macOS Installation Tips & Advice

Listing Available macOS Installers

From Terminal, issuing the following command will list out available macOS Installers for the Mac:

softwareupdate --list-full-installers

Launch the Terminal application as usual, then use the following command syntax, replacing “..*” with the installer version you wish to download:

softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 12.5.1

The downloaded installer application of MacOS will appear in the /Applications directory of MacOS, just as if you had downloaded the installer from the Mac App Store or Software Update control panel.

How to create macOS Monterey USB Installer

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Monterey.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume

download latest macOS installer (only available on Catalina 10.15+)

/usr/sbin/softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer
download specific macOS installer

/usr/sbin/softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 10.15
download specific macOS installer

/usr/sbin/softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 10.14.6

macOS Big Sur 11.0

Latest

Preview

Install macOS Big Sur Beta to ISO Image

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# Create Disk Image
hdiutil create -o /tmp/BigSur.cdr -size 12000m -layout SPUD -fs HFS+J

# Mount it
hdiutil attach /tmp/BigSur.cdr.dmg -noverify -mountpoint /Volumes/install_build

# Create macOS Big Sur Installer
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Beta.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/install_build --nointeraction

# Unmount Big Sur Disk
hdiutil detach /Volumes/Install\ macOS\ Beta

# Convert file to a iso image
hdiutil convert /tmp/BigSur.cdr.dmg -format UDTO -o /tmp/BigSur.iso

# Rename and Move to Desktop
mv /tmp/BigSur.iso.cdr ~/BigSur.iso

# Cleanup
rm /tmp/BigSur.cdr.dmg

macOS Big Sur - Technical Specifications

Model information: https://www.apple.com/macos/big-sur-preview/

Regular Expression (regex) to identify Catalina-compatible hardware

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201608

(MacBookAir[6-9]|MacBookPro1[0-6]|MacPro[6-7]|MacBook(10|9|8)|Macmini[7-8]|MacPro[6-7]|iMacPro1),\d|iMac1(4,4|[5-9],\d)

Published Date: June 22, 2020

pattern matches:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201608
Supported:
MacBook10,1
MacBook9,1
MacBook8,1

Unsupported:
MacBook7,1
MacBook6,1
MacBook5,2
MacBook5,1
MacBook4,1
MacBook3,1
MacBook2,1
MacBook1,1

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201862

Supported:
MacBookAir9,1
MacBookAir8,2
MacBookAir8,1
MacBookAir7,2
MacBookAir7,2
MacBookAir7,1
MacBookAir6,2
MacBookAir6,1
MacBookAir6,2
MacBookAir6,1

Unsupported:
MacBookAir5,2
MacBookAir5,1
MacBookAir4,2
MacBookAir4,1
MacBookAir3,2
MacBookAir3,1
MacBookAir2,1
MacBookAir1,1

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201300

Supported:
MacBookPro16,3
MacBookPro16,2
MacBookPro16,1
MacBookPro15,4
MacBookPro15,3
MacBookPro15,2
MacBookPro15,1
MacBookPro14,3
MacBookPro14,2
MacBookPro14,1
MacBookPro13,3
MacBookPro13,2
MacBookPro13,1
MacBookPro11,5
MacBookPro11,4
MacBookPro12,1
MacBookPro11,3
MacBookPro11,2
MacBookPro11,1
MacBookPro10,1
MacBookPro11,1
MacBookPro10,2
MacBookPro10,1

Unsupported:
MacBookPro9,2
MacBookPro9,1
MacBookPro8,3
MacBookPro8,2
MacBookPro8,1
MacBookPro7,1
MacBookPro6,2
MacBookPro6,1
MacBookPro5,5
MacBookPro5,4
MacBookPro5,3
MacBookPro5,2
MacBookPro5,1
MacBookPro4,1
MacBookPro3,1
MacBookPro2,2
MacBookPro2,1
MacBookPro1,2
MacBookPro1,1

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201894

Supported:
Macmini8,1
Macmini7,1

Unsupported:
Macmini6,2
Macmini6,1
Macmini5,3
Macmini5,2
Macmini5,1
Macmini4,1
Macmini3,1
Macmini2,1
Macmini1,1

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201634

Supported:
iMac19,2
iMac19,1
iMac18,3
iMac18,2
iMac18,1
iMac17,1
iMac16,2
iMac16,1
iMac15,1
iMac14,4

Unsupported:
iMac14,3
iMac14,2
iMac14,1
iMac13,2
iMac13,1
iMac12,2
iMac12,1
iMac11,3
iMac11,2
iMac11,1
iMac10,1
iMac9,1
iMac8,1
iMac7,1
iMac6,1
iMac5,2
iMac5,1
iMac4,2
iMac4,1
iMac,1

