Mojave installer instructions

I made this as a guide for myself to upgrade to Mojave but included the paths to past macOS versions below. Please read through this carefully, especially if upgrading from macOS Sierra as Apple notes a special use of the --applicationpath argument for the createinstallmedia command.

Before you begin

Download your macOS installer from the Mac AppStore and prepare your USB disk for the installer. Instructions for each will be found below.

To download macOS Mojave or High Sierra for this purpose, download from a Mac that is using macOS Sierra 10.12.5 or later, or El Capitan 10.11.6. Enterprise administrators, please download from Apple, not a locally hosted software-update server.

From Apple Support

What you need

• a USB drive with at least 12 GB of storage
  • Ensure your drive is formatted as Mac OS Extended. Apple provides more information on this topic here.
• a macOS installer for Mojave downloaded pon your computer. The standard location is /Applications/ (not ~/Applications). If for whatever reason your location is different, then you will have to change the path for the createinstallmedia commands accordingly.

Be sure to check that you have the full installer for Mojave downloaded. The total file should be around 6 GB or more. An easy way to verify this is by going to the /Applications/ folder and select Install macOS Mojave. Right click and select ‘get info’ or select the item and press ⌘ + I to see its information. In the upper right corner it shows the files size. If its not a very large file (at least 6 GB or more) then its not the complete installer.

Creating the Installer

1. After downloading the installer, connect the USB flash drive or other volume you’re using for the bootable installer. Make sure that it has at least 12GB of available storage and is formatted as Mac OS Extended.

2. Open Terminal, which is in the /Applications/Utilities folder of your Mac.

3. Type or paste one of the following commands in Terminal. This command assume that the installer is still in your /Applications folder, and MyVolume is the name of the USB flash drive or other volume you're using. If it has a different name, replace MyVolume accordingly.*

   sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/My volume

4. Hit return and enter the admin password (as required by sudo) and then hit return again to begin creating the Mojave installer drive

Once you see the ‘Install media now available at “/Volumes/Install MacOS Mojave”‘ message your macOS Mojave boot install disk is complete and it’s ready to use.

You can use the freshly created MacOS Mojave installer to update any compatible Mac to macOS Mojave, to perform clean installs, to format disks, and much more.

If your Mac is using macOS Sierra or earlier, include the —applicationpath argument. The Sierra and El Capitan commands show the proper format of this argument. The same applies to versions of macOS listed in the Other Versions section below noted with an asterisk.

Booting from the installation drive

Now that your macOS Mojave installer drive is complete, you can boot from it with any compatible Mac.

• Connect the MacOS Mojave installer USB drive to the Mac you want to boot it from
• Reboot (or start up) the Mac and immediately hold down the OPTION key on the keyboard
• At the boot selector screen, choose “Install macOS Mojave” from the startup options

Once you boot from the macOS Mojave installer drive you will see the familiar macOS Utilities screen from which you can start the macOS Mojave install or update process, use Disk Utility, access the Terminal, or any other task. To install macOS Mojave or update to macOS Mojave, choose that option which will quickly launch the installer.

Other versions of macOS

To download the macOS High Sierra installer from Mojave (or High Sierra) you can download directly from the AppStore by clicking here. The following are the command variations for past versions of macOS

High Sierra*

$ sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume

Sierra

$ sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app

El Capitan

$ sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app

Using the createnstallmedia command

For more information about the createinstallmedia command and the arguments that you can use with it, make sure that the macOS installer is in your /Applications folder, then enter this path in Terminal:

Mojave:

$ /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia

High Sierra:

$ /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia

Sierra:

$ /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia

El Capitan:

$ /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia

Useful Links

Apple Support Links:

How to create a macOS installer

How to Upgrade to macOS Mojave

How to upgrade to macOS Sierra

How to upgrade to macOS El Capitan

Apple Support-Downloads(macOS)

High Sierra Direct Link