How to create a bootable macOS Big Sur USB Install drive

A bootable USB installer makes fresh installs of macOS Big Sur easy.

DETAILED VIDEO SYNOPSIS:
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In this video tutorial, I show you how to create a bootable macOS 11 Big Sur USB installer drive. This drive is handy for facilitating clean installs and upgrades to macOS Big Sur. I show you how to create the installer, alter the necessary Secure Boot settings, and install macOS Big Sur on your Mac.

RELATED LINKS:
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Your drive should be at least 16GB not 8GB.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
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FOLLOW:
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TIMESTAMPS:
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0:00 Introduction
0:26 Create the USB installer drive
5:36 Alter Secure Boot settings for destination Mac
7:27 Boot from Big Sur USB installer drive
8:29 Create new APFS volume (optional)
9:22 Install macOS Big Sur

HASHTAGS:
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#macos #Mac #macosbigsur

[toMac]

Your drive should be at least 16GB, not 8GB.

[donbrown]

One of my Macs ( mini running Bigsur) died on me the other day with it not being able to boot. It's a 2012 unit so I was quickly able to identify it was a hard disc issue. I looked at other videos on YouTube but they were all vague about some points. Following your video I've been able to install a new installation of Bigsur running on a new partition and recovered all my data using time machine. Excellent video and I've now subscribed 👍

[jfobear]

This was the first video I found that ACTUALLY gave sufficient instruction for me to create the bootable USB drive. Thank you so much!😁

[ehamuy]

Excellent tutorial. Your shortcuts for Terminal were mind-blowing, didn't know you could drag and drop scripts, it saved my life because I was struggling with the "Terminal command not found" message and couldn't find a way around it.

[fscarcasale]

I already knew the method, I needed to refresh my memory, what I liked a lot and did not know is that if I drag an element to the Terminal it will put the full path of that element, excellent!

[naalhevia]

man! I have been trying to find a clear explanation of how to install Big Sur in an old machine to no avail even with apple support. your video is clear and to the point.great! thank you.

[DouglasAaron]

Best video I have seen! Shortcuts to the terminal were amazing! everything worked as described. Please keep up the great detail in your videos. Thank you!

[pln]

Spent 2 hours trying to do this last night,
today I managed to do it with 5mins of your video
tyvm

[terryobright]

Very well explained. I couldn't wrap my head around having too boot up from the Thumb Drive, until I watched your video. Thanks

[writebrains]

best version of this process I've seen. so much better than downloading software to do the same thing you showed in simple drag and drop. awesome!

[MattHalpain]

thank you thank you thank you for this, as I only like to use terminal to create a bootable macOS drive. I've been using your terminal method now for a few previous macOS installations in the past.

[OnPianoNY]

Thank you so much!!!
You were the only one who made me understand how it was done.
You were very detailed and clear in explaining.
I subscribed to the channel and activated all notifications.

[jacewhatcott]

Such an amazing and helpful video! In case anyone's curious, I did this for a late 2014 Mac Mini, and the copy time was nearly an hour. The manual part of the process was super quick, though

[teachermanret]

One of the clearest macOS installers ever. Thanks

[MattHalpain]

11-12-20 Thank you Jeff, I am following your video and installing macOS Big Sur on my 2019 4K iMac. I am very excited and grateful for your easy to follow video. I did not need to enable security as my 2019 iMac does not have a T2 chip. I was able to simply hit option key to boot from the external USB installer and I did not have to hold command r to get into recovery mode to allow external booting. I choose to do a clean install and erase my internal Macintosh SSD blank. As I prefer a fresh install on all my Macs when a new macOS releases.

[Schnitzerci]

This was extremely helpful and sincerely appreciated. Thank you so much for this gem!

[mesosaIpinx]

"Press space on the space bar to create a space." I was stuck on this part for so long. Thank you for the tip!

[josephstewart]

FAB-ulous video! Very detailed and very helpful. Thank you for making this task so simple and straight-forward.

[ianmackenzie]

Many thanks Jeff, I looked at a number of these videos but yours was the best and so easy to follow...😊

[bharatpatel]

Thank you for a simple drag and drop method for dropping in file paths into terminal, worked like a charm compared to other methods