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Please help me to get full macos installer as I need to create a bootable drive to install on other mac.
Size of macos downloaded installer - ~40MB
Size mentioned on the App Store - ~12 GB
Now I come across this error - Applications/Install macOS Monterey.app does not appear to be a valid OS installer application.
Help me Apple!
MacBook Pro
Welcome to the Apple Support Communities.
When downloading a newer version of macOS on a Mac that has an older version, such as downloading macOS Monterey on macOS Catalina, occasionally only a small installer will be downloaded.
I suggest that you use macOS Internet Recovery on the Mac you need to upgrade to Monterey, or upgrade your Mac to macOS Monterey before creating the macOS Bootable Installer.
Jack
Welcome to the Apple Support Communities.
When downloading a newer version of macOS on a Mac that has an older version, such as downloading macOS Monterey on macOS Catalina, occasionally only a small installer will be downloaded.
I suggest that you use macOS Internet Recovery on the Mac you need to upgrade to Monterey, or upgrade your Mac to macOS Monterey before creating the macOS Bootable Installer.
Jack
Thanks a lot Jack!
I have a MBP 2016 that I have completely erased. Now when I start Internet Recovery on that it tells me to install MacOS Mavericks. After that I think, my laptop would be able to install Monterey...
Fine. Thanks again!
Open the Terminal Application and use this command without the quotation marks
" softwareupdate -l " this will search for updates and if it finds Monterey - good
Same thing again No Quotation Marks
" softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 12 " or whatever the output from previous command
FYI and as @ Jack-19 very correctly mentioned - sometimes Apple will offer a " Stub Installer " for an upgrade of a newer macOS like Monterey.
The Stub effectively calls to the Apple Servers and does Unknown know things ( to me ) and then pulls down the remainder of the Full Version.
That makes it impossible to make a USB Installer. which is what you want to do. The why Apple does this - really only they could answer that question.
Thanks P. Philips. I will try and get back!
Thanks. For me as of now, Internet Recovery (Option + Command + R) on my target laptop worked to get me the latest macOS. Thank you guys for your support!
App Store only downloads a 'downloader.' It doesn't download full Monterey 'installer.'
