The Road to the 22nd OS, macOS Tahoe 26

Hello everyone! Thanks for always reading my blog.

When a new OS comes out, are you someone who updates right away? I'm definitely a "clean install" person. I like to start with a fresh system so I don't carry over any old bugs and can use it with peace of mind.

A few days ago, the 22nd OS, macOS Tahoe 26, was released. I was all set to do my usual clean install and opened the Software Update screen, but... a shocking automatic update began, and before I knew it, I had already transitioned to macOS Tahoe 26.

After the update, I found something shocking when I looked online. It turns out you can't create a bootable USB for installation the same way as before.

With previous OS migrations, you would first download the new macOS installer and then write that file to a USB drive. However, you can't do that this time. I considered using my Mac without a clean install, but I was too worried about potential problems, so I started searching for a way to create a bootable USB.

What's hilarious is that Google's AI gave me a fake answer like, "macOS Tahoe is a very old OS, so it's difficult to get it through official means now."
I realized I couldn't rely on AI and had to find the answer myself.

Hours of Struggle to Create a Bootable USB!

I spent hours searching for information on "macOS Tahoe 26 boot disk creation" and finally found a solution on an international forum.

This method uses the command line, but please proceed at your own risk and judgment—don't just blindly follow what's in this blog!

First, check the installable versions with this command:

softwareupdate --list-full-installers

Next, to download a specific version, run this command:

softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 26.0

Executing this command downloads the full installer to your Applications folder. With that, you can go back to the familiar process. All that's left is to create the bootable USB with the usual command:

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Tahoe.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume

And with that command, the bootable disk was successfully created!

Source URL: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macos-tahoe-bootable-usb.2465859/

My Experience with macOS Tahoe 26

After a clean install on my Mac Studio, macOS Tahoe 26 is incredibly smooth so far. It feels even more user-friendly than macOS Sequoia.

There's just one thing that bothers me... The icons for external storage still have the old design, so the design isn't uniform. I hope this gets fixed in a future update.

New operating systems are exciting, but a clean install from scratch is always the most reassuring way to start. Have you made the switch to macOS Tahoe 26 yet? If you're thinking about doing a clean install, I hope you'll give this method a try.