Where can I find the macOS Sequoia for download?

% softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 15.4.1 

Scanning for 15.4.1 installer

Install failed with error: Installation failed 

Error Domain=PKDownloadError Code=8 "(null)" UserInfo={NSUnderlyingError=0x600001be7900 {Error Domain=NSURLErrorDomain Code=-1003 "A server with the specified hostname could not be found." UserInfo={_kCFStreamErrorDomainKey=12, _NSURLErrorFailingURLSessionTaskErrorKey=LocalDataTask <623FAEA5-7208-4F4E-A26B-59BE249C5C98>.<1>, _NSURLErrorRelatedURLSessionTaskErrorKey=(

  "LocalDataTask <623FAEA5-7208-4F4E-A26B-59BE249C5C98>.<1>"

), NSLocalizedDescription=A server with the specified hostname could not be found., NSErrorFailingURLStringKey=https://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/09/16/082-33200-A_9FRARUF9NM/jnf31ewnvxlmf5ld7l7n7hzv6lkd6fiuz9/InstallAssistant.pkg, NSErrorFailingURLKey=https://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/09/16/082-33200-A_9FRARUF9NM/jnf31ewnvxlmf5ld7l7n7hzv6lkd6fiuz9/InstallAssistant.pkg, _kCFStreamErrorCodeKey=8}}} 

I scrimmaged around on the internet and found a third-party place that contains links to obtain the actual latest download directly.

The official Apple methods fail.

• App Store won't let me download it (current Mac too old).
• App store 'Copy link' just redirects me to the App store if I paste it in the browser.
• The InstallAssistant.pkg link supplied by @AlWeir (thank you!) sadly fails after a few MBs have begun downloading. No idea why.

All I needed was somewhere to get the direct download, irrespective of whether my current Mac supports it or not. All this stuff about "I've never had to clean install in 18 years, you should use software update, yahde yahde" is all brilliant in theory, but fails to take into account some people's situations.

I have only one fully-working, ancient 2012-era MacBook Pro running Catalina, and have acquired a newer model (albeit one with the irritating T2 chip/TouchBar but beggars can't be choosers) that was decreed a write-off by the genius bar techs. I stripped it down to bare metal, cleaned it up, hacked off a shoddily-placed capacitor on the logic board that was destroyed by dust build up, put it all back together and the thing miraculously came to life.

But of course, the previous owner who took the Apple-recommended route of buying a new one, had everything locked down. The only thing I appear able to do is CMD-R boot and erase. Hence I'd like to provision Sequoia onto a USB stick installer from this ageing MBP, so I can start afresh on the newer machine, and a direct download to the installer plus running the terminal command to provision the stick seems the only viable route.

When I get round to rebuilding it, there's a slim chance I'll be given the option to reinstall whatever OS was shipped with the machine (assuming the NAND recovery partition is intact) and I may therefore be able to go through the official Software Update route once it's repaved. But if there's any way to start with a clean slate, I'll take it. I don't know if a direct upgrade jump from whatever that version might be (Sierra? High Sierra??) to Sequoia is even possible.

The 15.3GB(!) install assistant is downloading now. Fingers crossed it works...

[Edited by Moderator]

It came up in Software Update for me..

Perhaps you have some third party AV-ware or a VPN blocking the update...?

Tried both ways .. software update. And the full installer. Apple says a known problem wait till later in the week seems the. Release is 1/2 baked to me

"Apple says a known problem wait till later in the week seems the. Release is 1/2 baked to me"

Absolutely incorrect. Not true no matter who told you this.

Went to Sequoia two days after it was released and everything is working great.

The Full Installer Application of Sequoia macOS 15 is about 14.54 GB in size.

Just downloaded it from Apple outside the the Software Update Applet

Suggest you make sure the computer has at 50 GB or more of Empty Space

FWIW, I installed Sequoia on three different Macs; iMac M3, MacBook Air M1, iMac Pro through Software Update without any issue. Other contributors here reported no issues either. If you are having an issue it's a problem local to your Mac.

There are times, like I'm facing now, that the Mac needs to be reinstalled from scratch to resolve annoying little problems that defy prescribed solutions. What I do, and there may be other ways to do it, is to download the installer from the App Store. When the download is complete, I copy the "Install macOS Sequoia" file to an external drive and delete the downloaded copy in the Applications folder. Then I use a utility that I found here: https://macdaddy.io/install-disk-creator/ that creates bootable install media (flash drive or other). Erase the drive and install a clean copy of Sequoia. Requires reinstallation and activation of all of my apps, which is a real pain, but results in a better operating environment for me. I do this every 2 years or so. Works for me. Hope this helps.

lkrupp wrote:

For what it's worth I haven’t had the need to reinstall macOS since 2013. That’s 11 years. I don’t know what your problems are but the voodoo incantations of clean installs is long gone.

I think I had to do it once with Mac OS X. I also gave up clean installs ages ago.

lkrupp wrote:

For what it's worth I haven’t had the need to reinstall macOS since 2013. That’s 11 years. I don’t know what your problems are but the voodoo incantations of clean installs is long gone.

then

IdrisSeabright wrote:

I think I had to do it once with Mac OS X. I also gave up clean installs ages ago.

I haven't had do to a clean install in over 18 years and I've migrated to 6 different Mac's during that time.

Remember the days of System 9 when extensions had to be loaded in a certain order before they all work? There was even a very popular app called Conflict Catcher that tried to sort everything out beforehand to avoid issues.

Third party apps, extensions, enhancers, anti-virus have always been the biggest cause of issues for users. Some developers try to get around Apple’s security protections to get their little jewels to work, often with disastrous results for inexperienced users.

lkrupp wrote:

Remember the days of System 9 when extensions had to be loaded in a certain order before they all work? There was even a very popular app called Conflict Catcher that tried to sort everything out beforehand to avoid issues.

Oh, wow! Yes. Those were the days. Conflict Catcher was a lifesaver. Before that, you had to disable half, test, and so forth. It took forever.

Hello,

I went through such issues with an iMac Intel 2020.

Several things in my case could prevent the install of most recent macoses on such hardware.

First, intensive use of a Fusion Drive can bring to failing SSD just after two years (S.M.A.R.T. status failing due to too much swapping) then no more macos update is possible.

You need to break the Fusion Drive if you want to update an iMac with failing Fusion SSD. It makes it very difficult to install recent macoses.

APFS is mandatory with recent macoses but was not supported yet under the iMac preinstalled macos, so it can be a hard time to manage an installation without installing first a HFS+ compatible macOS.

Also, recent macoses do not work properly without an SSD, it makes them slow and it increases the risk of disk issues.

An installed macOS 13 is required prior to the Sequoia installation but the internet recovery doesn’t seem to take this into account, probably depending on the last once installed program (maybe memorized in PRAM?). In my case it took days before internet recovery starts under Mojave. Then I needed to update to at least 10.13 in order to be able to install 10.15.

I’d say that both the migration of the macOS File System and the CPU was quite a challenge for Apple (reminder of PowerPC to Intel by the way) and that there are some missing «intelligence» which could have eased users’ life.

Hi AlWeir!

Once the installation process is done, how can I remove the installer app that was created?

It doesn’t get deleted using AppZapper, and dragging it to the trash doesn’t work either...

Is there any command or code to force the uninstallation or deletion of the app?