With the release of Apples new macOS Tahoe on the 15th September 2025 their website has not been updated with the new terminal command for creating a bootable USB stick for this version of the Operating System.
Let us dive into how to download and run the build through terminal.
Tools you will need:
- USB Memory stick 32GB
- Mac that can run Tahoe (click here for list of machines)
- Good Internet Speed
It looks like currently the Tahoe installer is not available on the App Store when you run the download it does not give you the option to cancel the update so you can run the create install media command from Terminal. I also tried running the softwareupdate –fetch-full-installer terminal command which forces the latest os install however that did not work either. Fortunately I have a MDS build server which gives you the option to download the installed package for MDS which means I then have a OS to work with.
So I copied the Tahoe Build from my MDS Server to a stand alone machine and placed the install in the default applications folder. On the App I changed its name to the default MacOS Tahoe.app name then tweaked the terminal command and ran the command. Note Make sure your USB is at least 16GB an rename it to “MyVolume” otherwise it won’t work. You have to wait for the installer and the USB drive to talk to each other you will get asked to process with a “Y” and you get prompted for Terminal would like to access files on the USB drive. Once you have done those two interactions you just sit back and wait for it to do the build. Mine took around 30 Min to build. Once completed always test the build on another machine to prove it works.
Tahoe:Â sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Tahoe.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume
Final thoughts it does work no doubt Apple will update their website to reflect the new macOS Build. I plan to publish my Youtube video of the task discussed here shortly.
Useful Links:
Apple Support Page on download and install macOS
Apple Support Page for bootable installer macOS