Uploaded September 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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How to Create a Bootable macOS Sonoma USB Install Drive | Download macOS Sonoma installer for a Bootable USB Drive.

You don't need a bootable installer to upgrade macOS or reinstall macOS, but it can be useful if you want to install macOS on multiple computers without downloading the installer each time, or if you're unable to install a compatible macOS from the Finder or macOS Recovery.

What you need to create a bootable USB installer
1. A USB flash drive, or other secondary volume with at least 16GB of available storage, formatted as Mac OS Extended
2. A full macOS installer. To get a full installer, download from a Mac that is using macOS.

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

Remember to replace MyVolume in the comand with the name of your volume.


0:00 Intro
0:32 Download macOS Sonoma Installer
1:23 Create Bootable macOS USB