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To do that, either go to Apple Beta website to download the public beta of the operating system or search for the stable version of macOS on the App Store (here’s the link to macOS Catalina). Once the OS is downloaded, connect the USB drive you want to use (should be at least 16 GB). Failing finding it, Recovery downloads the currently installed version of macOS (or OS X), which is about 5GB. When complete, it installs it and reboots, and places the installer in the.
Apple is ready to give you a change — the all-new macOS Catalina, available as a free download — so let’s get you all set.
There are two different options on how to upgrade. You can install Catalina over your current macOS, keeping all its data untouched. Or, you can get a fresh start with a clean install. The main benefit of clean installation is that you get rid of the system junk and leftovers which might hamper your Mac’s performance.
Get Setapp to get ready for Catalina
A complete toolkit of utilities that prepare your Mac for macOS Catalina install. Upgrade your Mac in minutes without losing any data.
One way or another, getting Catalina on your Mac is definitely worth a try. Look at the bells and whistles it brings along:
- A renewed iTunes experience — with dedicated apps for Music, Podcasts and Apple TV.
- Simplified porting of iOS apps to macOS.
- Sidecar for using your iPad as an additional screen.
- Major updates of your favorite native apps, including Photos, Reminders, and Find My.
And that’s only a small part of your new macOS experience. If you need more reasons, find a complete review of the new Catalina features here.
Prepare your Mac for the clean install
If you’ve seen the new Catalina, you must be excited to get your hands on the installer — we get it. But don’t dive right into the upgrade. Your Mac has to be ready. First thing, check device compatibility. The rules are not much different from the Mojave compatible Macs, except for a few older Mac Pro models that Catalina will no longer support. Here’s the full list:
- MacBook Air (2012 or newer)
- MacBook (2015 or newer)
- MacBook Pro (2012 or newer)
- Mac Pro (2013 or newer)
- Mac mini (2012 or newer)
- iMac (2012 or newer)
- iMac Pro (all models)
Found your Mac on the list? Congrats, you’re on the Catalina team. Just a few more things and you’re ready to install:
- Get a USB drive with minimum 16GB of free space if you plan to install Catalina on a startup disk.
- Backup your data and clean away all the clutter.
- Note that it will take your Mac an hour or two to run the upgrade.
Choose your way to clean install Catalina
As we’ve said before, the healthiest method of clean installing the new macOS is by putting it on your startup drive. It’s your perfect choice if your Mac has a single non-partitioned drive where all the files are stored. Simply backup an entire drive and go ahead with the installation.
Another choice would be to test Catalina on a non-startup drive. If you have a spare drive or your startup drive is divided into volumes, this might be a good option to explore. Especially if you don’t want any files to go away.
Let’s dive into the details of clean installation.
Clean install macOS 10.15 on a startup disk drive
Again, this is the recommended option that will leave you with a high-performing Mac. It involves lots of cleaning and securing your files, though. You can take care of all the data stored on your old OS manually, or by using a few easy utilities. Let’s save your time and see how to do it real quick:
Remove junk from your Mac with CMM X
Download a powerful macOS cleaner to get ready for the Catalina upgrade. All the junk, leftovers and old caches will be gone in a moment.
Step 1. Get rid of the junk
Every ancient app leftover that is hiding somewhere in the depths of your Mac may potentially hinder its performance. That’s not what you want. CleanMyMac X can handle the junk before an upgrade. In one smart scan, the app will spot and remove everything — from outdated caches to file duplicates.
One more important detail, Apple will stop supporting 32-bit applications in the new macOS 10.15. So make sure you get rid of them, too. This will help you see the functionality that Catalina will be missing, and find the right alternatives in advance. In CleanMyMac X, navigate to the Uninstaller tab, filter apps by 32-bit, and click Uninstall. As easy as that. Find out what to do when scratch disks are full in photoshop.
CleanMyMac X is a nice utility to keep on your new macOS, too. In fact, it’s the quickest way to refresh an entire system and remove potential threats before they start affecting your performance. The app is available on Setapp — and so is the backup utility for your Mac we’ll talk about in a moment.
Step 2. Backup your drive
You want the redundant files to go. But you also want the needed files to stay. That’s easy with Get Backup Pro, one of the best backup apps for Mac. Unlike Apple’s native Time Machine, Get Backup Pro has the functionality of creating bootable clones — which gives you absolute peace of mind. In case there’s a tech problem with your Catalina installation, the drive can be recovered at any time.
We encourage you not to ignore the backup process. It will help you roll back at any time with minimum loss. Plus, it’s an easy way to move your files to the new OS in batch.
Read more information about Mac update
Step 3. Create a bootable Catalina installer
Before you clean install Catalina, we have to warn you there might be no going back. First, because macOS 10.15 is truly great. Second, because Apple removes an old macOS installer from the App Store once the new version is out. So if you want to have an exit plan, you’ll have to download Mojave installer in advance.
Here’s how you create Catalina installer:
- Access the App Store and get the new macOS Catalina.
- Wait for the download process to finish and click File > Quit as soon as the installer launches. Your installer will be stored in the Applications folder.
- Connect your USB stick and go to Disk Utilities.
- In the Erase tab, select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as your format.
- Name your USB stick and then click Erase > Done > close Disk Utility.
- 6. Access Terminal and type the following command (make sure you replace [XXX] with your drive name):sudo /Applications/Install macOS Catalina.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/[XXX] --applicationpath /Applications/Install macOS Catalina.app
- Hit Return and type in your admin password.
- When the process is finished, click Done and close Terminal.
- Congrats, you’re a Catalina user — now officially.
Step 4. Get Catalina on your startup drive
The final part. Your data is securely backed up, so you can go ahead and erase your startup disk drive:
- Access System Preferences > Startup Disk and choose your Catalina installer.
