Download macOS High Sierre via CLI (Aria2)

by Pany

Apple's CDN sucks. Especially in China mainland.

So, if you couldn't successfully download macOS Installer from Mac App Store, follow these steps to download the Installer via CLI tool – Aria2.

  • Download from Mac App Store.

Yeah, we still need Mac App Store in order to get the direct links. Before you wasting time downloading it, delete it from Launchpad.

  • Check the extraInfo file at /Library/Updates/***-*****/***-*****.English.extraInfo.

***-***** means several numbers (maybe version code?), e.g.:

See the link above?

(Pff... Seriously? Not even HTTPS?)

http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/30/55/091-36857/e08asjpjpbflt33p43ufqmuv6b39x8pa10/InstallAssistantAuto.smd

There are 3 files you need to download: RecoveryHDMetaDmg.pkg, InstallAssistantAuto.pkg, and InstallESDDmg.pkg. Thus in this case, URLs will be:

http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/30/55/091-36857/e08asjpjpbflt33p43ufqmuv6b39x8pa10/RecoveryHDMetaDmg.pkg

http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/30/55/091-36857/e08asjpjpbflt33p43ufqmuv6b39x8pa10/InstallAssistantAuto.pkg

http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/30/55/091-36857/e08asjpjpbflt33p43ufqmuv6b39x8pa10/InstallESDDmg.pkg

Modify the URLs if you need, then download these 3 files via Aria2:

aria2c -x8 "URL"

After successfully downloading them, copy them to the directory /Library/Updates/***-*****/ ('Member the code numbers? Check above).

  • Final step, open Mac App Store and click Download button again, wait a minute, Ta-da! You will get the Install macOS High Sierra.app!

  • One more thing...

If you want to check the sha1sum hash, I'll recommend https://github.com/notpeter/apple-installer-checksums.

Good luck.