How to Fix the MacOS Tahoe Beta Virtual Machine “software update is required” Error
If you have attempted to install MacOS Tahoe beta into a virtual machine by using the Tahoe installer or IPSW file, you might run into a looping failure where you’ll see a request to install a software update, to which you may attempt to install the update but it fails, followed by an “Installation failed. Can’t install the software because it is not currently available from the Software Update server” error message.
If you’ve seen the “a software update is required to install MacOS in a virtual machine” message followed by “Installation failed. Can’t install the software because it is not currently available from the Software Update server” error message, read on and you’ll have the problem fixed quickly, so that you can succesfully install MacOS Tahoe 26 beta into a virtual machine.
How to Fix “Software Update is Required” Error for Installing MacOS Tahoe Beta in Virtual Machine
This works to resolve the error message when trying to install Tahoe beta in any virtual machine app on the Mac:
- Go to the Apple Developer Downloads page
- Run the package installer and installer once that finishes downloading
- Quit out of the virtual machine app, then relaunch the VM app, and try the Tahoe beta installation again
and download “Device Support for macOS 26 beta”
Note: Some Mac users have reported they had to restart MacOS after installing the Device Support package to be able to successfully install MacOS Tahoe beta in a virtual machine.
This error message sequence has happened for several MacOS releases in a row, and while the other solution is to install Xcode beta to fix the error, with macOS Tahoe beta you don’t need to install the giant Xcode package if you don’t want to, you can instead simply install the much smaller “Device Support” package for MacOS Tahoe 26 beta.
Running MacOS Tahoe in a virtual machine offers a fantastic way to test out the new macOS version without having to commit to installing the MacOS Tahoe 26 beta on a Mac as the primary operating system. This allows you to test and fiddle with MacOS Tahoe beta all you want, and whenever you’re done you can either delete the VM or whatever else you feel like doing with it.
This trick works to get macOS Tahoe beta installed successfully in any virtual machine app, whether it’s UTM, VirtualBuddy, Parallels, VirtualBox, VMware, or another of the myriad VM apps out there for Mac.
If you know of another trick to get around this error sequence that doesn’t involve installing the Device Support package or Xcode beta, share it with us in the comments!
