To get the latest features and maintain the security, stability, compatibility, and performance of your Mac, it's important to keep your software up to date. Apple recommends that you always use the latest macOS that is compatible with your Mac.

• Mavericks Installer Apple
• Download Mavericks Installer App Store

Learn how to upgrade to macOS Big Sur, the latest version of macOS.

For example, re-downloading Mavericks from Yosemite, whereas if you’re running the App Store from newer versions of MacOS you’d need to follow the links further above to download the installers directly, or via the App Store links. After the 5GB Mavericks installer has been successfully downloaded, the installer will automatically open. After the installer opens, simply follow instructions, read the important terms and conditions, and proceed with the installation. Installing Mavericks On A New Drive. Mavericks also includes new core technologies that boost performance and improve the battery life of your Mac. Timer Coalescing and App Nap intelligently save energy and reduce power consumption. Notification Center. A new design combines notifications and widgets in a single view for more information at a glance. Notifications are now grouped by app, and many are interactive — letting you do things like play new podcast episodes or learn more about Calendar invitations. Once finished, you'll find in your /macOS-Installer/ folder a DMG containing the macOS Installer, called InstallmacOS11.1-20C69.dmg for example. Mount it and you'll find the installer application. Note: We recommend to move the Install macOS.app into the /Applications folder, as we'll be executing commands from there.

Check compatibility

If a macOS installer can't be used on your Mac, the installer will let you know. For example, it might say that it's too old to be opened on this version of macOS, or that your Mac doesn't have enough free storage space for the installation.

To confirm compatibility before downloading, check the minimum requirements for macOS Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra, Sierra, El Capitan, or Yosemite. You can also find compatibility information on the product-ID page for MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, MacBook, iMac, Mac mini, or Mac Pro.

Make a backup

Before installing, it’s a good idea to back up your Mac. Time Machine makes it simple, and other backup methods are also available. Learn how to back up your Mac.

Download macOS

It takes time to download and install macOS, so make sure that you're plugged into AC power and have a reliable internet connection.

Safari uses these links to find the old installers in the App Store. After downloading from the App Store, the installer opens automatically.

• macOS Catalina 10.15 can upgrade Mojave, High Sierra, Sierra, El Capitan, Yosemite, Mavericks
• macOS Mojave 10.14 can upgrade High Sierra, Sierra, El Capitan, Yosemite, Mavericks, Mountain Lion
• macOS High Sierra 10.13 can upgrade Sierra, El Capitan, Yosemite, Mavericks, Mountain Lion

Safari downloads the following older installers as a disk image named InstallOS.dmg or InstallMacOSX.dmg. Open the disk image, then open the .pkg installer inside the disk image. It installs an app named Install [Version Name]. Open that app from your Applications folder to begin installing the operating system.

• macOS Sierra 10.12 can upgrade El Capitan, Yosemite, Mavericks, Mountain Lion, or Lion
• OS X El Capitan 10.11 can upgrade Yosemite, Mavericks, Mountain Lion, Lion, or Snow Leopard
• OS X Yosemite 10.10can upgrade Mavericks, Mountain Lion, Lion, or Snow Leopard

Install macOS

Follow the onscreen instructions in the installer. It might be easiest to begin installation in the evening so that it can complete overnight, if needed.

If the installer asks for permission to install a helper tool, enter the administrator name and password that you use to log in to your Mac, then click Add Helper.

Please allow installation to complete without putting your Mac to sleep or closing its lid. Your Mac might restart, show a progress bar, or show a blank screen several times as it installs macOS and related firmware updates.

Learn more

You might also be able to use macOS Recovery to reinstall the macOS you're using now, upgrade to the latest compatible macOS, or install the macOS that came with your Mac.

• Supported version: 0.6.7

While you don't need a fresh install of macOS to use OpenCore, some users prefer having a fresh slate with their boot manager upgrades.

To start we'll want to grab ourselves a copy of macOS. You can skip this and head to formatting the USB if you're just making a bootable OpenCore stick and not an installer. For everyone else, you can either download macOS from the App Store or with Munki's script.

