Update: Don’t miss this documentation from JAMF for more on the subject. I wish Apple would just have a support document up with direct downloads for all of this stuff, but this tool is not a bad alternative. It originated in Mac OS X's predecessors, NEXTSTEP and OPENSTEP, and allows the user to interact with the computer through a command line interface. Softwareupdate -fetch-full-installer -full-installer-version 10.13.6 Terminal (also referred to as Terminal.app) is a terminal emulator included in Apple's Mac OS X operating system. I was not able to test if 10.13.6 would download the hardware specific build of 10.13.6 for the 2018 MacBook Pro, since I do not have that hardware. The -fetch-full-installer flag has a sub-flag: -full-installer-version which allows you to download a specific version.ĭuring my testing in the Catalina beta version I was able to download 10.15, 10.14.6, 10.14.5, and 10.13.6. The softwareupdate command has some neat tricks up its sleeve, as pointed out by Armin Briegel: This command will download the most recent version of macOS, depositing it in your Applications folder: Thankfully, macOS installers can be downloaded via Terminal in macOS Catalina. However, I’ve run into a situation several times where the Software Update mechanism simply refuses to initiate a download: Most of the time, you can re-download the current version of macOS via the Mac App Store, and older ones via these links:

Mac os x terminal emulator online