Beta software can cause unexpected results that could impact the use of your Mac. Warning: The developer beta and public beta of macOS are not finished products and are actively undergoing tests and revisions to mitigate bugs and improve performance. With everything acquired, let’s start by making the bootable installer.
Create the Bootable macOS Catalina Installer So, take my 30-minute estimate with a grain of salt. If you’re working with the beta of the OS, you can find the downloadable version either on the Apple developer site, or Apple’s public beta web site.Ībout 30 minutes of your time: The amount of time it will take is difficult to estimate making the bootable flash drive is dependent on the speed of the flash drive you’re using, and whether you’re including the time it will take to download the installer, which is dependent on your Internet connection speed and how much traffic exists when you’re downloading.
A USB 3 flash drive with fast read speeds would be a good choice.īe sure to quit (Command + Q) the macOS Catalina installer if it starts up after the download is completed.Ī copy of the macOS Catalina installer.This is usually downloaded via the Software Update preference pane (macOS Mojave and later), or the Mac App Store (macOS High Sierra and earlier). You should also consider using a fast flash drive.
Going larger isn’t a bad idea, though you can use the extra space on the flash drive to store apps and utilities you may need for troubleshooting purposes. Future versions may require larger flash drives, but for now, 8 GB is big enough. The list of items needed to complete this project is fairly basic, and I suspect you may already have everything you need.Ī connection to the Internet: You’ll need an Internet connection for downloading the installer from Apple.Ī USB flash drive: 8 GB is the minimum size required, at least for all the versions of the macOS through macOS Catalina. What You Need to Create a Bootable MacOS Installer
This can usually be done provided you have a copy of the installer for the version of the Mac OS you wish to return to. You may have noticed that with each new version of the macOS that’s released, there are usually some users who have one or more issues with it and wish to return to a previous version.
It allows you to archive a copy of the macOS installer, which you may need if you ever want to downgrade to the version on the installer.