Catalina Install Mac

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Follow this step if you are setting up Hackintosh Catalina on Windows. Plug your USB drive into your computer, and open TransMac. Find your USB drive on the left-hand column of the TransMac window. Right-click on the USB drive, and click “Format Disk for Mac”. How to Install Catalina on an Old Mac. With that out of the way, we can get started. The problem we face when putting Catalina on older Macs is that, hidden deep within the operating system itself, there is a script that checks what machine you are trying to install it on. If this script detects that your chosen machine is too old, the Catalina. The upgrade install merges the new macOS Catalina with your existing Mac OS. This is the upgrade method we will cover in this Rocket Yard guide. Before we begin the upgrade process, a few tips and notes about macOS Catalina and what you need to do to be ready for the install on your Mac. The video below demonstrates a tutorial walking through the process of using the DosDude Catalina patcher tool to install the macOS 10.15 system software on an unsupported Mac. If you’re going to attempt to install MacOS Catalina on an unsupported Mac, do so at your own risk, and let us know how it goes in the comments below.

macOS 10.15, also known as macOS Catalina, is Mac’s most recent—next-generation—operating system. Apple’s macOS Catalina comes with more to offer compared to its predecessors. A few of this operating system’s features include experience-dedicated apps for podcasts, TV, and music. The best part about this OS is that upgrading is easy and free for all Mac users.

Before getting started, you first have to check if your Mac meets Catalina’s hardware requirements so you can proceed to install it. Here is a list of Mac devices and models compatible with macOS Catalina:

Install Catalina Mac Pro 5 1

  • MacBook 2015 and later
  • MacBook Air 2012 or later
  • MacBook Pro 2012 or later
  • Mac Mini 2012 or later
  • iMac 2012 or later
  • iMac Pro 2017 or later
  • Mac Pro 2013 or later
Catalina install stuck on setting up your mac

You can follow these steps to find out the kind of Mac you have:

  1. Navigate to the Apple menu.
  2. Select About This Mac.
  3. The Overview tab will display your Mac from the Overview tab.

Important Information About macOS Catalina

In macOS Catalina, Apple no longer supports any 32-bit apps. Therefore, any apps on your Mac that have not been updated from 32-bit to 64-bit will not function on this OS.

To identify the 32-bit apps on your Mac, follow these steps:

  1. On your screen’s top left corner, click on the Apple icon.
  2. Select About This Mac.
  3. At the bottom of the window, click on the button labeled System Report.
  4. On the window’s left side, click on Applications (under the Software section).
  5. A list of applications will populate.
  6. To find the 64-bitcolumn,move to the right using your cursor. Any 32-bit apps will have No listed in this column.

Before you can upgrade to macOS Catalina, there a few things you have to sort out first, such as:

  • Confirmation of your Mac’s compatibility for macOS Catalina.
  • Creation of a Time Machine backup.
  • Ensuring your Mac has sufficient storage to download, install, and upgrade to macOS Catalina.

Creating a Time Machine Backup

Before upgrading to macOS Catalina, it is crucial to create a Time Machine backup. The reason for the backup is a safety measure for when you find your Mac to be incompatible with the Catalina OS, which means you can erase the upgrade and restore it using the backup you created.

Creating a backup whether upgrading or downgrading your Mac is not only a good idea, but also imperative. Unless you would not mind losing everything, we highly recommend creating a Time Machine backup before upgrading to macOS Catalina. Without the backup, it would take a lot of time to restore your system to its previous OS. You would have to download each program, plug-in, and driver once more.

Follow these steps to format an external hard drive for macOS:

  1. Start Disk Utility, which you can find by navigating to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.
  2. Choose the hard drive device and then click on Erase (if initiated, the process is irreversible)
  3. Choose a name for your drive (e.g., My Backup) and select the format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled), then click on Erase.

Follow these steps to create a Time Machine backup drive:

  1. Start Time Machine and click on Select Disk.
  2. Connect a drive (reformatted or empty).
  3. Select the drive you have just connected (e.g., My Backup) and click on Use Disk.
  4. Click on the Backup taskbar icon and then select Backup Now.

Downloading macOS Catalina

The upgrade to the macOS Catalina process involves two steps: backup and installation. After you have created a backup, the next step is visiting the App Store to download the macOS installer. Depending on your internet speed, the download may take some time. Upon completing the download, you can install the macOS Catalina app that you can find in your Applications folder.

