13+ installed at some point on this system, then the NVMe SSD will not be recognized by the computer. The system firmware included with macOS 10.13+ allows the use of NVMe SSDs.
and I am able to install Windows 10 on it, is there a way to update the firmware without macOS running? There is nothing in macOS Recovery that I could use for example?
I am not aware of any other way.
I guess the question I am asking is... is the only way to update the firmware on a Macbook via macOS being installed and updated with that firmware in the update?
Yes. If macOS 10.13+ has never been installed on this computer, then you will need an Apple SSD to be installed internally and properly formatted so the macOS 10.13+ installer can update the system firmware. Afterwards (once the system firmware has been updated) you can install and use your NVMe SSD.
Unfortunately you may require an original Apple SSD to be installed internally and properly formatted in order to update the laptop's system firmware especially if you will be installing an NVMe SSD. I'm sure there is a way to do update the system firmware without an internal drive, but I've never stumbled across any specific instructions on how to do it. Unfortunately the firmware updater contained within the recent macOS installers requires a working internal drive to be installed and properly formatted.
Hi - thanks for the follow up reply. If the new drive does work (it is an NVMe one) and I am able to install Windows 10 on it, is there a way to update the firmware without macOS running? There is nothing in macOS Recovery that I could use for example?
I guess the question I am asking is... is the only way to update the firmware on a Macbook via macOS being installed and updated with that firmware in the update?
Thanks again
thanks for the info!
Upgrade Macbook Firmware without MacOS
