[UPDATE] : If you would rather use a graphical interface rather then text based commands, check out UUByte DMG Editor - bit.ly/3DSwYKO - which can be run on both Windows or MAC platforms, and is capable of creating bootable OSX drives, quick and easy!
This is by far the Best tutorial for creating a OSX bootable USB using terminal. Much better than copying the text from a tutorial and running into problems not finding the files. I learnt something about Terminal in the process and am confident to do this myself with other OSs in the future. THANK YOU!
Hi sir, I hope you will see this and respond. Thanks for the great tutorial. I am trying to create a bootable Catalina USB for my hackintosh. I am using my MacBook to download the Catalina Installer. Unfortunately it fails as my Mac is currently on Monterey. Please let me know; do I need to be on a version lower than Catalina in order to be able to download the Install Catalina file? Can I download an iso file instead?
Holy moly!!! I tried following Apple's support page on this and was SO lost. I was ready to give up. Your tutorial was so quick and fantastic. Wow. Just wow thank you!!!
at 2:57 you say go to Utilities; Startup Security Utility, but I don't get that, I only get Firmware Password utility, Network utility or Terminal.....I ask all this since after pressing Option while starting the usb inserted doesn't show up, help!
System update 2? What's that? And going to App Store wants to INSTALL catalina. How do I prevent it from installing? It gives me no option to download only install. I'm on Mojave but need a catalina flash drive to install to another machine.
While in terminal, erases the disk completely then begins process of copying to disk until it gets to 90% then gets an error “ error domain=nscocoaerrordomain code=512 “ I’m wanting to upgrade my mid 2012 MacBook Pro with Samsung EVO 860 1tb ssd & 16gb RAM .. trying to create bootable thumb drive to install OS after upgrading my MacBook.
Great explanation that was easy to follow. I have managed to create the Bootable USB Flash Drive but am now stuck when I try and get to start holding "Option" Key or even trying with "Command + R", my backstop simply goes to showing the globe and asking me to choose network. Please help on how to proceed given this problem. The reason I created the Bootable drive was to avoid having to install from the internet.
I tried this but here is what i get, *Install macOS **Catalina.app** does not appear to be a valid OS* installer application. i downloaded the files from appstore. i am using el capitan
Almost finished with the process, but ran into a problem. After terminal erased the disk , it says the erased disk did not mount. Could that be a disk problem?? So I do have an off brand disk..
@@iftibashir that was the issue indeed. I actually found another name brand disk and that worked perfectly! Thank you! That’s a very informative video u created. I love it!
the directions in the video are perfect for this task PROVIDED you do not continue with an install after the download is complete! the video expressly says that -- but i missed it. another item to watch for: after building the humongous sudo instruction, be sure to type Y and then press return (not lower case y).
You my Friend are a legend! It's taken me over 5 hours of searching online thought lots of videos and apple website to find the a solution. much appreciated and very clear video. Thank you a lot :-)
Will a 4gb flash drive work? Currently everything is closed in my area and I wanna play my game. The “copying disk” is stuck at 10% I didn’t know if this was because of the small flash drive.
Hi there. I followed your instructions, yet after entering my password, I received this message: /Applications/Install macOS Catalina.app does not appear to be a valid OS installer application. Michaels-MBP:~ michael$ Any idea why? I downloaded Catalina from the App Store.
@giocharelli1110 hi. I ended up going to the Apple Store, and they were great. Hopefully you have one in your region. Some flash drives are not equipped to handle this. Mine wouldn't work, and we tried a few. Bring an empty external drive if you can, as they might partition and use that instead to create a suitable installer. Good luck.
I’m having trouble getting the OS to fully copy to my flash drive. Would a blank disk suffice like a startup disk for copying the information onto? Any help would be appreciated, it got to 90% copied and the error said the copy of the installer app I used failed
Sir I used sosume to install Mac os Catalina on my xubuntu os . But iphone and any usb is not showing in mac os, it is showing in xubuntu but not showing in qemu mac os ,what to do?
I was able to format the usb but now everytime I try to do the option+power on combo and select install Catalina it goes to a prohibit screen then shuts my MacBook off.. does anyone know a fix to this. Using a mid 2012 MacBook Pro for reference.. also tired same process with Mojave in case Catalina wasn’t compatible and got the same thing
THANK YOU FOR SHOWING ME THE DRAG AND DROP FEATURE!!! I am a student and I wish I knew this when I created a new distribution of Linux. This will literally save me HOURS
Thanks so much! Nice and to the point, did the task and even after using Mac for over 12 years, I learned some things about finder. Great Job! I had a problem where I downloaded the mac OS image, but it said I cound't use it, but it had been copied to Applications so could be picked up there as instructed.