Storage Space Required for the Download

macOS Catalina needs storage of 12.5GB to 18GB for upgrading. Therefore, if you have insufficient space on your Mac, you can make a backup of some files then delete them from your system to avail the storage required.

Upgrading from Mac OS X Older Versions

Any older versions of Mac OS X 10.7-10.10 have to first upgrade to Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11 version before upgrading to macOS Catalina, which you can download from Apple’s Catalina download page.

To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Launch the System Preferences menu, and thenselect Software Update.
  2. Click on the Download or Upgrade Now button to begin the download of the Catalina installer.

Installing macOS Catalina

Follow these steps to install macOS Catalina:

  1. After completion of the macOS Catalina installation app download, the installer will automatically launch itself. If not, go to your Mac’s Applications folder and double click the Install macOS Catalina app.
  2. Follow the instructions that appear on-screen to finish the upgrade and start using the OS.
  3. Select an external drive to create an external drive for macOS or an internal drive to upgrade the Mac when prompted.

macOS Catalina’s New Features

Follow these steps to complete installing macOS Catalina’s new features:

  1. After macOS Catalina installs, your Mac will restart.
  2. After it has started, click on the Apple icon and select About This Mac to view the Catalina OS version.

Attempting to download macOS Catalina from the Mac App Store you may find that a small version of the “Install macOS Catalina.app” file downloads to the “Applications” folder, rather than the complete 8.1 GB installer file.

The tiny (just tens of megabytes) incomplete installer requires an internet connection during usage to download the rest of the Catalina update files. Additionally, it does not allow to create a macOS Catalina USB installer drive for use on multiple computers.

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to download the complete “Install macOS Catalina.app” file from Apple server using the “macOS Catalina Patcher” app instead of via the Mac App Store.

A similar mini-installer issue occurred previously with some users getting a tiny incomplete macOS High Sierra installer and macOS Mojave installer too and I covered a similar workaround here and here to download the complete installer file from Apple server.

Noobsplanet Catalina Install Without Mac

About the app

In this workaround, we’re going to use the macOS Catalina Patcher app from the dosdude1.com. This app is intended for those with unsupported Macs and Hackintosh users, but any Mac user can use the app to be able to download the complete macOS Catalina installer file from Apple server. For our purposes in this particular walkthrough, we will use the app only to download the complete installer file.

Note! This method relies on a third party app from an unverified third party source. If you are not comfortable with using unvetted and unverified software, do not follow this process.

Let’s begin

Downloading the complete “Install macOS Catalina.app” file from Apple server using the “macOS Catalina Patcher” app is a really easy process. Now, step by step guide.

Go to the official website of the “macOS Catalina Patcher” app here and download the app.

The download link is labeled as “Download Latest Version” on that page.

Launch the “macOS Catalina Patcher” app.

Note! By default, macOS preventing apps from unidentified developers or sources from being launched. So you most likely will get an alert message that says: “macOS Catalina Patcher.app can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer”. To allow just one specific app to run do the following:

  1. Hold down the Control key and click the app icon. From the contextual menu choose Open.
  2. A popup will appear asking you to confirm this action. Click the Open button.

Click the “Continue” button, and then select “Download a Copy”.

Confirm that you want to download the “Install macOS Catalina.app” app to start the download to your hard drive.

Close the “macOS Catalina Patcher” app when the download is complete and locate the “Install macOS Catalina.app” file you downloaded.

Note! The download will be completed when you are prompted to choose an installation method. See the screenshot below.

Conclusion

That’s it, you’re done. Now you have the complete “Install macOS Catalina.app” file downloaded. So simple isn’t it?

You can confirm that you have the complete “Install macOS Catalina.app” file by getting info on the file. For this simply select the file and click the Spacebar key (or right-click on the file and choose “Get Info”). The complete installer should be around 8.1 GB rather than the tiny (just tens of megabytes) incomplete installer that requires additional downloads.

Note! Remember, the “Install macOS Catalina.app” file deletes itself automatically after macOS Catalina has successfully installed. Therefore, you may want to make a backup by having previously copied it to external storage.

Let me know in the comments section if you know another way to download the complete “Install macOS Catalina.app” file rather than the tiny incomplete installer.

I hope this article has helped you learn how to downloaded the complete “Install macOS Catalina.app” file from Apple server. If this article has helped you then please leave a comment

Thanks for reading!

Arthur is a designer and full stack software engineer. He is the founder of Space X-Chimp and the blog My Cyber Universe. His personal website can be found at arthurgareginyan.com.

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