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10.14.1 no longer allows installs from USB flash, requires Internet

talmy

talmy

macrumors 601
Original poster
Oct 26, 2009
4,729
340
Oregon
Sadly, the Installer for 10.14.1 is now a smaller bootstrap program that downloads the rest of Mojave from Apple's servers. This is unlike 10.14.0 and earlier which were full installers.

installers.jpg


Bad news if you want to do an offline install or have multiple systems to install on.
 
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I have good news. You can download the full installer very easily. When your machine is already running Mojave, you can go back to Mojave in the App Store and click on the "Get" button to download the full 6GB installer.
 
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chabig said:
No it's not bad news. You can download the full installer very easily. When your machine is already running Mojave, you can go back to Mojave in the App Store and click on the "Get" button to download the full 6GB installer.
Click to expand...
I was scared...I hope this post is accurate. I am sure it is. That would be a huge/unwelcomed change.
 
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chabig said:
I have good news. You can download the full installer very easily. When your machine is already running Mojave, you can go back to Mojave in the App Store and click on the "Get" button to download the full 6GB installer.
Click to expand...
I'll have to check that out when my install finishes. But it still means having to download it twice when once would do.
 
I just spent nearly 45 minutes on Apple's chat on this issue. They escalated it to the 2nd tier. Talked to a total of 3 people. None of them knew why the full package doesn't download and instead it's only 22.8MB - despite the App Store says it is 4.9GB. They told me I should call support as opposed to chat. That way at least I can not only READ but also HEAR that they have no clue why this is happening.

Apple support article clearly points out that this should be doable. Albeit, the date is back in September:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

PS: I still haven't called support yet. But I intend to.
 
It’s makes sense. People who are upgrading from 10.13 or earlier need a big installer. People who are upgrading from 10.14 need a small installer. The App Store is sending an app that indentifies the need and then gets the appropriate update.

People already on 10.14.1 who choose to re-download the installer get the whole package (6GB).
 
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pentool said:
I just spent nearly 45 minutes on Apple's chat on this issue. They escalated it to the 2nd tier. Talked to a total of 3 people. None of them knew why the full package doesn't download and instead it's only 22.8MB - despite the App Store says it is 4.9GB. They told me I should call support as opposed to chat. That way at least I can not only READ but also HEAR that they have no clue why this is happening.

Apple support article clearly points out that this should be doable. Albeit, the date is back in September:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

PS: I still haven't called support yet. But I intend to.
Click to expand...
There was a lot of talk about this with High Sierra also only downloading the smaller, 'stub' file, and getting the full download seemed completely arbitrary. I wouldn't bother calling, but recommend assessing the patcher tool.

Nvm I just checked for you. Download this, open it, ignore the alert if your Mac is supported, click Tools>Download Mojave. There's your 10.4.1 installer.
http://dosdude1.com/mojave/
 
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chabig said:
It’s makes sense. People who are upgrading from 10.13 or earlier need a big installer. People who are upgrading from 10.14 need a small installer. The App Store is sending an app that indentifies the need and then gets the appropriate update.

People already on 10.14.1 who choose to re-download the installer get the whole package (6GB).
Click to expand...
I don't think that's the whole story….

I’m trying to upgrade from 10.13.6 and the App Store only downloaded a 22MB Mojave installer stub :(

GetRealBro
 
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getrealbro said:
That's not the whole story….

I’m trying to upgrade from 10.13.6 and the App Store only downloaded a 22MB Mojave installer stub :(

GetRealBro
Click to expand...
That’s what I said makes sense. It downloaded a 22MB stub that then goes and get the full installer. I updated from 10.13 to 10.14 yesterday and it did the double download thing automatically.
 
chabig said:
That’s what I said makes sense. It downloaded a 22MB stub that then goes and get the full installer. I updated from 10.13 to 10.14 yesterday and it did the double download thing automatically.
Click to expand...
Yes But… When I clicked on the Mojave Update in the App Store it already knew that I was running 10.13.6. it didn’t need to download the 22MB stub and then download the rest. It already knew I needed the whole thing. So why didn’t it just download the full installer?

Besides there is a separate way to update Mojave once it is installed.

GetRealBro
 
Glad I found this thread, I tried creating a bootable Mojave USB installer this afternoon and couldn't figure out for the life of me why I kept getting a 22mb file instead of the big installer. It's a bummer, I have two Macs I wanted to upgrade since the .1 update was released. And I wanted to download it once, install it twice, and have a backup copy in case I needed it. I occasionally like installing a clean copy, especially if I go to sell a machine.
 
That’s my situation. I have two Macs and I like to keep a full copy of the installer as a backup. So for me I had to download it twice.
 
Talked to a senior tech support person. She could not find out the reason why this happens. She said she escalated it to engineering and they (engineering) had an acknowledgement that this issue exist on random occasions and they are "looking into" the issue. They have scheduled a phone call back with me for next Tuesday. If the issue is not fixed by then, they said they will start troubleshooting by looking at logs and other means.

It seems like the issue that the downloaded package is tiny is not intentional.
 
One possible explanation is that Apple is actually changing stuff as we type:)

FWIW, at the same time that I was doing a clean install of Mojave 10.14.1 on an empty SD card using the 22MB min-installer stub (which downloaded the rest prior to the install), on my late 2014 Mini running High Sierra 10.13.6….

I was able to download the full 6.03 GB Mojave 10.14.1 installer directly from the App store on our late 2013 iMac running El Capitan 10.11.6.

GetRealBro

Edit: The App Store on the Mini running El Capitan 10.11.6, using the exact same technique that I used on the iMac, still insists on downloading just the 22MB mini-installer stub :(
 
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I have a feeling that this was a mistake, and that they posted the smaller installer app that is used by system recovery rather than a full sized installer in error.

It sounds like they're working on fixing it, but that the old stub file may still be sitting on some of their CDN servers so some of us are still getting it.
 
Yesterday , my launchpad saying 2.8 GB (unknown)(thought it was apple update) download then today saying 3.53 download for software update. Apple become so messy this day.
 
^^^^Yep, I downloaded it for the FW update and the HOPE that I can use it soon. I'm still waiting for the web driver for my Pascal GPU.

Lou
 
It's also possible that there's an issue with load balancing. Long time ago one of our servers exhibited issues. People who happened to hit that server saw a faulty page due to a problem or misconfiguration. Others who happen to hit the other servers saw the page(s) correctly. The first time it happened, it took IT a while to connect the dots, because naturally, they assumed the issue was at the user's end.
 
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