Can I still download Mavericks?

YES!!!!! Left my daughter's new Retina 16GB for last and ran into 9.0.5 problem. The suggestion to go to a Maverick Mac did not work since the installer is nowhere in the finder to be downloaded to a USB, it dose not become an icon. It cannot be downloaded to an USB from the web either. SOLUTION: I'm an user of every Mac at home, as well as my Apple Dealer is so, he does not need to use my password when dealing with my Macs and he will readily identify any Mac owned by me if someone else stops there with it. So, I logged into my user on my daughter's Mac and went with my mac username into APP Store and Purchases. No problems at all, it downloaded the original MAX OS 9.0 and proceeded without a glitch. Then, 9.0.5 and the latest October's updates. About an hour. So, if you are not an user for those Macs still in 10.8, become one and use your Mac account.

NO Yosemite until 10.10.2; its my 30 year user advise. Let others deal with the early bugs. Don't be a pioneer. Sorry for the sapphire glass but No iPhone 6 either until the second generation comes out of the production line. Remember iPhone 5c?

Good luck.

So, I logged into my user on my daughter's Mac and went with my mac username into APP Store and Purchases.

Of course you can download previous purchases again using your own Apple ID. However, if this is not your computer and your daughter wishes to update apps and/or reinstall the OS, she will need to use YOUR Apple ID and password because:

any software obtained at the app store is tied to the Apple ID used to obtain it forever and it is not transferable. That is part of the licensing agreement anyone purchasing it agrees to.

since the installer is nowhere in the finder to be downloaded to a USB, it dose not become an icon

The installer is never in the Finder - after the download, it is in the Applications folder. It self destructs after installation is complete.

I'm an user of every Mac at home, as well as my Apple Dealer is so, he does not need to use my password when dealing with my Macs and he will readily identify any Mac owned by me if someone else stops there with it

That is wonderful; unfortunately, it does not address the licensing requirements and caveats attached to any purchase/download from the app store.

I think this explains some hiccups on my daughter's Mac!!!

Now, doing it all over again is no problem except the file will not copy even to a 64GB USB due to the USB being too small or, as it says, file too large. I had to use an external USB hard drive, not a thumb drive. I'll restart from there with or w/o restoring to 10.8, let's see how it behaves.

I did the installation and it went fine. App Store immediately told me that updates were available, one of which was 10.9.5. So I'm up to date on Mavericks. I'll wait a while for Yosemite. This was a big step going from Snow Leopard to Mavericks!

P.S. It turns out my USB thumb drive didn't boot. But it didn't matter. It had the full roughly 5 1/2 GB Mavericks installer which ran fine.

Hi Ralph Landry1,

When you write, 'allow access to the Mavericks installer', how do you do that? I.e. how do you skip the installer routine and access the file?

Many thanks in advance for any tips,

Sandra

babowa wrote:

any software obtained at the app store is tied to the Apple ID used to obtain it forever and it is not transferable.

That has changed a little with Family Sharing where you can now share your purchases with other accounts. This requires Yosemite though.

Theoretically then (I haven't tried this), you could upgrade to Yosemite, share your account, then access Mavericks from purchases on the account you shared with.

Unfortunately not. Family Sharing does not include OS purchases (free or not) - this is what it includes:

Family Sharing requires a personal Apple ID signed in to iCloud and iTunes. Music, movies, TV shows and books can be downloaded on up to 10 devices per account, five of which can be computers.

Looks like I will no longer be an Apple user. Waited on hold for 25 minutes just for the rep to tell me I have to buy Yosemite, that Mavericks is no longer for sale. I do not liked to be forced to buy Yosemite when I WANT TO PURCHASE MAVERICKS. Apple has apparently forgotten where it came from and how it got where it is today...lost its roots per say. And it's roots have always been with with the LOYAL apple customers who CHOOSE to pay more for their products even when there are many other companies with equivalent products at a much CHEAPER price. Apple used to "give the people what they wanted" now they only care about the money. Today marks the day I convert to a bargain shopper! Thanks for all the good years Apple! I will sure miss them. (however its not too late to sell me Mavericks!)

@wh,

Three years ago I found this:

http://linuxmint.com

(in case the Appholes censor it, linuxmint[dot]com)

The Rebel Alliance needs good pilots, and we don't care if you're flying around the internet on an old hunk of junk.

May the Source be with... always.

~N

May I ask how you transported it to the new computer? I tried a 64 G thumb drive and was told the file is too big for that.

Do you have the installer file? How big is the thing? I used a procedure I found on the Internet to create a bootable Mavericks installer on an 8 GB flash drive. I don't have a link to the instructions anymore though.

It's only 5.35 GB. I'm not sure why I'm getting a not enough room error.

reader123. wrote:

May I ask how you transported it to the new computer? I tried a 64 G thumb drive and was told the file is too big for that.

Steve M. wrote:

Do you have the installer file? How big is the thing? I used a procedure I found on the Internet to create a bootable Mavericks installer on an 8 GB flash drive. I don't have a link to the instructions anymore though.

What file are you guys talking about?

The OS X installers are sized as follows…

Yosemite (10.10) 5.17GB

Mavericks (10.9) 5.35GB

Mountain Lion (10.8) 4.46GB

You can copy theses onto any 64GB stick. You can also turn them into a bootable installer via http://diskmakerx.com

Or use the tool Apple provides for command line usage…

Create a bootable installer for OS X Mavericks or Yosemite - Apple Support

I can't understand how you are having issues with size, are you trying to copy the entire Applications folder or the entire disk to a USB drive?

If the disk is complaining make sure that it formatted as HFS+ (a.k.a. Mac OS Extended - journaled), other filesystem types don't support large files (like FAT). Disk Utility will tell you the file system type on your disks, you will need to reformat any incorrect disk types, but the data will be erased in the process.

Great post Drew. For my part I used diskmaker x and that Mavericks file you mentioned and it fit on an 8 GB flash drive. Not sure what others are attempting however.

Thank you for this information. I'll get back on that and see if I can achieve something here. I do appreciate your help.