How do you Download macOS Sonoma?
I don't mean install it. I mean, how do you download the installer app. Sounds simple enough. But when I open the App Store to download it, it sends me back to System Prefs where it is downloaded and it immediately runs and auto-upgrades your OS.
That is NOT what I want to do. I just want to download a copy to make a USB installer with. But NOT upgrade this current machine at this time. What kind of apple chicken and egg blackhole bullshit is this??
Is there some trick I'm missing somehow?
You'll have to open the Terminal app and run a few commands from there to do this.
First you'd have to see what downloadable installers are available. Use this command:
Then to download a version run:
That will download into the /Applications folder. From there you can use the Create a bootable installer for macOS support article to make your USB installer.
To see a list of options for the softwareupdate command run:
Mr Macintosh - this is my goto site for recent macOS installer downloads
https://mrmacintosh.com/macos-sonoma-full-installer-database-download-directly-from-apple/
Google mist for Mac.
Will download the app and or make a bootable drive for your specific device
Easy way for sure is to download Opencore legacy patcher. You can get almost any version from there and it will do the usb creation too if you need it.
Look at OCLP. That app has a download feature as well as creating a bootable installer
I came here to say this. It’s almost a completely hands-off process.
Do a search for:
Apple macos external installer
You will get sent to an Apple Tech note on how to make an external installer for the last 5 or more OS versions. In that document is a link to another document on how to get the latest version of each major OS release.
The way you wrote it is misleading. If you download the app, once it downloads, the installer loads and states “To set up the installation of macOS Sonoma, click Continue.” If you don’t click continue it does not auto-update as written. You can simply close it, and the installer remains in the applications folder. This is the screen that should appear.
You can generate a USB by following the detail here.
The only time it would auto update is if the software update is configured to do that. Ensure only “Install System data files and security updates” is ticked in software update.
If you go into the app store and click on Sonoma there (from Ventura anyway), it will send you to system prefs but it will run it like an incremental update. It don't download the app bundle and put it in your applications folder, it will just immediately run it without giving you any ability to cancel. It runs just like a x.x.1 update.
Is your software update configured like this? If so, that sounds like a bug to me.
Direct link (I think this will work): https://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/32/06/062-01946-A_0PEP7JHIWA/1pfs4xh22555dj51fkep7w06s4eiezh21p/InstallAssistant.pkg
No definitely not. If you google it, apparently a lot of people have this problem with sonoma. You'll try to download it, and it just runs it and automatically upgrades your system.
You simply quit the installer when it launches after downloading via Software Update settings. The installer will be there in your Applications folder.
Negative. If you try to download the installer from the app store directly, it runs just like an incremental update. There is no "launch", no installer app. It just immediately runs on your system. Its not like all previous major OSes.
I just did it and it works exactly as I described. On the other hand, I did it from a Mac that was already running Sonoma. Maybe that’s the distinction. I’ll test it on another Mac shortly.
I did it from a Ventura machine both times.
The first time, I tried downloading it from system preferences directly, and it just RAN it. It didn't download the installer bundle and run it, and give me the change to choose my disk or quit the whole thing.
The second time, I clicked the link from apple's support page, which also sent me directly to system preferences to download it. Only this time, it DID actually download it to the Apps folder. But it gve me no indication that it was doing it the "right" way this time so I was sweating bullets the whole time, unsure if it was going to trash this particular system that I need to keep on Ventura.
I googled around and apparently "unwanted automatic updates" are an issue with sonoma.
By following Apple's directions, as usual:
Create a bootable installer for macOS
Ok Apparently when you "download" it directly from System Prefs, it auto-installs it. But if you click the link from the apple download macos web page, that kicks you right to system prefs software update window, just like before, except this time it downloads it, it doesn't "upgrade" it. Theres no way to know which it's going to do except by waiting till it's done and see what it does. This is a fucking terrible way to handle this situation, wtf apple. This is nuts even for you.
That’s why the softwareupdate command exists.
It’s just the difference between “download” and “download and install”.
Find all you need here: https://support.apple.com/de-de/101578
(Sorry, it always switches to german here. Hope it will show in your prefered language.)
The trick to that is to remove the country code before you post the link, so instead of https://support.apple.com/de-de/101578 you just post https://support.apple.com/101578 - this is the 'raw' link that will then redirect to each user's home territory [or US if that doesn't exist].
Edit: I just realised if you use the 'smart' editor, Reddit doesn't change the underlying link, just the link tag… so you have to switch to the markdown editor, or make the edit outside reddit.
Above links fixed in markdown editor.
Could see this video.
https://youtu.be/ik_7b1ySLi8?si=RZZnUEf8ppc6RiJC
You can’t do that was the macOS..
lol ok.
Yeah you can, but it's not simple.