Create Mojave USB installer error

BDAqua wrote:

Spaces needed or escaping them...

• sudo: /Applications/Install macOS Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia

sudo: "/Applications/Install macOS Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia"

sudo: /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia

FYI, I think the error message does display the path with unescaped spaces. It would be great if the OP would actually post a screenshot showing the command used & the full error message so we could confirm.

Right-click or Control-click on the "Install macOS Mojave" app and select "Show Package Contents". Open the "Contents" subfolder.

Expand the "Shared Support" sub-folder and take a screenshot showing the Contents folder & expanded Shared Support sub-folder. Then open the "Resources" folder and take a screenshot.

I'm assuming your Mojave installer is broken in some way. If you see the "createinstallmedia" file within the "Install macOS Mojave" installer, then you can use the Finder to drag & drop it onto the open Terminal window so the correct path is auto-filled for you. You first need to type the preceding text "sudo " before the path making sure to leave at least one space before dragging & dropping the "createinstallmedia" item onto the Terminal window.

sudo   <drag-n-drop-createinstallmedia-file-here>    

Then after the path is auto-filled, you will need to type the rest of the command:

  --volume  /Volumes/MyVolume

andy1210support wrote:

App Store doesn't let me know download

What happens when you try it? Please provide the exact error message.

It concerns me you cannot download it using the link in the Apple article I linked in my first post here. Within that article is a link with instructions for downloading various macOS installers. I'll post the actual Apple article here:

How to download and install macOS - Apple Support

Try booting into Safe Mode to see if that makes any difference.

You can try making a bootable USB stick using the following DMG file (direct download from Apple's servers):

http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/17/32/061-26589-A_8GJTCGY9PC/25fhcu905eta7wau7aoafu8rvdm7k1j4el/BaseSystem.dmg

1. Make sure to erase a USB stick as GUID partition and MacOS Extended (Journaled).
2. Then You will need to double-click this DMG file to open it so it mounts the internal volume.
3. Then use the Disk Utility "Restore" feature with the mounted DMG (mounts as "macOS Base System") as the source and the volume on the USB stick as the destination.
4. If successful you will have a bootable USB stick which will boot to the Mojave utilities menu. You will have an option to "Reinstall macOS Mojave" which will then download the actual installer from Apple's online servers much like what happens with Internet Recovery Mode only you booted to the USB stick to do it instead of the system firmware & the bootloader on Apple's remote servers. It is possible you still may experience a network related failure if Internet Recovery Mode did, but it is worth a try. I did this with a High Sierra "BaseSystem.dmg" file years ago.

Is the Mac you're using to create the installer compatible with Mojave?

For reference: Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support. Be sure to read and follow all of those instructions exactly and to the letter. To preclude mistakes copy and paste.

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume

Do you have the full installer which would be about 5-6GB in size? Many times macOS will only download a tiny stub installer of about 50MB. If you run the stub installer, it will begin downloading the rest of the installer, but places it on the root of the drive. It used to be possible to copy that folder (or the folder within it...I forget which now) to transfer it to a subfolder within the stub installer app, but the last time I tried to do this I was unsuccessful (there are old instructions online which explained which item to copy & where to leave it within the stub installer app).

You can try using the following command in the Terminal to see if it will allow you to download the installer. I'm not sure when macOS introduced this command, but I know the utility was not fully available until macOS 10.15 Catalina I believe.

softwareupdate  -d  --fetch-full-installer   --full-installer-version  10.14.6

If the command does not work & you cannot merge the 2nd download of the stub installer into the stub installer, then see if you can see a "BaseSystem.dmg" file within the main download portion of the installer located on the root of the drive. You should be able to use the Disk Utility "Restore" function to transfer the contents of this DMG file onto a USB stick formatted as GUID partition and MacOS Extended (Journaled) which should result in a bootable USB stick. It won't be a USB installer though, it will just act like a recovery mode where it will allow you to the utilities screen where you have the option to run Disk Utility and "Install macOS" to hopefully download the real Mojave installer from Apple's servers. I did this some years ago for a macOS 10.13 High Sierra IIRC.

andy1210support wrote:

App Store offers to "get" Mojave and then says my operating system is up to dat as I have Monterey running on here, so no download.

That should not occur when clicking the download/install link in the App Store. If the Mojave installer was already downloaded into the Applications folder, then the default option for the button in the App Store would be to "open" the app which would launch the Mojave installer that already exists. Since you already have Mojave installed, it will fail with this message. You do not want to run the Mojave installer app at all.

I tried Safe mode, and also tried to restore from apples Base System but that failed.

appreciate all your input here thank you ..

Whenever a suggestion fails, you should provide specific details and exact error messages since every failure is a bit more of a clue. Clues & information are needed when troubleshooting a problem especially when we are assisting without being able to see what is occurring or not occurring. Since you were finally successful with reinstalling macOS, it really doesn't matter now.

We are glad you were able to finally figure it out.

It seems you corrected certain errors with the path to the installer app, but it's still not clear to me from those partial screen snippets exactly where it resides.

I don't have the Mojave installer app any more but consider reviewing this old post, in which I explained step by step how to use the createinstallmedia command for High Sierra.

It differs from Apple's current instructions in that it adds --applicationpath which might be necessary for Mojave. I don't know.

how do i upgrade a MacBook pro 2011 without using the internet - Apple Community

It emphasizes dragging the respective icons into the Terminal window and minimizing typing, which will help ensure entering fully qualified and correct pathnames.

Spaces needed or escaping them...

• sudo: /Applications/Install macOS Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia

sudo: "/Applications/Install macOS Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia"

sudo: /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia

andy1210support wrote:

I have the full installer, a folder called 'install macOS Mojave' screen shot attached ..

Your screenshot does not show the correct installer layout. The app on the root of the Applications folder should not be a generic folder icon, but should have a Mojave icon. Rename the "Install macOS Mojave" folder with the generic icon. Then move the "Install macOS Mojave" app with the Mojave icon to the Applications folder.

Now retry the instructions in the Apple article for the command line.

I run the script copied from Apples install page ..

I just keep getting the same message -

sudo: /Applications/Install macOS Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia: command not found

FYI, it is best to post both the actual command used and the full output of those commands.

If you are copying & pasting the text from the Terminal app, then paste it into a code block on this forum using the "Code Insertion" tool with an icon which looks like "</>" on the forum editing toolbar. Or provide a screenshot showing both.