- Restart your Mac and hold Command-R.
- Connect your bootable USB.
- In the macOS Utilities window, click Reinstall a new copy of macOS.
- Click Continue and agree to the terms and conditions.
- Select your startup drive and click Install.
Once the new macOS gets on your Mac, it will be born anew. So yes, you will have to set it up — just like a new Mac. If you’ve used Setapp on the old macOS, you can quickly get your apps back by downloading the installer on setapp.com.
Clean install macOS 10.15 on a non-startup disk drive
If you don’t have a free, non-partitioned drive, you can install Catalina on a non-startup drive. Here are three easy steps:
Step 1. Erase your non-startup drive
If you install Catalina on a new drive, this is not for you. Otherwise, you’ll have to wipe everything away from the drive before using it. Navigate to Disk Utility, select your non-startup drive, and click Erase. If there’s any data you want to keep, use ChronoSync Express to sync it with another drive.
Step 2. Download the Catalina installer
Access your Mac App Store > Updates and grab the installer. Once the installer will launch automatically, quit — you don’t want to install it from there.
Step 3. Install Catalina to your non-startup drive
You’ll find the downloaded installer in your Applications folder and launch it. Select a drive — you’ll have to change it from “startup” to your target one. Follow the instructions and finish your installation.
Once your system is upgraded, set up your new Mac and make sure you try all the perks. And before you get frustrated that your favorite 32-bit app is missing, get Setapp — it surely has a decent alternative.
If you are a true macOS fan, check out the comparison of iOS and macOS adoption trends below:
Installing Macos Catalina
macOS Catalina is slightly outdated since the release of macOS Big Sur in November of 2020. Nevertheless, many users prefer to stick with it because it's much more familiar visually. And it offers a bunch of expanded features, such as a screen extension with an iPad or the new Apple Podcasts app.
The problem is that it might not always work as intended. Glitches in macOS Catalina are commonplace: in fact, all existing operating systems like Mojave or High Sierra could freeze and crash from time to time. No software is immune.
But what do you do in this case? The surefire way to deal with jaded performance is to reinstall macOS Catalina altogether. Read through our guide below to learn how.
How To Reinstall Mac OS Catalina
It’s important to note that when you reinstall macOS Catalina the process simply updates the operating system and doesn’t affect any files on your hard drive or user files or even settings. That makes reinstalling principally different from performing a clean install, which erases everything.
Here are the proper steps to follow to reinstall mac OS Catalina.
1. Back up your Mac first
By default, the best thing you could do before making any significant changes to how your Mac works is to back it up. Backups are just like saves before encountering challenges in video games — represent the point you can always come back to.
There are lots of great backup solutions on the market to suit every need. If you don’t have the time to search for something specific, your Mac features a decent native option — Time Machine.
To get Time Machine started:
- Connect an external USB or WiFi hard drive to your Mac
- Go System Preferences ➙ Time Machine
- Click on Select Backup Disk…
- Press Use Disk
2. Delete junk off your Mac to speed it up
There’s nothing better than the feeling of a brand new Mac with a brand new macOS. If only the latter is new, the experience could be subpar. Trying to get the most out of macOS Catalina on your older machine might be a challenge. But don’t hurry to your local Apple Store just yet — not all is lost.
Just like the dust behind your couch or on the top of your kitchen cupboards, small bits of system files, caches, and hidden libraries tend to aggregate over the years and never get deleted, eventually slowing down everyday processes. While it’s possible to clear out some of them manually, others require specific technical knowledge and lots of time.
Reinstall Mac Os X Catalina
Luckily, there’s a professional automatic solution available — CleanMyMac X. Optimizing behind-the-curtain processes on your Mac with CleanMyMac X is no more difficult than clicking a single button:
- Download a free version of CleanMyMac X.
- Open the app and navigate to System Junk in the left-side panel.
- Click Scan and wait for the process to complete.
- When done, press Review Details.
- Uncheck anything you’d like to keep and click Clean.
Now your Mac is free of all the pointless log files, user caches, language files, old updates, and more. Which directly translates into improved processing power, memory usage, and response time. At last, your Mac is ready to take full advantage of macOS Catalina.
3. Reinstall macOS Catalina in Recovery Mode
With your Mac in top shape, it’s time to get that macOS Catalina download link. Surprisingly, you won’t find it in Software Update or even App Store (where it used to be in macOS High Sierra).
The correct way to reinstall macOS Catalina is to use your Mac’s Recovery Mode:
- Restart your Mac and then hold down ⌘ + R to activate Recovery Mode.
- In the first window, select Reinstall macOS ➙ Continue.
- Agree to the Terms & Conditions.
- Select the hard drive you’d like to reinstall mac OS Catalina to and click Install.
Automatically update all your software for Catalina
The reinstallation process will start shortly and roughly take 30 minutes. When complete, your Mac will start up as usual. No files should be lost, but it’s always a good idea to check CleanMyMac X’s Applications Updater to see if you can improve compatibility of the new macOS with any of your existing apps:
- Launch CleanMyMac X.
- In the left-side panel, navigate to Updater.
- View any available updates and their notes and click on Update.
This Updater tool in CleanMyMac X automatically searches for latest available versions of ALL your apps. One or two clicks and everything feels fresh. It even updates the macOS file itself.
Trust in your backup
Finally, in case you notice any files or apps missing, or settings misconfigured, you could open up Time Machine to restore a specific folder or the whole backup from the step one:
- Launch Time Machine from Applications.
- Simply scroll all backup versions to find the file you’re looking for.
- Click Restore.
If you decide to restore the whole backup, make sure to then repeat the whole process to optimize your Mac and reinstall macOS Catalina as detailed above. The good thing is that more often than not the reinstallation works wonders right from the first time.