To download the full installer of MacOS Catalina 10.15.3, then the syntax would be as follows: Softwareupdate -fetch-full-installer -full-installer-version 10.14.6 Downloading Full MacOS Catalina 10.15.3 Installer Application Softwareupdate -fetch-full-installer -full-installer-version 11.6.1 Downloading Full MacOS Mojave 10.14.6 Installer Applicationįor another example, to download the full installer of MacOS Mojave 10.14.6 (the last version of Mojave, absent any later security updates) then the syntax would be as follows: Want to download macOS Big Sur 11.6.1 as a complete installer application? Here would be the syntax for that: Downloading Full macOS Big Sur 11.6,1 Installer Application Note that if you’re running an M1 Mac and issuing this command, the available software installers reported will not include versions that do not support M1 hardware. Software Update found the following full installers: Listing Available macOS Installersįrom Terminal, issuing the following command will list out available macOS Installers for the Mac: The downloaded installer application of MacOS will appear in the /Applications directory of MacOS, just as if you had downloaded the installer from the Mac App Store or Software Update control panel. Softwareupdate -fetch-full-installer -full-installer-version 10.15 Remember to replace **.**.* with the version you want to download, for example to download the full macOS Catalina installer the syntax would be:

Hit return to start downloading the full installer application of that version of MacOS.

Softwareupdate -fetch-full-installer -full-installer-version **.**.* Launch the Terminal application as usual, then use the following command syntax, replacing “**.**.*” with the installer version you wish to download:.

How to Download Full MacOS Installer from Mac Command Line This particular –fetch-full-installer flag for the command line softwareupdate tool is only available in MacOS Catalina 10.15 and later versions of MacOS, so if you’re trying to use this from Mojave or earlier it will not be available and you’d have to rely on other methods to download full macOS installers instead. With this particular trick, you can download complete “Install MacOS” application packages directly from the Terminal application, and it works to get full installers of macOS Monterey, macOS Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave, and High Sierra too.

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