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210222

Supported:
iMacPro1,1

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202888

Supported:
MacPro7,1
MacPro6,1

Unsupported:
MacPro5,1
MacPro4,1
MacPro3,1
MacPro2,1
MacPro1,1

macOS Catalina 10.15

Latest

macOS Catalina 10.15.5 (May 26, 2020)

softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 10.15.5

macOS Catalina - Technical Specifications

https://support.apple.com/kb/SP803?locale=en_US

Regular Expression (regex) to identify Catalina-compatible hardware

(MacBookAir[5-8]|MacBookPro(9|1[0-6])|MacPro6|iMac(Pro)?1[3-9]?|MacBook(10|9|8)|Macmini[6-8]),.*
Model information: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210222

Published Date: November 13, 2019

pattern matches:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201608

Supported:
MacBook10,1
MacBook9,1
MacBook8,1

Unsupported:
MacBook7,1
MacBook6,1
MacBook5,2
MacBook5,1
MacBook4,1
MacBook3,1
MacBook2,1
MacBook1,1

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201862

Supported:
MacBookAir8,2
MacBookAir8,1
MacBookAir7,2
MacBookAir7,2
MacBookAir7,1
MacBookAir6,2
MacBookAir6,1
MacBookAir6,2
MacBookAir6,1
MacBookAir5,2
MacBookAir5,1

Unsupported:
MacBookAir4,2
MacBookAir4,1
MacBookAir3,2
MacBookAir3,1
MacBookAir2,1
MacBookAir1,1

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201300

Supported:
MacBookPro16,1
MacBookPro15,4
MacBookPro15,3
MacBookPro15,2
MacBookPro15,1
MacBookPro14,3
MacBookPro14,2
MacBookPro14,1
MacBookPro13,3
MacBookPro13,2
MacBookPro13,1
MacBookPro11,5
MacBookPro11,4
MacBookPro12,1
MacBookPro11,3
MacBookPro11,2
MacBookPro11,1
MacBookPro10,1
MacBookPro11,1
MacBookPro10,2
MacBookPro10,1
MacBookPro9,2
MacBookPro9,1

Unsupported:
MacBookPro8,3
MacBookPro8,2
MacBookPro8,1
MacBookPro7,1
MacBookPro6,2
MacBookPro6,1
MacBookPro5,5
MacBookPro5,4
MacBookPro5,3
MacBookPro5,2
MacBookPro5,1
MacBookPro4,1
MacBookPro3,1
MacBookPro2,2
MacBookPro2,1
MacBookPro1,2
MacBookPro1,1

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201894

Supported:
Macmini8,1
Macmini7,1
Macmini6,2
Macmini6,1

Unsupported:
Macmini5,3
Macmini5,2
Macmini5,1
Macmini4,1
Macmini3,1
Macmini2,1
Macmini1,1

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201634

Supported:
iMac19,2
iMac19,1
iMac18,3
iMac18,2
iMac18,1
iMac17,1
iMac16,2
iMac16,1
iMac15,1
iMac14,4
iMac14,3
iMac14,2
iMac14,1
iMac13,2
iMac13,1

Unsupported:
iMac12,2
iMac12,1
iMac11,3
iMac11,2
iMac11,1
iMac10,1
iMac9,1
iMac8,1
iMac7,1
iMac6,1
iMac5,2
iMac5,1
iMac4,2
iMac4,1
iMac,1

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210222

Supported:
iMacPro1,1

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202888

Supported:
MacPro6,1

Unsupported:
MacPro5,1
MacPro4,1
MacPro3,1
MacPro2,1
MacPro1,1

macOS Mojave 10.14

Latest

macOS Mojave 10.14.6 (July 22, 2019)

Installing on VMware Fusion

• macOS 10.14 Mojave Guest on VMware Fusion 11 https://gist.github.com/bradleysepos/8afbf990fffbd69dc8f4aedd164cdaec
• How to Install macOS Mojave 10.14 on VMware Workstation Pro https://www.sysnettechsolutions.com/en/install-macos-mojave-10-14-vmware/

Old Installers

NOTE: Old installers expired in 2019. These have been re-signed through 2019

• macOS 10.12 Sierrahttp://updates-http.cdn-apple.com/2019/cert/061-39476-20191023-48f365f4-0015-4c41-9f44-39d3d2aca067/InstallOS.dmg
• macOS 10.11 El Capitan http://updates-http.cdn-apple.com/2019/cert/061-41424-20191024-218af9ec-cf50-4516-9011-228c78eda3d2/InstallMacOSX.dmg
• macOS 10.10 Yosemite http://updates-http.cdn-apple.com/2019/cert/061-41343-20191023-02465f92-3ab5-4c92-bfe2-b725447a070d/InstallMacOSX.dmg