I am still confused about os file , when I get the Mac osx copy it is not labeled same as this video. It shows .dmg and it said install Mac osx. Also I notice some files in some other video show .app and not dmg so that part Is not clear to me
I think they just fixed it.. I've been having the same issue since 10.15 came out.. I just tried it again and it worked.. There's 2 ways you can do it. You can do the App Store download(which I think is now working) or In Terminal at % type softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 10.15.1 Or, for that matter, you can change that to 10.14.6 or 10.13.6 at least..back to High Sierra.
I cannot see my external drive after holding option key. It only shows the main drive and my mac is mid 2012 which doesn't have T2 chip as well. How do I clean install Catalina. Please help I am struck from last 3 days.
I bought ram 16gb & Samsung 870evo 2TB. I did put in my MacBook almost 1 month ago now. Not working I’m so tried with it. Finally I did make it because your help me thank you 🙏 again 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
i having prblm in terminal part after enter mac password and it say: "/Applications/Install macOS Catalina.app does not appear to be a valid OS installer application." can someone help me pls.
At startup menu only shows Macintosh HD. :( BUT when I unplug my time machine 5TB Seagate External Drive and boot-up again, the usb flash drive finally shows up. =D What's up with that Doc? Btw, nice vid.
Unable to download Big Sur from App Store. It keeps failing. There is no link to download it from beta.apple.com either. I had downloaded a copy of Catalina Beta version, i followed your process of commands for the terminal, connected the flash drive via USB port on MacBook Air; it said, file corrupted. I setup the bootable again, same error pops up. Guess, i need to download the OS from somewhere, and try the whole thing again, please guide.
Mine keeps saying "Arguments--volume, A path to a volume that can be unmounted and erased to create the install media. --applicationpath, A path to copy of the OS installer application to create the bootable media from. --nointeraction, Erase the disk pointed to by volume without prompting for confirmation."
after you've typed everything in the terminal in this video, make a space after the USB drive path and type "--applicationpath [path to the install media in the applications folder goes here]" then press enter.
Catalina won't download from Mojave if your Mac is not in APFS format! I tried to convert my HD to APFS but it will not do it; it's a new HD, I've tried 4 times, restored from a Time Machine back up but it ends up NOT in APFS format even after choosing that format and renaming the disk! Help!
I think they just fixed it.. I've been having the same issue since 10.15 came out.. I just tried it again and it worked.. There's 2 ways you can do it. You can do the App Store download(which I think is now working) or In Terminal at % type softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 10.15.1 Or, for that matter, you can change that to 10.14.6 or 10.13.6 at least..back to High Sierra. Enjoy!
I created the bootable usb, however when I click the installer on the start up, it just brings up an image of a circle with a line crossed out. Please help.
This worked perfectly. Used this so I could see a owc aura pro N ssd drive on MacBook Air. 2013. Allowed me to see new ssd format it and restore from time machine. Thank you!
Hello, when it comes to the part of typing in my password in the terminal window, it doesn’t allow me to and obs when I hit enter it says password incorrect. This after I have gone through all the steps of adding to terminal the create install folder and adding the volume usb drive. Appreciate the help
hey some help plz will it on acer apire e1-571g motherboard : acer ea50_hc_cr intel core i5 3230m with intel hd 4000 nvidia geforce 710m 4gb rab ddr3 thanks in advance
@@abdelrhmanalaa9456 well I mean u technically can, but its quite hard and most of the stuff isnt optimized well for your hardware, I mean check linus tech tips that did this on a normal pc and see how much trouble they went through.
[UPDATE] : If you would rather use a graphical interface rather then text based commands, check out UUByte DMG Editor - bit.ly/3DSwYKO - which can be run on both Windows or MAC platforms, and is capable of creating bootable OSX drives, quick and easy!
This is by far the Best tutorial for creating a OSX bootable USB using terminal. Much better than copying the text from a tutorial and running into problems not finding the files. I learnt something about Terminal in the process and am confident to do this myself with other OSs in the future. THANK YOU!
You're welcome - glad it helped!
wow right! I learned a little bit about how terminal worked too. awesome!
Hi sir, I hope you will see this and respond. Thanks for the great tutorial. I am trying to create a bootable Catalina USB for my hackintosh. I am using my MacBook to download the Catalina Installer. Unfortunately it fails as my Mac is currently on Monterey. Please let me know; do I need to be on a version lower than Catalina in order to be able to download the Install Catalina file? Can I download an iso file instead?
Holy moly!!! I tried following Apple's support page on this and was SO lost. I was ready to give up. Your tutorial was so quick and fantastic. Wow. Just wow thank you!!!
