But when I go to Apple's App Store, search for High Sierra and then download, it only downloads a 19.9Mb file.
Where can I download the full version? I searched developer.apple.com as well.
I want a stand alone installer (and create a bootable USB from it) so I can easily and quickly test out multiple Macbooks with this new OS.
Is there anywhere can download the full installer?
Best answer by sdagley
@Bernard.Huang That first linked blog post doesn't actually indicate you need your own software update server, just that if you did have one it needed to have the HS update cached for the App Store to find it. You can force the softwareupdate tool to use Apple's servers by issuing the following command in Terminal: sudo softwareupdate --clear-catalog (may require 10.12) and that should allow the App Store to download the full installer.
I needed to use a completely different Mac to get the full installer. My primary system simply would not download the full installation. I kept getting the 19 MB stub installer no matter what tricks I tried. I'm not sure if maybe the App Store remembers what you downloaded previously on the same Mac or something, but that was the only way I was able to get it.
It's kind of an annoying change that Apple threw in at the last minute. I don't really get the reasoning behind doing it this way now.
@Bernard.Huang That first linked blog post doesn't actually indicate you need your own software update server, just that if you did have one it needed to have the HS update cached for the App Store to find it. You can force the softwareupdate tool to use Apple's servers by issuing the following command in Terminal: sudo softwareupdate --clear-catalog (may require 10.12) and that should allow the App Store to download the full installer.
Your suggestion worked. I did the "sudo softwareupdate --clear-catalog" on a Sierra 10.12.6 Macbook. I also did a reboot just to make sure everything is resetted.
When we were doing this a month or so ago we just have totally random behaviour with this, we had a bunch of basically identical iMacs and a couple always get the full installer and a couple always get the small installer. Doesn't seem to matter what they are running or whether they had been upgraded before, so we just kept one of the ones that always worked to the side until we had what we needed. It's pretty annoying given you need the full installer to build any kind of NetBoot or NetInstall solution.
For the small file problem: From https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372:
"To download High Sierra, use a Mac with High Sierra, Sierra 10.12.5 or later, or El Capitan 10.11.6. Enterprise administrators, please download from Apple, not a locally hosted software-update server."
This solved the small app file problem for me. I had Sierra 10.12.3 and after updating to the latest version the download worked normally.
That first linked blog post doesn't actually indicate you need your own software update server, just that if you did have one it needed to have the HS update cached for the App Store to find it. You can force the softwareupdate tool to use Apple's servers by issuing the following command in Terminal: sudo softwareupdate --clear-catalog (may require 10.12) and that should allow the App Store to download the full installer.
My Question to post above: Where .... do I have to put in Softwareupdate --clear-catalog .... in which terminal ? If I put inside of update terminal, nothing happens .....
Next time you need to download macOS High Sierra or create a bootable High Sierra USB installer without using Terminal, check out this guideāit will save you a ton of hassle.