Fix/solution for "Selected Mac OS X Installer is incomplete"

[toro86]

A real solution for those who get stuck at STEP 1.

Seeing no real solutions offered here on the forums, other then seeing users getting pushed to look at the troubleshooting guide for UniBeast 8 and then coming back empty handed because they are stuck at:

8. If your "Install macOS High Sierra.app" is less then 5 GB, then it's the partial installer and will not work with UniBeast.

The troubleshooting guide won't supply users with a fix and users getting all over forums pushed back to the guide.

The fine install guide tells you in step 1:

STEP 1: Download macOS High Sierra
The full operating system is a free download for anyone who has purchased Mac OS X Snow Leopard, Lion, or Mountain Lion or has a Mac preloaded with OS X Mavericks, Yosemite, El Capitan, or macOS Sierra. Download the Application from the Mac App Store using your Apple ID on any Mac or functional computer running OS X 10.7.5 or later.

1. Open Mac App Store
2. Log in with your Apple ID
3. Download macOS High Sierra

The Application Install macOS High Sierra will appear in /Applications.

And then you windup with an installer thats 19MB in /Applications.

Then you start UniBeast and it says "Selected Mac OS X Installer is incomplete".

If this is you then you can fix this by doing the following:

You will need to recreate the full installer from the separate parts.

To do so we will use the installer stub app to grab all the files from Apple and then abort the install before it does anything else.

Run the 19MB stub installer (/Applications/Install macOS High Sierra).

Choose the install disk and click ‘install’ (it won’t actually install yet!).

It will download the remaining install files and place them under /macOS Install Data (i.e. look for the folder in the root of your hard drive ‘Macintosh HD’).

When it has finished downloading all it needs, the installer screen will then ask you to restart the Mac – but don’t! At this point ABORT the install by quitting the installer app.

Next we will recreate the full installer from all the downloaded parts. This will restore the ability to create an install media USB.

Do the following:

Open Terminal and run: sudo -s
Enter admin credentials to gain root permissions.
Then copy and paste the following 3 commands:

mkdir /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/SharedSupport

cd /macOS\ Install\ Data

find . -mount | cpio -pvdm /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/SharedSupport

You now have a full installer package in your Applications folder!

Now goto STEP 2: Create a Bootable USB Drive with UniBeast to continue the install guide.

 

[cmy]

hey thanks im gunna try this right now !

 

[cmy]

hey thanks im gunna try this right now !

After Fiddling around unibeast is installing!!!!!! thanks so much man!!! will keep u posted! wish me the best of luck!!!, BEST FORUM/SITE IN THE WORLDDDD!!!! TURN UP!!
toro86 is the man!

 

[Jamesbond007]

Excellent guide.

There is something I want to mention. In this support document : https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201372

It is mentioned under "Download macOS from the App Store" that :

Download macOS from the App Store. To download, use a Mac that is compatible with the version of macOS you are downloading. If you're downloading MacOS High Sierra, use a Mac with High Sierra, Sierra 10.12.5 or later, or El Capitan 10.11.6.

So if we attempt to download MacOS High Sierra from a Mac or hackintosh that is not running El Capitan 10.11.6 / Sierra 10.12.5 or 10.12.6 / High Sierra, then all we get will be the 19MB file. Like I tried on my Mac mini 2012 Server running Mavericks. I tried repeatedly and could only get the small file and not the full installer. Now I understand why.

 

[Theodorics]

So if we attempt to download MacOS High Sierra from a Mac or hackintosh that is not running El Capitan 10.11.6 / Sierra 10.12.5 or 10.12.6 / High Sierra, then all we get will be the 19MB file. Like I tried on my Mac mini 2012 Server running Mavericks. I tried repeatedly and could only get the small file and not the full installer. Now I understand why.

How large is the installer after the process you detailed? I tried it and it choked when it got to 111GB or so because it ran out of free space on my SSD.

 

[trs96]

How large is the installer after the process you detailed? I tried it and it choked when it got to 111GB or so because it ran out of free space on my SSD.

It should be no larger than only 6 GB so that is way out of line.

 

[Theodorics]

It should be no larger than only 6 GB so that is way out of line.

Thank you. Any idea what I did wrong?

 

[trs96]

Thank you. Any idea what I did wrong?

No, give it another try and see what happens.

 

[MacLargo]

When it has finished downloading all it needs, the installer screen will then ask you to restart the Mac – but don’t! At this point ABORT the install by quitting the installer app.

Is the installation process completely terminated after quitting the installer app? I am asking because I want to install High Sierra on a different drive.
After quitting the install app, a reboot will not start the installation of HighSierra?

 

[MacLargo]

Maybe other users find this information helpful.

I followed the guide step by step. The installation of the USB install disk was successful with Unibeast under macOS Sierra 10.12.0. But after that, the installation of macOS High Sierra will abort immediately with the error code:

macOS could not be installed on your computer.

An error occurred while loading the installer resources.
Quit the installer to restart your computer and try again.
​

My only option left was to update to Sierra 10.12.6 and download the full copy via App Store.