Can't create a macOS Sequoia bootable USB

When downloading the installer for a newer version than you have installed, you don’t get a full installer.

You may be able to download a full installer with Terminal.

softwareupdate —-list-full-installers

If There is a 15 version listed, then

softwareupdate —-fetch-full-installer —-full-installer-version 15.0

If the version is different from 15.0, change that to match the version available.

LitheBeep wrote:

If you can't make it working by following the above suggestions, then take a look at this with screenshots. You'd better using a fast USB flash drive instead. It could be very slow for USB 2.0 drives as the install macOS Sequoia app is larger than 15GB.

At least USB 3.0 or above flash drive. It is good for both writing install macOS Sequoia app to USB drive and reading content from the USB drive during installation.

[Edited by Moderator]

The Full Version of macOS 15 Sequoia Installer Application is 14.54 GB

see below

What you have appears to a " Stub " which has just enough of Sequoia on it

So that when you launch this Stub, it will call back to the Apple Servers and pull down all the remaining elements of Sequoia

May it be suggested to delete the Stub, if you want to create a Bootable Installer

The use the Terminal Command below to Pull the Full 14.54 GB

softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 15.0

I can verify it did work and yes successfully pulled the Full Version

It has always been a “stub” installer for the first installation of an upgrade. Once you install the new version, you can download a full version.

Sorry but I did not quite catch that. I downloaded the full Sequoia installer from App Store when running Sonoma and successfully created a USB flash installer from it (and running Sequoia from an external test volume right now with no issues).

In the past some macOS versions like High Sierra have been plagued with those stub installers but I though it was quite random which kind of "box of chocolates" the user got, the full installer or just the stub installer.

If you can't make it working by following the above suggestions, then take a look at this step-by-step guide with screenshots. You'd better using a fast USB flash drive instead. It could be very slow for USB 2.0 drives as the install macOS Sequoia app is larger than 15GB.

You are welcome and thank you for the FeedbacK

At one time long ago, Apple used to Offer this Stub Installer

It looks and based upon your observations ( Good Work there 👍 )

They may have resurrected this Stub installer once again

JMPC wrote:

Thank you. I'm going to try this and see if it works for me.

It used to be so simple to make a bootable USB drive in past versions...

It still is. Nothing has changed. It has always been a “stub” installer for the first installation of an upgrade. Once you install the new version, you can download a full version.

Another possible way is to download InstallAssistant.pkg (macOS Sequoia). Double click the file to unfold the macOS Sequoia installer app. This will verify if your Mac is eligible to run Sequoia. I learnt this trick from this GitHub post: https://gist.github.com/Orismann/cda2337cf1ed548a9e25e2ebf052b614

In order to create a bootable USB a 16GB storage device is mandatory. Future versions of macOS will require 32GB of storage space or higher.

This kind of flummoxed be too " stub " installers from maybe from the times of macOS 10.13, macOS 10.14 and maybe macOS 10.15 times

Oh well, learn some new every day