Glad it helped! Hopefully it was worth a sub?!! ;o)
This is an older video but still a sanity saver. Thank you very much for posting this easy to follow video.
Glad its still useful!
I agree. Easiest video I found to follow.
at 2:57 you say go to Utilities; Startup Security Utility, but I don't get that, I only get Firmware Password utility, Network utility or Terminal.....I ask all this since after pressing Option while starting the usb inserted doesn't show up, help!
Thanks!
You’re welcome! Glad the video helped!
System update 2? What's that?
And going to App Store wants to INSTALL catalina. How do I prevent it from installing? It gives me no option to download only install. I'm on Mojave but need a catalina flash drive to install to another machine.
While in terminal, erases the disk completely then begins process of copying to disk until it gets to 90% then gets an error “ error domain=nscocoaerrordomain code=512 “
I’m wanting to upgrade my mid 2012 MacBook Pro with Samsung EVO 860 1tb ssd & 16gb RAM .. trying to create bootable thumb drive to install OS after upgrading my MacBook.
You deserve a beer - No mucking around easy to understand instructions. Have bookmarked this video and subscribed to your channel THANKS
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you man, I couldn’t get a more clear and precise explanation and this saved me a lot of time!
Great explanation that was easy to follow. I have managed to create the Bootable USB Flash Drive but am now stuck when I try and get to start holding "Option" Key or even trying with "Command + R", my backstop simply goes to showing the globe and asking me to choose network. Please help on how to proceed given this problem. The reason I created the Bootable drive was to avoid having to install from the internet.
When you hold down option key press the power button ones and it will show you the disks option
thank you for the video, can the usb be removed once the procedure is finished and put into another Mac?
Yes you can use it to build any Mac (as long as it supports Catalina of course).
Best tutorial I found on this. Concise, intelligible and accurate. Thanks
You’re welcome!
I tried this but here is what i get, *Install macOS **Catalina.app** does not appear to be a valid OS* installer application. i downloaded the files from appstore. i am using el capitan
Almost finished with the process, but ran into a problem.
After terminal erased the disk , it says the erased disk did not mount. Could that be a disk problem?? So I do have an off brand disk..
Yes most likely a disk issue - seems like the command tried to run successfully.
@@iftibashir that was the issue indeed. I actually found another name brand disk and that worked perfectly! Thank you!
That’s a very informative video u created. I love it!
Is there anyway to create a bootable USB of Catalina, if Catalina is already installed ?
the directions in the video are perfect for this task PROVIDED you do not continue with an install after the download is complete! the video expressly says that -- but i missed it. another item to watch for: after building the humongous sudo instruction, be sure to type Y and then press return (not lower case y).
What about the “format internal disk” part >__>
Please make a video ... how to make bootable usb of Kali Linux on Mac
Excellent still relevant video…
Just used this to put Catalina on a MBP 2012 that had Lion on it… perfect for my pals 6yr old daughter
Thank you so much. This was very clear with no frills or whistles.
Great, straightforward, concise! And it works! Thanks!
Glad it helped!
You my Friend are a legend! It's taken me over 5 hours of searching online thought lots of videos and apple website to find the a solution. much appreciated and very clear video. Thank you a lot :-)
You're very welcome!
Where do I find the Catalina os the Mac I’m using is running Mojave
Man, this is my go to everytime I format a mac. Cheers again and again and.....
Will a 4gb flash drive work? Currently everything is closed in my area and I wanna play my game. The “copying disk” is stuck at 10% I didn’t know if this was because of the small flash drive.
Hi there. I followed your instructions, yet after entering my password, I received this message:
/Applications/Install macOS Catalina.app does not appear to be a valid OS installer application.
Michaels-MBP:~ michael$
Any idea why? I downloaded Catalina from the App Store.
same , did you happen to find the solution?
@giocharelli1110 hi. I ended up going to the Apple Store, and they were great. Hopefully you have one in your region. Some flash drives are not equipped to handle this. Mine wouldn't work, and we tried a few. Bring an empty external drive if you can, as they might partition and use that instead to create a suitable installer. Good luck.
Did not work on 64gb for me swapped for 16gb no problems
This freaking saved my other MacBook, thank you!
You're welcome!!
I’m having trouble getting the OS to fully copy to my flash drive. Would a blank disk suffice like a startup disk for copying the information onto? Any help would be appreciated, it got to 90% copied and the error said the copy of the installer app I used failed
I need to make a bootable snow leopard usb from Catalina, older techniques don't seem to work anymore like restoring an iso to the usb... Help....
