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macOS Tahoe bootable usb?

A

amitabhbansal

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 8, 2011
450
22
Delhi, India
I wanted to make a Bootable USB of Tahoe to install on my all machines, but in Mac App Store its not showing me, in system settings>Software update its showing me and its of just 7.69 GB, where to download the complete OS to make USB bootable?
Thanks
 
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I asked in a "Tahoe or else" forum here if I can make one from a Mac mini to a MBA, both M1
perhaps using a etcher USB program or maybe  usb download, but why down load what I have already?

then I could erase the Mac book air, but I don't trust  as I did in Mtl Lion days.

ahh, I took the bait and using  to upgrade....which is as i type
,
 
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Do we really need that for a clean install? It's 2025. Can't it just download the OS?
 
I didn't feel like waiting for an App Store link anymore so I just did it by Terminal.

You can check what versions are available to you:

softwareupdate --list-full-installers

To initiate the download:

softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 26.0

The full installer appeared in Applications. I then just created a bootable USB the way I did with previous versions:

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

Worked brilliantly.
 
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n-evo said:
I didn't feel like waiting for an App Store link anymore so I just did it by Terminal.

You can check what versions are available to you:

softwareupdate --list-full-installers

To initiate the download:

softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 26.0

The full installer appeared in Applications. I then just created a bootable USB the way I did with previous versions:

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

Worked brilliantly.
Click to expand...

Yeah I've just used this command to update my installers at my work. Remember to add --downloadassets at the end as well:

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Tahoe.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --downloadassets
 
I never add --downloadassets and it always worked. Out of curiosity: What's the difference? Because Apple doesn't mention it either.

Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

You can use a USB flash drive or other secondary volume as a startup disk from which to install the Mac operating system. These steps are primarily for system administrators and other experienced users.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
 
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n-evo said:
I never add --downloadassets and it always worked. Out of curiosity: What's the difference? Because Apple doesn't mention it either.

Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

You can use a USB flash drive or other secondary volume as a startup disk from which to install the Mac operating system. These steps are primarily for system administrators and other experienced users.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
Click to expand...
I have the same question, what's the difference?
 
The free utility "Mist" now has OS 26.

Mist can download the installer AND create a bootable flashdrive, all in one operation.

You're going to need at least a 32gb flashdrive for this - the download is 17gb

I'm thinking USB3.1 gen2, IF they have those yet...
 
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Fishrrman said:
The free utility "Mist" now has OS 26.

Mist can download the installer AND create a bootable flashdrive, all in one operation.
Click to expand...

I was a big fan of Mist for a long time and always used it, but it stopped working for me several months ago. I just tried it again and got the same error I have been getting since it first went bad. The same error is mentioned in a number of threads on the GitHub issues page. It occurs after the 16GB installer has been downloaded and several steps after that completed. The app hasn't been updated for nearly a year.

Screenshot 2025-09-16 at 16.55.36.png
 
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josemmc said:
I have the same question, what's the difference?
Click to expand...
The only thing I can find is:

The “–downloadassets” flag is new in macOS Mojave It downloads assets which may be required during installation.
Click to expand...
No idea. Maybe for new Macs that require things that aren’t yet in the regular releases? My MacBook Pro M4 Pro didn’t require it in any case.
 
n-evo said:
I didn't feel like waiting for an App Store link anymore so I just did it by Terminal.

You can check what versions are available to you:

softwareupdate --list-full-installers

To initiate the download:

softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 26.0

The full installer appeared in Applications. I then just created a bootable USB the way I did with previous versions:

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

Worked brilliantly.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much brother, I downloaded and did fresh install from bootable USB, don't know why apple not released the full version on App Store yet.
 
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amitabhbansal said:
Thank you so much brother, I downloaded and did fresh install from bootable USB, don't know why apple not released the full version on App Store yet.
Click to expand...
No clue either. And you’re more than welcome. I came across it online and was pleasantly surprised it actually worked so thought “why not share?”. Otherwise we’d still be waiting. Also the beauty is you don’t need and put your trust in some third-party utility.
 
Mike Boreham said:
I was a big fan of Mist for a long time and always used it, but it stopped working for me several months ago. I just tried it again and got the same error I have been getting since it first went bad. The same error is mentioned in a number of threads on the GitHub issues page. It occurs after the 16GB installer has been downloaded and several steps after that completed. The app hasn't been updated for nearly a year.

View attachment 2549967
Click to expand...

Mist has been updated to version 0.30 today and says problems fixed. Not had chance to test yet but very hopeful.

EDIT...it works!
 
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I downloaded and created the usb using: softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 26.0
It installed fine, but the onboarding setup doesn’t let you sign into Apple ID/iCloud. It is missing from the initial setup. Once you finish the setup and have logged in, then you can sign into the Apple ID.
Initially I thought i may have overseen the Apple ID sign in window during the onboarding setup, but then i used the same installer for my other Mac and noticed the missing Apple ID window during the initial setup.

This means that since apple has not provided the installer on App Store, the installer we get via terminal is missing Apple ID sign in from the bundle.

Two bugs I have found from clean installer:
You cannot change the font size on Mac mail from size 11 to any other. Other users have found and reported the issue too.
Photos app does not run photoanalysisd, meaning photos is not tagging faces.
My other mac running sequoia is tagging the very library fine, but Tahoe isn’t!

So my understanding is that apple wants us to install sequoia - for which the installer is available, can change font size in mail and faces are tagged properly - then upgrade to Tahoe.
 
Get Tahoe InstallAssistant.pkg links from Apple:
Code: 
for file in $(curl -s https://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/others/index-26-15-14-13-12-10.16-10.15-10.14-10.13-10.12-10.11-10.10-10.9-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog | grep com_apple_MobileAsset_MacSoftwareUpdate.plist | grep -Evw '(com_apple_MobileAsset_MacSoftwareUpdate.plist.integrityDataV1)' | sed -e s/"<string>"//g -e s/"<\/string>"//g -e s/\ //g); do
echo "macOS"
curl -s $file| egrep -A 1 -m 2 '(OSVersion|>Build<)' | sed -e s/"<string>"//g -e s/"<\/string>"//g -e s/\ //g | sed -e s/"<key>"//g -e s/"<\/key>"//g -e s/\ //g | sed -e s/"[[:space:]]"//g
echo "Link:"
echo $file | sed -e "s/com_apple_MobileAsset_MacSoftwareUpdate.plist/InstallAssistant.pkg/g"
echo "****"
done

Explained here https://gist.github.com/b0gdanw/b64ff798be9758560988cbcc995c2ef0
 
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It’s weird that the macOS Tahoe installer is still not available in the App Store. Apple does have to terminal command up, but if you go to download instructions it just says “use Software Update”. No idea how that’s of any use.
 
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