First, it is important to differentiate between a "bootable installer," which is something I can make on an SD card or an external hard drive with my eyes closed. Instead, what I'm trying to make is a bootable macOS that is functional, as though I booted from my internal hard drive. It works fine on an external hard drive, but I can't get it to work on an SD card.
The steps are here: support.apple.com/en-us/111336.
The process appears to work the same on an SD card as it does with an external hard drive, it's just that what I get in the end doesn't work:
- 13.6 GB is used on a 64 GB card
- The System folder is chock full of stuff
- Library folder is empty
- /Applications folder is empty
- /System/Applications folder has the applications you get when you do a new install, BUT...
- ...any app launches with "app is damaged and can't be opened" and an "unexpectedly quit" message
- The Users folder is empty (I took the option to copy user settings)
- I can't write to the finished SD card at all
- The Mac never sees the card as a bootable device
Is there a restriction on making an SD card into a bootable and functional macOS?
