CaveOps | Post: How do I make an offline recovery USB for macOS?

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You can use the command below to list which versions of macOS full installers are available to download on your Mac.

softwareupdate --list-full-installers

Note	This list only includes versions of macOS that Apple will allow you to download to your Mac. The actual list available downloads is probably longer.

Sonoma should appear in the list at least once. You can use softwareupdate to download a listed version of macOS.

For example, if macOS Sonoma 14.1 is shown, then command below would download this release.

softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 14.1

You can get more information by entering the command below.

softwareupdate --help

The steps below were taken from the Apple website Create a bootable installer for macOS.

Format as Mac OS Extended a 16 GB or larger USB flash drive. Use the name MyVolume.

Enter the command below.

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sonoma.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume