Creating a macOS Sierra USB Introducer for the Developer Preview – A Step-by-Step Guide

Welcome! Today, I will show you how simple it is to create a macOS Sierra USB installer specifically designed for the Developer Preview. With this step-by-step guide, you’ll have your own USB installer in no time.

What You’ll Need:

To begin this process, make sure you have the following items handy:

• A Mac computer with macOS Sierra Developer Preview installed
• A USB flash drive (16GB or more in size)

Step 1: Prepare the USB Flash Drive

First things first, let’s prepare the USB flash drive for the installation:

1. Insert the USB flash drive into your Mac.
2. Open the Disk Utility application. You can find it by going to “Applications” > “Utilities” > “Disk Utility”.
3. In Disk Utility, select the USB flash drive from the list on the left.
4. Click on the “Erase” tab.
5. Choose a name for your USB flash drive, and select the format as “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)”.
6. Click on the “Erase” button. Note that this will delete all existing data on the USB flash drive, so make sure you have backups if needed.
7. Once the process is complete, close Disk Utility.

Step 2: Create the macOS Sierra USB Installer

Now that your USB flash drive is ready, let’s proceed with creating the macOS Sierra USB installer:

1. Download the macOS Sierra Developer Preview Installer from the official Apple Developer website.
2. Once the download is complete, locate the installer in your “Applications” folder.
3. Right-click on the installer and select “Show Package Contents”.
4. In the window that appears, navigate to “Contents” > “Resources”.
5. Look for a file named “createinstallmedia” and double-click on it.
6. A Terminal window will open, displaying the createinstallmedia command.
7. Return to the Terminal application if you closed it, and enter the following command:
   sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra\ Developer\ Preview.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia –volume /Volumes/MyUSB –applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra\ Developer\ Preview.app
8. Press Enter and provide your administrator password when prompted.
9. Terminal will display a message indicating that it will erase the disk. Type “Y” to confirm and press Enter.
10. The creation process will begin, and it may take some time to complete. Be patient!
11. Once the process is finished, Terminal will display a “Copy Complete” message.

Step 3: Install macOS Sierra from the USB Installer

Congratulations! You have successfully created a macOS Sierra USB installer. Now, let’s use it to install macOS Sierra on your Mac:

1. Restart your Mac and hold down the “Option” key while it boots up.
2. A screen will appear showing the available startup disks. Select the USB flash drive you just created and press Enter.
3. The macOS Sierra installer will launch. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation process.
4. Once the installation is finished, your Mac will restart, and you’ll be ready to explore macOS Sierra!

That’s it! You’ve successfully created a macOS Sierra USB installer and installed it on your Mac. Now you can enjoy all the exciting features and improvements of the Developer Preview. Happy exploring!

Hey there! So, guess what? The macOS Sierra Developer Preview is now available, and a Public Beta is coming soon. Cool, right? Now, Apple has made it super easy to install macOS Sierra through the Mac App Store. But if you’re like me, you might prefer creating your own USB installer. Why? Well, it allows you to upgrade multiple Macs or install macOS from scratch on a clean slate. And trust me, it’s not as complicated as it sounds. So, let me guide you on how to create your very own macOS Sierra USB Installer specifically for the Developer Preview. Keep in mind that these instructions will vary for the Public Beta and the final version of macOS Sierra. No worries, though! We’ll update the instructions for those versions when they’re released.

Step 1: Get the macOS Sierra Installer from the Mac App Store

To make a macOS Sierra USB Installer, you’ll first need to download the operating system from the Mac App Store. If you’re a registered developer, you’ll receive a redemption code for macOS Sierra via the Apple Developer portal. But even if you’re not a developer, it’s still possible to get and install macOS Sierra. Just be careful not to use installers from sources other than Apple, as they may have been tampered with and contain malware.

Once you have downloaded macOS Sierra from the Mac App Store, an upgrade installer app will open automatically. You can close it by pressing Command-Q on your keyboard.

Next, go to your Applications folder and check if you have the Developer Preview installer. The instructions for creating the USB installer depend on the name of the installer application. As of now, the macOS Sierra Developer Preview installer is called “Install 10.12 Developer Preview.app.”

Now it’s time to prepare your USB drive.

First, find a USB drive that is at least 8GB in size and that you don’t mind erasing. This drive will be used to create the macOS Sierra installer, so make sure it doesn’t have any important files on it. Connect the USB drive to your Mac and open the Disk Utility app. Look for the USB drive on the left side of the window, click on it, and then select the Erase option in the toolbar. Make sure that the “Scheme” is set to GUID Partition Map, the “Format” is set to OS X Extended (Journaled), and name the drive macOSInstall. This name is just for compatibility with the installation commands and you can change it later. Finally, click on Erase to finish the process.

Step 3: Creating the macOS Sierra USB Installer

Open Terminal and copy and paste the following command:

sudo /Applications/Install 10.12 Developer Preview.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia –volume /Volumes/macOSInstall –applicationpath /Applications/Install 10.12 Developer Preview.app –nointeraction

Okay, so here’s the deal. This command I’m about to tell you is a bit tricky. You’re gonna need to enter your Mac’s admin password, so make sure you have it at the ready. No worries though, I’ll guide you through the whole thing.

First things first, double-check that the names of your Sierra installation app and USB drive match the ones I’ve mentioned earlier. Got it? Great. Now pay attention: Terminal (that’s the app we’re gonna use) will work its magic with the createinstallmedia command. It’ll basically copy all the macOS Sierra installation files onto your USB drive and make it bootable. Cool, huh?

Now, while this happens, keep in mind it might take some time. Depending on the speed of your USB drive, it could take anywhere between 2 to 15 minutes. So just be patient and, most importantly, don’t interrupt the process. Trust me, I’ve seen people do that before and it’s not pretty.

Once the macOS Sierra USB installer is all set and ready to go, Terminal will let you know by printing “Done” and bringing you back to your user account command line. At this point, you’re good to go. You can quit Terminal, eject your USB drive, and move on to the exciting part: installing macOS Sierra on any compatible Mac. How cool is that?

Step 4: Time to Install macOS Sierra from the USB Drive

So, you’ve got your macOS Sierra USB Installer ready to go. Now, let’s look at how you can use it to install the operating system in two different ways.

First, you can use it to upgrade your existing OS X installations to Sierra, just like how you would use the Sierra install application downloaded from the Mac App Store. All you need to do is boot into OS X on a Sierra-compatible Mac, plug in your USB drive, open the drive in Finder, and double click the macOS Sierra installer app file. This way, you can upgrade multiple Macs without having to download the Sierra installer from the Mac App Store each time.

The second method, which is more useful with USB installers, is to perform a clean install. You can do this by booting to the Sierra USB Installer and choosing to install macOS Sierra from scratch on a new drive, wiping your existing drive, or installing it on a new partition.

To boot from your macOS Sierra USB Installer, here’s what you need to do: first, shut down your Mac and connect the USB drive. Then, simply power on your Mac while holding the Alt/Option key on your keyboard. Keep holding Alt/Option until you see the boot menu appear. From there, you can select your USB installer and press Return to boot into the Sierra install environment from your USB drive.