Mountain Lion download on multiple (family) computers

Sign in to the app store from the other mac using the same apple ID. Then you can download the update on the second mac.

Like user1724 said, use the same Apple ID. I did it with mine and my wife's computer and it worked wonderfully.

If you purchase Mountain Lion from the App Store then you can install it on all the computers you own. There is no limitation as long as you own them all.

You must have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or Lion installed on each computer. Sign in to the App Store from each computer using the same Apple ID used to purchase Mountain Lion. You will then be able to re-download for free.

Or if you saved the Mountain Lion installer applcation then you can do this:

Make Your Own Mountain/Lion Installer

1. After downloading Mountain/Lion you must first save the Install Mac OS X Mountain/Lion application. After Mountain/Lion downloads DO NOT click on the Install button. Go to your Applications folder and make a copy of the Mountain/Lion installer. Move the copy into your Downloads folder. Now you can click on the Install button. You must do this because the installer deletes itself automatically when it finishes installing.

2. Get a USB flash drive that is at least 8 GBs. Prep this flash drive as follows:

1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your flash drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to an hour depending upon the flash drive size.

3. Locate the saved Mountain/Lion installer in your Downloads folder. CTRL- or RIGHT-click on the installer and select Show Package Contents from the contextual menu. Double-click on the Contents folder to open it. Double-click on the SharedSupport folder. In this folder you will see a disc image named InstallESD.dmg.

4. Plug in your freshly prepared USB flash drive. You are going to clone the content of the InstallESD.dmg disc image to the flash drive as follows:

1. Double-click on the InstallESD.dmg file to mount it on your Desktop.
2. Open Disk Utility.
3. Select the USB flash drive from the left side list.
4. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
5. Select the USB flash drive volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
6. Drag the mounted disc icon from the Desktop into the Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.

When the clone is completed you have a fully bootable installer that you can use without having to re-download Mountain/Lion.

Note: The term Mountain/Lion used above means Lion or Mountain Lion.

You now have a Mountain Lion installer you can use for each computer now or whenever you need to reinstall Mountain Lion.

On the other machine you open App Store, and log in under the same account. If it is already logged in under a different account, then log out by going to the menu Store/Log Out. You should see it listed there under purchases.

We have 5 Macs in our family household. I copied the first downloaded installer named 'Install OS X Mountain Lion' onto a USB drive so we could install it on each Mac without using up 5 x 4.37GB bandwidth download (plus it took about 8 hours to downdload - slow internet connection).

So my question is, once I have installed it on, for example, my sisters Mac, will she have to log-in under my Apple ID username and password to install 'Software Update 10.8.1.....etc...', or as she is the Administrator of that computer, will she just use her own account name and password to approve and install these ongoing updates without using my Apple ID information?

Sparky030405 wrote:

--

So my question is, once I have installed it on, for example, my sisters Mac, will she have to log-in under my Apple ID username and password to install 'Software Update 10.8.1.....etc...' ---

So far my experiments revealed me, that the OS' own update feature itself does not depend on a specific Apple-ID. Systemvoices, Java and all that where downloadable from every machine, even those that have no Apple ID at all stored. The Apps from AppStore do depend on it, of course.

Make Your Own Mountain/Lion Installer

Thanks Kappy, boss info 😉

Can i change the apple id for other mac on which i have installed the mountain lion ??? if i can, does it effect in any way ?? will i be able do download apps from the other id on that mac ???

kunal5988 did you get any feedback on your question? I have this problem :

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4234036

Kappy, You're the Man! Thanks for spelling out this lengthy procedure so clearly.

NOTE to those who want to do this. Allow LOTS of time. Plan on two and a half, no problem. First, you download Mountain Lion; that alone took me a good hour on a fast Comcast cable connection...it's over 4 gigs. Note: Must have taken a good 10 - 15 minutes before the download appeared to even start!

Next, zeroing out my 16 gig flash drive took close to an hour. After that, copying the "Install ESD" disk image to my flash drive took 30 minutes.

It all went well, again, thanks to Kappy's fine directions, but plan on wasting a good chunk of time getting this all done.

Kappy, thanks so much for the fantastic instructions. My apologies if my query sounds basic, but your help has been of great value and I hope I can lean on you some more.

I followed your instructions on making Mountain Lion Installer SD card.

But, I haven't tried to use it yet.

When I pop it into my other machine, will I have to copy the contents of the SD card to the desktop, and then open it up there? Will the installer delete itself off my SD card unless I take some sort of precautions?

Thanks so much!!

Thank you for the thorough explantion. I have a desktop in a place where using the internet for a 4GB download is not an option. Neither is taking the computer to a cafe or other wifi location as the Apple representative suggested...

EXCELLENT recipie!

Great reference for many difficult tasks we rarely do so don't usurally remember when we need to.

Really appreciate your time sharing your solution..so efficiently saving ours!

(Took me over a day to download this; don't want to repeat on my bandwidth.)