How to Create a Bootable macOS Tahoe 26 Beta USB Installer Drive

Creating a bootable macOS Tahoe installer USB is a handy way to perform clean installs, upgrade multiple Macs without redownloading, or keep a trusted recovery disk at your fingertips. Making a bootable Tahoe installer has a few requirements, but if you’ve got a spare flash USB drive, and don’t mind using the Terminal app, you’ll build one quickly, and be ready to easily install MacOS Tahoe using the boot disk.

Requirements for Making a MacOS Tahoe 26 Beta Installer

• 32 GB (or larger) USB flash drive (this will be completely erased)
• The “Install macOS Tahoe.app” in your /Applications folder (you can download the Tahoe beta installer here)
• A Mac compatible with macOS Tahoe 26
• Comfort using the Terminal

Assuming you have those requirements met, creating a bootable installer is pretty easy.

How to Make a MacOS Tahoe 26 Beta USB Installer Boot Drive

Download the full Tahoe installer from Apple (MacOS Tahoe 26 Developer Beta InstallAssistant.pkg list here) and open the package installer

1. Run through the InstallAssistant.pkg to extract the “Install MacOS Beta.app” or “Install MacOS Tahoe.app” installer file into your /Applications folder
2. Connect your USB flash drive to the Mac
3. Open Disk Utility (found in /Applications/Utilities), select the USB device you just connected, then click Erase, formatting it as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with a GUID Partition Map, and name it something obvious like TahoeUSB
4. Now open Terminal, found from /Applications/Utilities or via Spotlight
5. Run the following command, replacing ‘TahoeUSB’ if your drive has a different name:

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ beta.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/TahoeUSB --nointeraction

6. Press Return, enter your admin password, then let Terminal run. You’ll see progress as the script erases the USB, copies files, and creates the installer

With your MacOS Tahoe bootable installer created, you can install MacOS Tahoe beta onto any compatible Mac or virtual machine.

How to Boot with the MacOS Tahoe USB Flash Drive

Now the USB installer is ready to use, but booting is different from Apple Silicon Macs and Intel Macs.

• Using a Boot Disk with Apple‑Silicon Macs (M1/M2/M3/M4/etc): Connect the USB, power off the Mac, then hold the Power button until the Startup Options screen appears. Choose the Install macOS Tahoe volume to boot
• Using a Boot Disk with Intel‑based Macs: Restart or turn on the Mac with the USB connected, immediately hold down Option, and select the Tahoe installer drive from the boot menu

Once you’ve booted from the USB, you can clean-install Tahoe, run Disk Utility, restore from Time Machine, or update multiple Macs effortlessly.

Remember, this isn’t the only way to install MacOS Tahoe onto a Mac. By far the simplest way to get the beta on a Mac is to install MacOS Tahoe beta as an upgrade to an existing MacOS system, through System Settings. Nonetheless, many advanced users like to use bootable installers for various reasons, including to easily perform clean installations of MacOS Tahoe beta.

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Have you created a bootable MacOS Tahoe installer? Do you do anything different? Share in the comments if you ran into issues, just want to chime in, or have feedback.