Sir I used sosume to install Mac os Catalina on my xubuntu os . But iphone and any usb is not showing in mac os, it is showing in xubuntu but not showing in qemu mac os ,what to do?
Best, step, by step, RIGHT on the $ tutorial I've seen!
yesssss
Used a 32gb usb, but was taking so long to instal osx, is 16gb recommend ? Thx in advance !
Yes it is, just watched video again thank you awesome video 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
I was able to format the usb but now everytime I try to do the option+power on combo and select install Catalina it goes to a prohibit screen then shuts my MacBook off.. does anyone know a fix to this. Using a mid 2012 MacBook Pro for reference.. also tired same process with Mojave in case Catalina wasn’t compatible and got the same thing
Super helpful, straight to the point! Thank you!
You're welcome!
Thanks for the tutorial, but i need to download Catalina on a macbook wich is already running catalina. How can i do it?
THANK YOU FOR SHOWING ME THE DRAG AND DROP FEATURE!!! I am a student and I wish I knew this when I created a new distribution of Linux. This will literally save me HOURS
Would it be possible to make an ssd drive to boot via a thunderbolt port using a regular PC? (Hackintosh)
Great work, Clean, Fast and Worked perfectly, I really appreciate that.
Glad it helped!
Thank you for this tutorial. Its the best one I've seen
Thanks so much! Nice and to the point, did the task and even after using Mac for over 12 years, I learned some things about finder. Great Job!
I had a problem where I downloaded the mac OS image, but it said I cound't use it, but it had been copied to Applications so could be picked up there as instructed.
Having a hard time doing this, the double dash before volume solved an error “volume could not be found” thanks.
Sorry, I know this is late, add a space after --volumes
Sir, when it shows your mac it up to date. and I can't find any installer icon in my application!!!
so what should i do now?
Worked Perfectly for "Install macOS Big Sur". Thank you!
Glad it helped!
Big Sur version here : th-cam.com/video/GRbnT6PX3JU/w-d-xo.html
If your macbook running mac os catalina can i do this ?
I am still confused about os file , when I get the Mac osx copy it is not labeled same as this video. It shows .dmg and it said install Mac osx. Also I notice some files in some other video show .app and not dmg so that part Is not clear to me
So easy to follow. Thanks!!!
Glad it was helpful!
I can not get my mac to download the Catalina dmg file instead it says "The requested version of macOS is not available."
In Terminal at % type softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 10.15.1
I think they just fixed it.. I've been having the same issue since 10.15 came out.. I just tried it again and it worked.. There's 2 ways you can do it. You can do the App Store download(which I think is now working) or In Terminal at % type softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 10.15.1
Or, for that matter, you can change that to 10.14.6 or 10.13.6 at least..back to High Sierra.
@@xboxbml yeah it works now TY
I cannot see my external drive after holding option key. It only shows the main drive and my mac is mid 2012 which doesn't have T2 chip as well. How do I clean install Catalina. Please help I am struck from last 3 days.
I get an error after the erasing process starts, it does not furthert than 10% completion..
seems like it's stuck on copying to disk for me. is a 16gb flash drive enough?
Yes 16GB should be fine.
@@iftibashir ok the copying part just took longer than I thought. Thanks!
@@unknownconservative798 how long did it take to copying?
@@ghauriy like 15 to 20 min. I'm sure a USB-C thumb drive would be faster.
I bought ram 16gb & Samsung 870evo 2TB. I did put in my MacBook almost 1 month ago now. Not working I’m so tried with it. Finally I did make it because your help me thank you 🙏 again 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
i having prblm in terminal part after enter mac password and it say:
"/Applications/Install macOS Catalina.app does not appear to be a valid OS installer application."
can someone help me pls.
Hello i also hv the same problem, did u happen to found the solution?
that's the easiest bootable key I have ever made.. thanks so much!
Glad it helped!
Thanks for the precise explanation. The usd drive is "creating" right now. I hope this will get my IMAC with the new SSD up and running again!
At startup menu only shows Macintosh HD. :( BUT when I unplug my time machine 5TB Seagate External Drive and boot-up again, the usb flash drive finally shows up. =D What's up with that Doc? Btw, nice vid.
Copying to disk: 0%... it’s been stuck like this, could anyone give me a solution? Thank you
I got something about how it can't use that volume because it's not formated for the partition?
Unable to download Big Sur from App Store. It keeps failing. There is no link to download it from beta.apple.com either. I had downloaded a copy of Catalina Beta version, i followed your process of commands for the terminal, connected the flash drive via USB port on MacBook Air; it said, file corrupted. I setup the bootable again, same error pops up. Guess, i need to download the OS from somewhere, and try the whole thing again, please guide.
didn't work!
