Bootable Catalina USB Installer for old MBP

[diegollz]

Still not receive Catalina update on my 2013 Late rMBP, which is a supported device according to Apple official statement. How can I make a bootable USB installer by myself? Have done it on Windows multiple times and never does on a Mac.

 

[MacInWin]

Welcome to the forum.

I think you misunderstand how Apple distributes upgrades. They do not push it out to you, you have to go get it. Apple advertises it, makes it available to you, but you are the agent for when it actually is installed.

If you are running Mojave, you get the upgrade by opening System Preferences, Software Update and wait for it to see what is waiting for you. Eventually it should offer several updates, including Catalina and Safari, maybe a security update as well. Just follow directions to install immediately.

If you are on an older version of macOS, you go to the Mac Apple Store (click on the  in the upper left corner, then "App Store..." and if the store doesn't offer the installer, search for "Catalina" and you will be able to download the installer.

In both cases the installer will start immediately. Stop it by cancelling out and the installer should be in your Applications folder. The easiest way to make a bootable USB installer is to download DiskmakerX and use it to make the installer.

I strongly recommend you do a complete backup, and test it, before doing the upgrade. This upgrade is a major change in how the operating system is constructed. Also, you want to be very careful before doing this upgrade that your software is all 64-bit, as no 32 bit software will run in Catalina. You don't want to be surprised when something you really need is gone.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Go to Mac App Store and search for Catalina. You will find it there, once downloaded, it will try to automatically run. Cancel out it. Grab a copy of Diskmaker X, plug in a USB drive (at least 8GB) and point it at the downloaded Catalina installer in the /Applications folder. This will now create a bootable USB drive.

Now, create a full backup of your current system using Time Machine, SuperDuper, CCC or whatever your preferred method is. Validate the backup contains your important info and is OK.

Shut down the Mac and then powering back up hold the OPTION key to get the boot selector. With the USB drive plugged in, that should be one of them, choose that to begin the installation.

You can now choose to erase the contents of your drive to do a full clean install and bring back data or do an upgrade.

Please note that there is a difference between an UPDATE and an UPGRADE. An update is for the same base version of the OS and is provided to you through prompts in the Software Update widget of System Preferences. An upgrade is an entirely new OS and is not prompted the same way. You will hear about it from the WWDC and other announcements that Apple makes. You will see it in the App Store and you will hear it from others who have Macs as well.

 

[IWT]

A warm welcome to Mac-Forums and thank you for your post.

According to Apple, your Mac is compatible with macOS Catalina (macOS Catalina is compatible with these computers - Apple Support).

The only legitimate way to create a bootable USB Installer is by downloading the OS first. After that, there are several ways of creating this.

So, how are you attempting to download macOS Catalina? I ask so that we know you are going about it correctly - no offence Is there a message when you attempt the download? What exactly happens?

By the way, I have assumed from your question that you have an earlier Operating System (OS) and that you meant you can't "receive" the Catalina Upgrade? What is your current OS?

Sorry for the questions, but we don't know your setup.

Ian

- - - Updated - - -

You beat me to it Ashwin, by one minute

We've each taken a slightly different approach, but it's all there.

Ian

 

[diegollz]

I searched Catalina in Mac App Store and redirects me to Update in System Preference. After half download, it says my Mac is not capable of this update this time.

I am on Mojave 10.14.6

 

[MacInWin]

Does it say why it's not capable? That is a strange way of referring to it, normally it points to not enough memory, or storage or the machine being too old. How much memory do you have and how much free storage on your hard drive?

 

[diegollz]

Does it say why it's not capable? That is a strange way of referring to it, normally it points to not enough memory, or storage or the machine being too old. How much memory do you have and how much free storage on your hard drive?

4G RAM and 27G free storage

Creating a bootable USB installer on Windows is very different from creating one on Mac.

So what's your suggestion?

 

[IWT]

4G RAM and 27G free storage

I'm afraid you may be pushing your luck on two counts. Having only 27GB of unused space (out of how much, by the way - ie what is the total storage on the HD?). macOS Catalina is a large OS upgrade and also represents an almost total revamp of the OS.

And with only 4GB of RAM, Catalina may be struggling a bit.

The former is the more likely to be a cause of a failed download - was there no mention of this at all?

Ian

 

[MacInWin]

Ian has it right. Catalina completely reformats the drives, so to move all the data and not lose anything, it needs a lot of disk space. Your 27G is simply not enough. Try to clear, let's say, 100G to see if that works better. If not, keep clearing space until you get enough headroom for the installer to be happy. The good news is that once the install is done, you can put some of the stuff back that you had to remove. But let me chime in and agree that 27G is not really enough free space for macOS to be happy.

 

[Rod]

Documents is usually a good candidate for temporary removal. I did my upgrade to Catalina with 85Gb free storage but I also have 8Gb RAM which probably speeds the conversion process to APFS.


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[diegollz]

Ian has it right. Catalina completely reformats the drives, so to move all the data and not lose anything, it needs a lot of disk space. Your 27G is simply not enough. Try to clear, let's say, 100G to see if that works better. If not, keep clearing space until you get enough headroom for the installer to be happy. The good news is that once the install is done, you can put some of the stuff back that you had to remove. But let me chime in and agree that 27G is not really enough free space for macOS to be happy.

there is no such an issue when upgrading to Mojave. It is rRBP Late 2013, only with 128SSD

 

[MacInWin]

there is no such an issue when upgrading to Mojave. It is rRBP Late 2013, only with 128SSD

But your original post was about Catalina, not Mojave. So what are you actually trying to do?

 

[diegollz]

But your original post was about Catalina, not Mojave. So what are you actually trying to do?

Trying to make a bootable Catalina install usb. I mean I have no such an issue when upgrading from High Serria to Mojave.

 

[IWT]

Trying to make a bootable Catalina install usb. I mean I have no such an issue when upgrading from High Serria to Mojave.

No, of course you wouldn't be likely to have a big problem when going up to macOS Mojave - apart from anything else, you probably had more free storage space then. But moving on to macOS Catalina, as Jake and I (and others) have said, requires a great deal more free space.

OK, so you simply want to make a bootable USB Installer for Catalina - well, as I pointed out, way back in post #4, you need to download macOS Catalina first, then halt the installation process and use Apple's method or Diskmaker X to create the Installer.

If Apple determines that you have not enough free space to install macOS Catalina, it will probably disallow the download for your own sake.

However you look at things, 27GB of free space is insufficient for running any modern Operating System (OS) and well nigh impossible for Catalina.

So, the main issue still stands - you need to offload at least another 70GB or more to run any OS optimally and even more so if you intend to download macOS Catalina - which is the only way of creating your Installer.

Finally, if macOS Catalina is your final aim (why else would you want to create an Installer) - then 4GB of RAM is going to slow things dramatically. Your Mac can take 8GB of RAM.

Ian

 

[diegollz]

I managed to create a bootable USB using macOS Catalina Patcher app suggested by this post (How to Create Bootable macOS 10.15 Catalina USB Install Drive). and downloading from App store failed. Now I am replying to this post on Catalina.

However, as the above post mentions, some of the app runs slower than before on a 4G RAM device. Space is not a big issue. Maybe it is the time to upgrade to a new Mac lol but really like the keyboard on rMRB Pro 13.

 

[Rod]

I'm with you on the keyboard like, that's one of the reasons why I upgraded in 2017 to a brand new 2015 MBPr. With 8Gb RAM and a fairly fast CPU it is running Catalina no problem and still retains all of the old USB ports, card reader, MagSafe charger, HDMI output etc and of course the older version of the keyboard keys.