USB installers mostly are needed to downgrade the macOS version or to make a clean install of a macOS.
Before starting the procedure, make sure you have an installer you need (if needed, download here).
To make a bootable installer for OS X El Capitan 10.11 or later, you need to open up Terminal (Launchpad > Utilities > Terminal.app), plug in your USB stick, rename it as MyVolume
and hit enter.
Now, enter the following Terminal prompts for your system:
macOS 13 Ventura:
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Ventura.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume
macOS 12 Monterey:
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Monterey.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume
macOS 11 Big Sur:
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Big\ Sur.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume
macOS 10.15 Catalina:
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Catalina.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume
macOS 10.14 Mojave:
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume
macOS 10.13 High Sierra
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume
macOS 10.12 Sierra
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app
OS X 10.11 El Capitan
sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app
As you may see closely, the codes for macOS 10.12 and OS X 10.11 also feature the --applicationpath
prompt, so keep an eye on that.
To make a USB bootable installer, you need to open Disk Utility (Launchpad > Utilities > Disk Utility) and do following steps:
1) Plug in your USB stick, hit Cmd+2 in Disk Utility and select the USB stick device in the sidebar.
2) Click "Erase". In dropdown window, select Mac OS Extended
in Filesystem, GUID Partition Table
in Partitioning and click Erase.
3) After erasing, open the folder with installer, click on the installer and hold the Ctrl button and click "Show package contents".
4) Go by following direction: Contents > SharedSupport
.
5) Now, get back to Disk Utility and click Restore. Drag the InstallESD.dmg to the Restore from...
dropdown menu and hit Enter.
6) If you see the green dingbat tick on the progress window, you have completed the process and you are ready to go!
7) If you see the error message, hit Close, hit Cmd+2, select your USB in the sidebar and do the same process again.
To make a USB bootable installer, you need to open Disk Utility (Launchpad > Utilities > Disk Utility) and do following steps:
1) Plug in your USB stick and select the USB stick device in the sidebar.
2) Click "Erase". Select Mac OS Extended
in Filesystem, GUID Partition Table
in Partitioning and click Erase.
3) After erasing, open the folder with installer, click on the installer and hold the Ctrl button and click "Show package contents".
4) Go by following direction: Contents > SharedSupport
.
5) Now, click on Restore tab and drag the InstallESD.dmg file to Restore from...
dropdown menu.
6) If the progress bar in the bottom right corner has disappeared with no error messages, your process is complete and you are ready for installation.