Want to do a fresh install of OS, my Install macOS Mojave.app is only 22.8 MB and I can't make the USB.

Hi.

Been scratching my head bald trying to make this work. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I'm on macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 with a MacBook Pro Retina 13-inch Mid 2014.

As per How to create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support and several online tutorials I've downloaded the Install macOS Mojave.app from the Mac App Store. The install app finishes downloading and ends up at 22.8 MB, obviously not the full OS. It seems it downloads the actual OS from within the installer app and thus I am unable to make a proper fresh OS install USB drive. As instructed I close the installer before actually installing the new OS, format my USB drive and use the Terminal command for making the bootable drive. Of course I never expected this to work as the app is only 22.8 MB but of course I try it anyway.

This is what I get:

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/voyager

Password: _ _ _ _ _

To use this tool, you must download the macOS installer application on a Mac with 10.12.5 or later, or El Capitan 10.11.6. For more information, please see the following: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201372.

So, I try to open the Install macOS Mojave.app and let it run all the way up to the reboot and then see what I get. The app is still only 22.8 MB but now I got a hold of the InstallESD.dmg, which is 5.57 GB, a file name I also recognize from before when I made fresh installs of earlier macOS versions, which by the way worked without hassle. I used the InstallESD.dmg to make a USB drive with Restore in Disk Utility. That did not work as the USB drive doesn't show up when booting the computer and holding alt-key.

Anyway, I made a copy of the InstallESD.dmg and opened it up to see what's inside it. There's a folder named Packages and within that there's:

• Core.pkg
• EmbeddedOSFirmware.pkg
• FirmwareUpdate.pkg
• OSInstall.mpkg
• SecureBoot.pkg

Clicking those items opens up installers for them and I did not want to risk whatever would be happening if I followed through. Now, I don't know exactly what I'm looking for but what I can't see is something like create media installer or what it is that's needed.

So. What do I do now? I only want to make a fresh install with Mojave, and that from a bootable USB or similar.

Any help here would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, regards / HW