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.