# Downloading macOS: Modern OS

• This method allows you to download macOS 10.13 and newer, for 10.12 and older see Downloading macOS: Legacy OS

From a macOS machine that meets the requirements of the OS version you want to install, go directly to the App Store and download the desired OS release and continue to Setting up the installer.

For machines that need a specific OS release or can't download from the App Store, you can use the Munki's InstallInstallMacOS utility.

In order to run it, just copy and paste the below command in a terminal window:

As you can see, we get a nice list of macOS installers. If you need a particular versions of macOS, you can select it by typing the number next to it. For this example we'll choose 10:

• macOS 11, Big Sur Note: As this OS is quite new, there's still some issues with certain systems to resolve. For more information, see here: OpenCore and macOS 11: Big Sur
  • For first time users, we recommend macOS 10.15, Catalina
• Nvidia GPU Note: Reminder to verify whether your hardware support newer OSes, see Hardware Limitations

This is going to take a while as we're downloading the entire 8GB+ macOS installer, so it's highly recommended to read the rest of the guide while you wait.

Once finished, you'll find in your ~/macOS-Installer/ folder a DMG containing the macOS Installer, called Install_macOS_11.1-20C69.dmg for example. Mount it and you'll find the installer application.

• Note: We recommend to move the Install macOS.app into the /Applications folder, as we'll be executing commands from there.
• Note 2: Running Cmd+Shift+G in Finder will allow you to easily jump to ~/macOS-installer

From here, jump to Setting up the installer to finish your work.

# Downloading macOS: Legacy OS

• This method allows you to download much older versions of OS X, currently supporting all Intel versions of OS X(10.4 to current)

  • Legacy macOS: Offline method
    • 10.10-10.12 Supported
  • Legacy macOS: Online method(10.7-10.15 Supported)
    • 10.7-11 Supported
  • Legacy macOS: Disk Images
    • 10.4-10.6 Supported

# Setting up the installer

Now we'll be formatting the USB to prep for both the macOS installer and OpenCore. We'll want to use macOS Extended (HFS+) with a GUID partition map. This will create two partitions: the main MyVolume and a second called EFI which is used as a boot partition where your firmware will check for boot files.

• Note: By default, Disk Utility only shows partitions – press Cmd/Win+2 to show all devices (alternatively you can press the View button)
• Note 2: Users following 'Legacy macOS: Online method' section can skip to Setting up OpenCore's EFI environment

Next run the createinstallmedia command provided by Apple(opens new window). Note that the command is made for USB's formatted with the name MyVolume:

This will take some time so you may want to grab a coffee or continue reading the guide (to be fair you really shouldn't be following this guide step by step without reading the whole thing first).

You can also replace the createinstallmedia path with that of where your installer's located (same idea with the drive name).

Pulled from Apple's own site: How to create a bootable installer for macOS(opens new window)

# Legacy Setup

For systems not supporting UEFI boot, see below:

To start, you need the following:

• BootInstall_IA32.tool or BootInstall_X64.tool
  • This can be found in OpenCorePkg under /Utilties/LegacyBoot/
• Install USB(Created above)

Within your OpenCore build folder, navigate to Utilities/LegacyBoot. Here you'll find a file called BootInstall_ARCH.tool. What this does is install DuetPkg to your desired drive.

Now run this tool in terminal with sudo(This tool will likely fail otherwise):

This will give you a list of available disks, choose yours and you will be prompted to write a new MBR. Choose yes[y] and you'll be finished.

This will provide you with an EFI partition with either a bootia32 or bootx64 file

# Setting up OpenCore's EFI environment

Mavericks Installer Apple

Setting up OpenCore's EFI environment is simple – all you need to do is mount our EFI system partition. This is automatically made when we format with GUID but is unmounted by default, this is where our friend MountEFI(opens new window) comes in:

You'll notice that once we open the EFI partition, it's empty. This is where the fun begins.

Download Mavericks Installer App Store

# Now with all of this done, head to Setting up the EFI to finish up your work