Last updated: July 18, 2023
Because I recently struggled to find official installers for previous macOS versions in the Mac App Store: here’s a list for anyone searching the same.
macOS installers from the Mac App Store
- macOS 13 Ventura
- macOS 12 Monterey
- macOS 11 Big Sur
- macOS 10.15 Catalina
- macOS 10.14 Mojave
- macOS 10.13 High Sierra
- macOS 10.12 Sierra
Download installers without App Store using the command line
You can automatically download a macOS Installer* using the Terminal.app command softwareupdate with the corresponding macOS version number (e.g. 11.6.1 = latest Big Sur). The downloaded installer will be in the /Applications/-directory:
softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 11.6.1
* This works on for macOS 12 Monterey, 11 Big Sur, 10.15 Catalina and 10.14 Mojave
Mac OS X installers available only through App Store on older OS versions
- Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan
- or download the official «InstallMacOSX.dmg»
- Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite
- or download the official «InstallMacOSX.dmg»
- Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks
Older Mac OS X installers (not available in the App Store)
All of these are seemingly officially (by Apple) only available through the Apple Developer Downloads – but for which a paid Apple Developer-account is required.
- Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion
- Mac OS X 10.7 Lion
- Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
- Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
