Download Full Installer

Download Full Installer is a macOS application written in SwiftUI that downloads PKG installers or IPSW firmwares for the Install macOS Big Sur application and newer. Runs on macOS 13 Ventura through macOS 27 Golden Gate.

Preface

As of June 2025, DownloadFullInstaller stopped its development.
For over three years, my repository was a fork of the original.
However, after the original was archived, I created a new repo as standalone (not forked) version.
This repo exists to keep "Download Full Installer" alive and growing. Picking up where the original left off, merging community PRs and adding new features.
I'll keep this project active and up to date as long as it is useful to other users.
Full credit for the original idea and architecture goes to scriptingosx.

Features

• Target and requirements
  • Minimum macoS Ventura 13
  • Update to macOS 27 Golden Gate
  • Xcode 15 requires macOS 13 Ventura or newer
• Main UI
  • Add Silicon firmwares tab to download IPSW files to restore T2 or Silicon Macs
• Preferences
  • Preferences for choosing catalog are no longer a separate dialog but are now at the top of the main window
  • A single macOS version or all versions can be displayed at once
• System sleep
  • Add sleep prevention logic to avoid sleeping while the application is running
• Downloads
  • Add download resume functionality that automatically handles network interruptions
  • Add progress bar overlaying to the application's dock tile icon during PKG downloads
  • Add support for up to 3 simultaneous downloads
  • Add customizable download folder selection
  • Clean up incomplete downloads on app quit
• Languages
  • Add language selection system
  • Update translations
• Legacy macOS
  • Add legacy macOS installer support (10.7-10.12); read this
• Updater
  • Add lightweight GitHub updater system to check for new releases

Legacy macOS installer download

A new item called Legacy has been added to the macOS systems dropdown list. Legacy opens a new window listing the five available legacy macOS versions, each with its own direct download link. You can download any of these legacy macOS versions from this window.

Create Installer App Feature

After downloading an InstallAssistant.pkg file, you can create the macOS installer application (e.g., "Install macOS Sequoia.app") directly from within Download Full Installer:

1. Download the PKG using the download button (↓)
2. Click the "Create Installer App" button next to the download button
3. The PKG file will open with the standard macOS installer
4. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation
5. The macOS installer app will be created in the /Applications folder

Settings to select downloads folder

Download Full Installer -> Settings menu (⌘ ,) opens a window where you can select a different folder to download installers. Default is ~/Downloads. Visual indicators (green marks) of downloaded installers are updated to match those in the selected folder.

Language selector window

Language selector can be opened from the menubar (Languages > Select Language) or by keyboard shortcut (⌘ + L).

Clean up incomplete downloads on app quit

Incomplete downloads may accumulate in the sandboxed temp directory
~/Library/Containers/perez987.DownloadFullInstaller/Data/tmp
consuming disk space indefinitely. The cleanup safely removes regular files (not directories) from NSTemporaryDirectory(), which resolves to the sandboxed temp path. Individual file deletion failures don't halt the overall cleanup process.

App is damaged and can't be opened

If you see App is damaged and can't be opened when you open Download Full Installer for the first time, read this document.

Original repository README

(by scriptingosx)

Preface

This is a Swift UI implementation of the scriptingosx's fetch-installer-pkg script. It will list the full macOS Big Sur (and later) installer pkgs available for download in Apple's software update catalogs. You can then choose to download one of them.

Motivation

You may want to download the installer pkg instead of the installer application directly, because you want to re-deploy the installer application with a management system, such as Jamf.

Since the Big Sur macOS installer application contains a single file larger than 8GB, normal packaging tools will fail. I have described the problem and some solutions in detail in this blog post.

Extras

• Copy the download URL for a given installer pkg from the context menu.
• Change the seed program in the Preferences dropdown menu.
• Create the installer app directly from the downloaded PKG without leaving the application.

Questions

Can this download older versions of the macOS installer application?

No. Apple only provides installer PKGs for Big Sur and later. Earlier versions of the Big Sur installer are removed regularly.

Will you update this so it can download older versions?

No.

How is this different from other command tools?

As far as I can tell, this downloads the same pkg as softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer and installinstallmacOS.py.

The difference is that the other tools then immediately perform the installation so that you get the installer application in the /Applications folder. This tool just downloads the pkg, so you can use it in your management system, archive the installer pkg, or manually run the installation.

Credits

• Both fetch-installer-pkg and this application are based on Greg Neagle's installinstallmacos.py script.
• Thanks to matxpa: fixes and improvements in version 2.0.