How to Create a macOS Installer on Big Sur

If you see this prompt, it's because you'll need to use an older version of macOS to complete the task at hand. For those using newer machines, note that some devices from 2012 or earlier may not be currently supported on macOS Ventura.

To begin, we'll select macOS 12 as our installation target, since it's the latest public release available at the time of writing. Since the OpenCore Legacy Patcher officially supports Big Sur and newer for patching, only those entries will be shown in the selection menu.

Selecting this option will download Apple's Installer Catalogs and build a list of available installers for you to choose from. For our example, we'll assume you'll need an installer. Once downloaded, open the app and you should be greeted by this menu:

From here, we'll want to select the 'Create macOS Installer' button. If you're already familiar with how to do this, feel free to skip this section.

For those who are new to this process, OpenCore Legacy Patcher provides a user-friendly GUI that includes a download menu for macOS installers. To get started, grab our app: OpenCore-Patcher (GUI).

Note that a 16GB+ USB drive will be required for the installer. With this in mind, let's dive into the steps to create a macOS installer on Big Sur.

'macos big sur folder icon'

Macos big sur folder icon