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Does anyone know why its becoming nearly impossible to do fresh installs of OS-X on older Mac Systems. I have had a collection of various versions of OS-X installs set up on USB sticks. Have been using them with no bother for the past 5 + years. In the last 6-12 months they have all stopped working. When I try to re-burn them and use them the Mac system is saying the install has become corrupt. The current issue is with a customers MacBook Pro, the 500GB mechanical HDD has died. Have fitted a 480GB SSD and tried using the internet recovery to install Mountain Lion. After formatting the drive and starting the install i get a timer stating its going to take -2,393,938,938 and 8 minutes. After about 2mins it pops up saying Can’t download the additional components needed to install Mac OS-X. I have tried it with a standard mechanical HDD as well as the SSD.
You’re hitting an expired certificate issue! Here’s more on it If you’ve got an old macOS install image, it will probably stop working today Apple has been doing this for years! You mostly on hit this issue on systems which can’t support newer OS’s. As an example I had to re-install Lion for someone as they just didn’t want anything newer (90 year old lady) who just didn’t want to relearn how to do things or have the will to update her apps. The issue you face with the newer macOS’s is Apple didn’t update the certificate which is why this has become more of an issue as of late. Here’s the updated installers: How to upgrade to OS X El CapitanHow to upgrade to macOS SierraHow to upgrade to macOS High SierraHow to upgrade to macOS Mojave In all of these just jump down to Step 4 to get to the URL link for the OS image. Apple did not alter the older images in their downloads. Some Internet recovery images likewise have not been updated. OK, What about the older ones! Not to fear! You can still install the OS. The trick is back dating the systems clock! Alter the Date & Time setting from auto set to manual and then alter the date to a year that is within the given OS’s release window. Now your older OS installer thumb drives will work! Just remember to re-set the Date back to the correct year and set it back to auto.
You might have install images that Apple considers outdated. Try turning off Wifi and take Mac’s clocks backwards in the past. You can either do that from a working external disk or you’ll have to do it from the terminal using the Set Date command, you can easily find the correct syntax with a google search. Do not let Wifi working or it will adjust the time again when the installer calls Apple servers.
I’m getting this same error from trying to reinstall over the net. I tried the clock thing and had to do it through the terminal but I’m at a loss. Any ideas?
@dan I’m basically in the same boat as everyone here (wiped 2011-12 MacBook Pro, trying to reinstall OS) and I’m to the point where I am rebooting and entering disk utility. I have an OSX LION install file on a thumb drive, but I cannot figure out the next step. How do you access the file on the thumb drive? I go into disk utility and the only option I see there is to restore and create a new disk image. I’ve done that, but now I’m at a roadblock
I’m getting this same error, i tried formatting my macbook pro mid 2010 and after that i can’t download the mac os, i’m now stuck in the mac os x utilities and i can’t even use my laptop now. I already tried changing the date but still its not working. Do u guys know how to fix it?
Had the same issue with Macbook Pro Mid 2012 my machine just didn’t like the update. Trying to go back to El Capitan from Catalina I got the same error message using internet recovery or using a USB install stick “ Can’t download the additional components needed to install Mac OS-X” . Changing the clock time back to an earlier date in terminal as Dan & abraman suggested did the trick. I already erased my HD so needed to launch terminal during recovery/install and make sure you remember to turn off wi-fi if you previously tried recovery from internet. My install only took about 20min once I changed the time. Great info on this post thanks for the help
I don’t have an answer but I’m having the same issue. I’m able to get through the internet recovery (command-option-r) and get to the utilities. I’ve erased my HD and when I go to install Lion it says I need 999.35 GB but have 998.68 available. Then I get the error message ‘Can’t download the additional components needed to install Mac OS X. Does this sound like I just don’t have enough space? I’m not having any success creating an external installation (don’t have a big enough flash drive and no external hard drives). Any thoughts are appreciated! I’m on my 7th hour trying to get my 2011 imac to work :)
Now we are self-isolated at home and I don’t have any alternative macbook to creat boot usb.. I used transmac on Windows and my Mac doesn’t accept it.. when I hold Option and Power on.. I also mentioned that my internal SDD is not shown up as well when I hole Opt button. I have not ideas with it :( I really neeed help
So I’m setting the date back to 2011 and then to 2020. But I have to instal Mac OS on wifi which overrides the time I put in the terminal so what do I do?
Here are instructions for creating a bootable installer from a PC: https://www.wikigain.com/create-macos-hi…
I started from scratch on the boot disk using my other MacBook Pro and a YouTube video to help me with the terminal coding. After recreating the boot disk (it took awhile to churn through 6 Gb) I was able to boot from disk and reinstall High Sierra on the ailing MBP. All went well last night as I reloaded software I needed, including Microsoft Office stuff, Dropbox, and Chrome. All was fine, slow, but fine. Today. Won’t boot all the way, won’t boot in safe mode, and there are pastel horizontal lines on the screen. The machine is ten years old and I have kids at home doing schooling (Honestly, I think this is what wore it out!) who need a computer, so my ultimate solution was to buy a new MB Air, on sale for $800 at BestBuy. I briefly considered taking the old MBP in to a shop, but after ten years I think it’s time to let it go. Thanks for all the help on this thread!
Hello, I also have this issue, I installed a 120GB SSD into my early 2011 MacBook Pro 13inch I have tried the following
- internet recovery, same issue as Stuart
- made a bootable USB with High Sierra in it (would not install onto MacBook) Any ideas? Thanks in advance,
Hi, When you mention: 2) made a bootable USB with High Sierra in it (would not install onto MacBook) What do you mean? Do you get to see the bootable USB when starting your mac pressing the Option key?
Upon startup, press [command]+[option]+[R], this will allow you to install the latest “available+compatible” version of MacOS for your laptop. For example, on a Macbook 2012, the factory OS shipped with the Macbook is MacOS Lion version, if you press [command]+[R], it will attempt to re-download the “Lion” version, which is not available and it will fail to download. In stead, with [command]+[option]+[R], it will download macOS High Sierra.
