download full OS X installer for 10.10.3

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Level 1

111 points

download full OS X installer for 10.10.3

I already have 10.10.3 installed on my Mac Pro and want to download the full installer so as to more quickly update other computers in my household. From the resulting dialog, the App Store app appears to be willing and able to do this. Here's the text of that dialog:

Would you like to continue?

OS X v10.10.3 is already installed on this computer. Use the Updates page to install the 10.10 update or if you would like to download the full OS X installer click Continue.

When I click Continue, a spinning gear appears in the upper left area of the App Store UI. There is no progress indicator of any sort that I can find so I let it work overnight. This AM, the App Store had changed the "Download" button to "Downloaded" but I could not find the installer in the Applications folder or anywhere else for that matter. I even dug through all of the Time Machine BUs for last night – no installer.

Am I missing an important step or is this a malfunction on Apple's end?

Mac Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.2), 12 TB Disk Space

Posted on Apr 12, 2015 4:27 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 12, 2015 10:05 AM in response to Frank Lowney

Have you tried searching on "Install OS X Yosemite" as the search argument? And since it weighs in at over 5GB, do you notice any change in available space from last evening?

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Answer 2

Frank Lowney Author

Level 1

111 points

Apr 12, 2015 11:57 AM in response to FatMac-MacPro

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I did search on "Install OS X Yosemite." I even performed that search in Time Machine on the supposition that it may have auto-installed and deleted itself. According to the App Store app, it should not have auto-installed. At least that was my interpretation of "... or if you would like to download the full OS X installer click Continue."

I also used Time Machine to compare disk space and saw no change.

I take the spinning gear as being an icon of "getting ready" that should have been replaced by a progress bar. The fact that the progress bar never appeared makes me think that there is something amiss on Apple's end. I'm unsure that my recollection of seeing "Downloaded: the next AM was correct. I could have mistaken "Download" for "Downloaded."

I will make another attempt today.

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Answer 3

Apr 12, 2015 6:05 PM in response to Frank Lowney

There have been a variety of complaints about getting the Yosemite update when handled through the App Store. I suspect the issue is largely one of timing. OS 10.10.3 was released at the same time as iOS 8.3 and the Apple servers were undoubtedly swamped once the word got out. I ran that update within a couple of hours of its release and it saturated a 50Mb/sec connection so it only took a few minutes to download. The next morning, there were problems like yours and they appear to be continuing.

Normally, the installer downloads and begins to run once the download is complete. But it then waits for you to continue, including choosing the target for the installation. That's the opportunity to quit instead of proceeding and then making a copy to archive.

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Answer 4

Frank Lowney Author

Level 1

111 points

Apr 12, 2015 6:13 PM in response to FatMac-MacPro

I made a second attempt today and the App Store app has been running since before noon (now 9 PM). The animated gear rotating is all I see. No progress bar whatsoever. Activity monitor was high until I suspended Boinc (SETI@Home). Network data transfer is very low.

Based upon this, I don't think that any download is in progress. The AppStore app is just spinning its wheels. 0 bytes sent / 0 bytes record.

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Answer 5

Apr 12, 2015 6:40 PM in response to Frank Lowney

Not that it will be of any help this time, but I'd suggest checking out this list of current Mac stuff in the afternoon each day. There were a number of mentions there of the release of 10.10.3 right after it hit the servers, so it's possible to beat the rush.

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Answer 6

kahjot

Level 4

2,469 points

Apr 12, 2015 7:01 PM in response to Frank Lowney

It is unlikely that this is a problem with busy servers. I ran into the same problem a few weeks ago trying to re-download Mountain Lion. In spite of clicking the "Continue" button, nothing whatsoever happened. I tried it on a couple of systems, with the same result. I finally had to boot from a Snow Leopard drive, dismount any attached drive that contained Mountain Lion or a later OS, and after that was finally able to get the installer app for Mountain Lion to download. The App Store is a buggy mess.

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Answer 7

Apr 15, 2015 1:04 PM in response to Frank Lowney

As of the time of this posting the problem still exists. In my case the spinning activity indicator disappears after three seconds and the "download" button changes color from dark to light gray and no longer responds to clicks. Restarting the App Store app re-enables the button but I get the same result.

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Answer 8

Apr 17, 2015 9:50 AM in response to stephenfromencinitas

OK, I found my own solution.

Prior to attempting the download of the 10.10.3 full installer I had the 10.10.2 full installer in /Applications/Install OS X Yosemite.app. I wanted to keep the older version and presumed that the newer version would overwrite the older one, so I renamed it to "Install OS X Yosemite10.10.2.app".

I had to completely remove the renamed old full installer (copied to external drive, unmounted drive, moved original to trash, emptied trash). Once all traces of the old installer were gone the App store happily downloaded the new version.

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Answer 9

kahjot

Level 4

2,469 points

Apr 18, 2015 7:28 PM in response to stephenfromencinitas

That sounds similar to my problems with the App Store. Having earlier installer on the drive should NOT prevent a newer one from downloading. The App Store does not inspire confidence.

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Answer 10

Eric Root

Level 10

685,293 points

Apr 19, 2015 2:15 PM in response to Frank Lowney

Try resetting the App Store and Clearing Cookies.

Reset Learned from Old Toad

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Answer 11

kahjot

Level 4

2,469 points

Apr 19, 2015 6:35 PM in response to Eric Root

Eric Root wrote:

Try resetting the App Store and Clearing Cookies.

Reset Learned from Old Toad

Tried all that when I had problems getting installers to download again, and it had no effect. What worked was booting from an earlier OS, and unmounting every other drive that had a stored OS installer or a later OS. This solution obviously won't work for a lot of, or perhaps the majority of, Mac users.

The App Store options that seem intended to allow you to download an OS installer regardless of your installed OS just don't work.

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Answer 12

Braddik

Level 1

0 points

May 5, 2015 1:49 PM in response to stephenfromencinitas

Yes, I can attest that these steps fixed this very issue for me. I had to delete it out of the Applications folder as well as a folder on the desktop I store mac images on. So you definitely need to delete everywhere an OS X installer is saved.

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Answer 13

May 12, 2015 1:09 AM in response to stephenfromencinitas

Also solved the problem for me, delete all Yosemite installers, then I could download the newest 10.10.3. Thank you.

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