Hi everyone,
I’m the developer of macUSB. For a long time, macOS has lacked a true, native equivalent to Rufus.
Creating bootable drives for older macOS versions (Catalina and older) on Apple Silicon has been a nightmare due to signing issues that tools like Mist couldn't handle. Meanwhile, flashing Linux usually meant using BalenaEtcher - an Electron-based "brick" - and creating a Windows installer was just a convoluted mess.
I built macUSB to solve all these pain points in a single, native app.
What is macUSB?
It’s a completely free and open-source utility. It automatically detects the OS and version in your source file, selects the correct workflow, and prepares a ready-to-boot USB drive. It also allows you to download macOS installers directly from Apple’s servers.
Supported Installers:
Windows - currently supports UEFI mode only.
The app automatically splits .wim files into smaller .swm chunks to stay within FAT32 limits using the free wimlib* tool.
Links:
*wimlib is not bundled with the app. You’ll need to install it manually (Homebrew is recommended). macUSB checks for its presence whenever the workflow requires it.
I’m the developer of macUSB. For a long time, macOS has lacked a true, native equivalent to Rufus.
Creating bootable drives for older macOS versions (Catalina and older) on Apple Silicon has been a nightmare due to signing issues that tools like Mist couldn't handle. Meanwhile, flashing Linux usually meant using BalenaEtcher - an Electron-based "brick" - and creating a Windows installer was just a convoluted mess.
I built macUSB to solve all these pain points in a single, native app.
What is macUSB?
It’s a completely free and open-source utility. It automatically detects the OS and version in your source file, selects the correct workflow, and prepares a ready-to-boot USB drive. It also allows you to download macOS installers directly from Apple’s servers.
Supported Installers:
- macOS: From Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger (PowerPC compatible formats!) to the latest macOS Tahoe.
- Windows: From Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 to the latest releases.
- Linux: Full support for various distributions.
- macOS Sonoma 14.6 or newer.
- Universal Binary (Native support for both Apple Silicon and Intel).
Windows - currently supports UEFI mode only.
The app automatically splits .wim files into smaller .swm chunks to stay within FAT32 limits using the free wimlib* tool.
Links:
- GitHub Repository: macUSB Repo
- Direct Download: GitHub Releases
*wimlib is not bundled with the app. You’ll need to install it manually (Homebrew is recommended). macUSB checks for its presence whenever the workflow requires it.