Create or update macOS Big Sur (or Catalina, or Mojave) Recovery Partition Without Reinstalling

recovery.sh

#!/bin/sh

# Set the macOS installer path as a variable
MACOS_INSTALLER="/Applications/$(ls /Applications | grep "Install macOS")"
MOUNT_POINT="$MACOS_INSTALLER/Contents/SharedSupport"
echo "macOS installer is \"$MACOS_INSTALLER\""

# Set the target disk as a variable
TARGET=$(diskutil info "$(bless --info --getBoot)" | awk -F':' '/Volume Name/ { print $2 }' | sed -e 's/^[[:space:]]*//')
echo "Target disk is \"$TARGET\""

# Set the target disk filesystem
FS_TYPE=$(diskutil info "$TARGET" | awk '$1 == "Type" { print $NF }')
echo "Target filesystem is \"${FS_TYPE}\""

# Download the APFS-compatible Recovery into /private/tmp (use 10.13.6, which also works with Mojave 10.14.x)
echo "Downloading macOSUpd10.13.6.RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg into /private/tmp"
curl http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/14/54/001-08570-A_XCP1PVIXQK/xg4hvg6zgpoxonqkgiw2e2cqo1c0isl97q/SecUpd2020-004HighSierra.RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg --progress-bar -L -o /private/tmp/macOSUpd10.13.6.RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg
pkgutil --expand /private/tmp/macOSUpd10.13.6.RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg /private/tmp/recoveryupdate10.13.6

if [[ "${FS_TYPE}" == "apfs" ]]; then
	echo "Running ensureRecoveryBooter for APFS target volume: $TARGET"
	/private/tmp/recoveryupdate10.13.6/Scripts/Tools/dm ensureRecoveryBooter "$TARGET" -base "$MOUNT_POINT/BaseSystem.dmg" "$MOUNT_POINT/BaseSystem.chunklist" -diag "$MOUNT_POINT/AppleDiagnostics.dmg" "$MOUNT_POINT/AppleDiagnostics.chunklist" -diagmachineblacklist 0 -installbootfromtarget 0 -slurpappleboot 0 -delappleboot 0 -addkernelcoredump 0
else
	echo "Running ensureRecoveryPartition for Non-APFS target volume: $TARGET"
	/private/tmp/recoveryupdate10.13.6/Scripts/Tools/dm ensureRecoveryPartition "$TARGET" "$MOUNT_POINT/BaseSystem.dmg" "$MOUNT_POINT/BaseSystem.chunklist" "$MOUNT_POINT/AppleDiagnostics.dmg" "$MOUNT_POINT/AppleDiagnostics.chunklist" 0 0 0
fi

echo "Finished creating Recovery HD"

The location for the 10.13.6 recovery package is (as best I can tell) currently http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/63/02/061-90748-A_MQ4MTMMXYW/jtw6sxlorttnetfsu9wpu0rqubsa55bskp/SecUpd2020-002HighSierra.RecoveryHDUpdate.pkg

Thanks a lot @jonathantneal and @toonetown! Worked perfectly for 10.14.6. Just changed MACOS_INSTALLER to the path where I have the installer. Installing Catalina on a usb disk removed the recovery partition in my Mac mini's internal disk 🤷🏻‍♂️

hi, how would i be able to create the recovery partition on a different Volume or disk? can anybody point me which lines to modify on the script

@au10tic set the TARGET to whatever disk you want, after line 9. I don’t know if it will work.

@aonez where would I add the volume or disk that I need this on? I am trying to install this on disk1s1, mounted on /Volumes/CataRecovery any help on this, would be appreciated.

# Set the target disk as a variable

TARGET=$(diskutil info "$(bless --info --getBoot)" | awk -F':' '/Volume Name/ { print $2 }' | sed -e 's/^[[:space:]]*//')

echo "Target disk is \"$TARGET\""

If you execute the code above you'll see your boot volume name. So maybe replace line 9 with:

TARGET="CataRecovery"

But I'm very sceptical it will work...

I have updated the URL, allowing the instructions to work again.

Thank You, still works in 2022, Mojave 10.14 :)

Hi this script appears run fine for me however, when I try and boot into the recovery partition (command R ) my machine still wants to boot into internet recovery :(

Any ideas - driving me bonkers this :(

Thanks for the script. Worked like a charm!
To download the MacOS installer you may use the links from this Apple support page