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cflem

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 11, 2011
366
387
Texas
I installed Big Sur over Catalina and now I want to clean install Big Sur... But I deleted the Big Sur installer (like a fool) - is there a direct link to the Big Sur installer out there?

I really don't want to install Catalina then do that dance all over again...
 
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sevoneone

macrumors 6502a
May 16, 2010
952
1,292
You don't have a backup of your Catalina Install you restore or boot from and redownload the installer that way?

My goto for downloading recent macOS installers is now gibMac. It is a command line utility that polls all available installers on Apple's servers and allows you to download them.

Search out an online tutorial on how to use it. It's not as simple as downloading from the App Store, but it's nice to be able to easily grab any recent full installer you need. You can access the developer/public beta channel also. I just used it to download the latest Big Sur beta when software update failed 5 times in a row.
 

tywebb13

macrumors 68040
Apr 21, 2012
3,074
1,738
My goto for downloading recent macOS installers is now gibMac.

Might be easier to use an mds (macdeploystick) beta:

latest version 3.5 beta is available at https://bitbucket.org/twocanoes/macdeploystick/downloads/PreBeta-MDS_Build-35139_Version-3.5.dmg

Others are at https://bitbucket.org/twocanoes/macdeploystick/downloads/

Once installed, just select "Download MacOS" - wait a bit for them all to load, then select under "Catalog": "DeveloperSeed", "CustomerSeed", or "PubicSeed". All 3 will give you a Big Sur installer (maybe different builds) as well as many other older installers. When released to the public, it will also appear under "Production".

Select the one you want and click the Download button.

For example:

Screen Shot 2020-09-06 at 9.12.12 am.png
 
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madeirabhoy

macrumors 68000
Oct 26, 2012
1,671
620
Might be easier to use an mds (macdeploystick) beta:

latest version 3.5 beta is available at https://bitbucket.org/twocanoes/macdeploystick/downloads/PreBeta-MDS_Build-35139_Version-3.5.dmg

Others are at https://bitbucket.org/twocanoes/macdeploystick/downloads/

Once installed, just select "Download MacOS" - wait a bit for them all to load, then select under "Catalog": "DeveloperSeed", "CustomerSeed", or "PubicSeed". All 3 will give you a Big Sur installer (maybe different builds) as well as many other older installers. When released to the public, it will also appear under "Production".

Select the one you want and click the Download button.

For example:

View attachment 950628


I had never heard of mds but tried it last night and again this morning. whether I try to download the last public beta or development beta I get Busy, please wait....
 

tywebb13

macrumors 68040
Apr 21, 2012
3,074
1,738
I had never heard of mds but tried it last night and again this morning. whether I try to download the last public beta or development beta I get Busy, please wait....

Yeah. You really do have to wait. The downloads are huge. How long depends on your internet speed.

Frankly I'm more interested in it for older systems, not big sur betas. I get those through my developer account anyway.

I used it to get high sierra yesterday and it worked for me.

Anyway you can check download progress by looking in

~/Library/Application Support/com.twocanoes.macdeploystick/cache (the default temporary folder)

There will be several folders in there but only one of them will be the one it downloads to, so you need to explore the folders a bit to find the relevant one. In the case of big sur it probably will be the last one (unless a point release is made for an older system - after the latest big sur beta release).

It is a good idea to clear this folder after it is finished too.

The folder won't exist until you start a download but there is a button you can press to clear it called "Clear Files":

Just click on the "General" and you will see all this.:

Screen Shot 2020-09-07 at 8.53.27 pm.png


You can also use this to specify another temporary folder instead of ~/Library/Application Support/com.twocanoes.macdeploystick/cache if you wish.
 
Last edited:

easy4lif

macrumors 6502a
Mar 31, 2005
574
1,425
Southbay CA
Might be easier to use an mds (macdeploystick) beta:

latest version 3.5 beta is available at https://bitbucket.org/twocanoes/macdeploystick/downloads/PreBeta-MDS_Build-35139_Version-3.5.dmg

Others are at https://bitbucket.org/twocanoes/macdeploystick/downloads/

Once installed, just select "Download MacOS" - wait a bit for them all to load, then select under "Catalog": "DeveloperSeed", "CustomerSeed", or "PubicSeed". All 3 will give you a Big Sur installer (maybe different builds) as well as many other older installers. When released to the public, it will also appear under "Production".

Select the one you want and click the Download button.

For example:

View attachment 950628
Thanks. I’ve been wanting to have older versions of Mac OS.
 

Apple_Robert

Contributor
Sep 21, 2012
35,576
52,315
In a van down by the river
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/macos-big-sur/id1526878132

Once you download the MacOS Big Sur Installer, make sure to save the file to another location outside the Applications folder, so that you won’t have to download it again in the next week or so, should you run into a problem.

Make sure your USB disk is empty, formatted using journal encrypted, and labeled “Untitled.”

Once that is done, open terminal and enter the following command followed by your password.

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Big\ Sur.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/UNTITLED --nointeraction

Before you do a fresh install of Big Sur on a Mac using a T2 chip, make sure you turn off “secure boot’ and allow install from USB drive following the Apple instructions link noted below.

 

halofan56

macrumors 6502
Oct 23, 2015
259
60
I installed Big Sur over Catalina and now I want to clean install Big Sur... But I deleted the Big Sur installer (like a fool) - is there a direct link to the Big Sur installer out there?

I really don't want to install Catalina then do that dance all over again...
Restart the mac, hold down command+r just when apple logo appears. Big Sur is on your system through disk utility. In case you have do reinstall overlay or clean install. Your have reformat the disk and do a clean install. The installer you downloaded was only for overlay install. The way I told you before, you don't need Catalina on it. It's like a new machine install.
 
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