Then noticed, we have to put a space after volume" "
and then after this space a "/"
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!! A great, easy to follow guide for reinstalling Catalina. Saved me tons of time!
Glad it helped!
Mine keeps saying "Arguments--volume, A path to a volume that can be unmounted and erased to create the install media.
--applicationpath, A path to copy of the OS installer application to create the bootable media from.
--nointeraction, Erase the disk pointed to by volume without prompting for confirmation."
after you've typed everything in the terminal in this video, make a space after the USB drive path and type "--applicationpath [path to the install media in the applications folder goes here]" then press enter.
thank you man :) simple as possible
Glad it helped
Good info, very detailed thank you very much.
Glad it was helpful!
Catalina won't download from Mojave if your Mac is not in APFS format! I tried to convert my HD to APFS but it will not do it; it's a new HD, I've tried 4 times, restored from a Time Machine back up but it ends up NOT in APFS format even after choosing that format and renaming the disk! Help!
i already have macos catalina installed but when i go to app store it says update not found?
I think they just fixed it.. I've been having the same issue since 10.15 came out.. I just tried it again and it worked.. There's 2 ways you can do it. You can do the App Store download(which I think is now working) or In Terminal at % type softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 10.15.1
Or, for that matter, you can change that to 10.14.6 or 10.13.6 at least..back to High Sierra. Enjoy!
@@xboxbml thanks bruh
Thanks and helpful👍👍
You're welcome!
it isn't puilling up in the app store
Life saver thank you very much!!
Glad it helped!
This is really helps Thank you..!
Glad it helped!
You are the best ❤❤❤
Thank you!
How long does it usually take to copy the disk?
when I do this my computer gets bricked is there a way to overcome this?
it likely isnt bricked if you have a windows machine you can just install windows and try again
I created the bootable usb, however when I click the installer on the start up, it just brings up an image of a circle with a line crossed out. Please help.
Did you ever figure this one out? i have the same problem
Me too, please if anyone knows the problem please help
I have the same exact issue anyone figure it out? Wish I know all of this before erasing my Macintosh HD - 2012 MacBook Pro here
When I enter my password nothing shows up??
Thats normal - just enter the password and hit return.
Fantastically concise tutorial .
This worked perfectly. Used this so I could see a owc aura pro N ssd drive on MacBook Air. 2013. Allowed me to see new ssd format it and restore from time machine. Thank you!
many thanks!
Excellent! Good job.
Hello, when it comes to the part of typing in my password in the terminal window, it doesn’t allow me to and obs when I hit enter it says password incorrect. This after I have gone through all the steps of adding to terminal the create install folder and adding the volume usb drive. Appreciate the help
Thank you so much. You save me the stress. Good work and perfectly explained without any error.
Glad it helped!
Mine says argument on it
type --applicationpath and drag the actual install icon to terminal
awesome! thanks this worked like a charm!
Glad it helped!
If I search for catalina on app store, the OS doesn't come up.. is there something special I need?
When i go to the app store and search for catalina, it says it is installed. But it is not. WHY?
Great tutorial! Thanks for the easy and concise information!
Great and thanks for this survival kit for mac. Really appreciate it. easy and understandable.
what password should I put my apple id or system password
Your system password - the same one you use on the computer.....
@@iftibashirit’s not letting me type in my password
Great work ! Clear, simple and reliable. Thank you.
Background music too loud; otherwise, a useful video.
Great explanation. The best one and most updated that I found. It worked perfectly! Thank you!
Holy moly. Downloaded 8 GB in under a minute? It takes me just under 2 hours for that much. Any update file for games I have to download over night.
Taylor Wachacha That baffled me too :(
Thank you so much. It’s works. I made it. 😀😀😀😀😀🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 god bless you sir
You're welcome!
nothing works for me s sad
Thanks. It is very useful for me now
Nice and easy way
hey some help plz
will it on
acer apire e1-571g
motherboard : acer ea50_hc_cr
intel core i5 3230m with intel hd 4000
nvidia geforce 710m
4gb rab ddr3
thanks in advance
it has to be a mac, u cannot install a macos on a normal pc.
@@mr.darknight416 Actually you can, it is called Hackintosh :D
@@Ahmed-Aref some say i can't :)
@@abdelrhmanalaa9456 Honesty, try maybe turn to the Reddit Hackintosh community for help.
@@abdelrhmanalaa9456 well I mean u technically can, but its quite hard and most of the stuff isnt optimized well for your hardware, I mean check linus tech tips that did this on a normal pc and see how much trouble they went through.
Great video
The most easy way.. thxs