Stuck in a limbo: can't install Safari or Lion/Mountain Lion, can't access App Store

If someone would take up this challenge and attempt to solve it with me, I would appreciate it! I have troubleshooted for 2 days now to no avail.


This is what happened:

1) I accidentally installed Safari 6.0, even if I have Lion 10.7. which doesn't run the new version

2) This disabled my use of Safari and my access to App Store

3) With a combination of AppDelete + Pacifist I tried deleting all Safari files, and re-installing old Safari 5.4 from scratch.

I rebooted, repaired permissions and did a disk check.

4) Rebooted again, tried to open the newly installed Safari, but it gives an error:

"Check with the developer to make sure Safari works with this version of Mac OS X. You may need to reinstall the application. Be sure to install any available updates for the application and Mac OS X."

5) At this point I thought to revert back to a previous point in Time Machine. Unfortunately all the points in Time Machine somehow showed Safari 6.0 (even a month-old points), so reverting back to an old point didn't help.

6) I try logging into AppStore to upgrade to Mountain Lion, but I can't do that, since it needs Safari to run and I don't have a Safari anymore!

7) Now I tried re-installing Lion from restart + cmd+R, and it asked for Apple ID to start the installation.

--> At this point I am getting desperate, as this computer was purchased second-hand, so I don't have the Apple ID used to install Lion!

8) I try searching for Apple's official support, but obviously my warranty has expired, besides it's based in another country so they can only call cellphones from that country!


So I cannot enter App Store; reinstall Safari; reinstall Lion; or upgrade to Mountain Lion. I have no access to Apple official support. I currently work in a developing country with limited access to any MAC support.


I don't know what to try anymore!

- How can I enter App Store without Safari?

- How can I reinstall Lion without the original Apple ID?

- How can I upgrade to Mountain Lion without App Store?


I'm STUCK! Please help!!

Update:

I tried deleting Webkit and Webkit 2 Frameworks following an advise received on another forum, and rebooted and tried to run a software update.

For some reason I'm not even able to install software updates! It gives the following message:
"The update could not be verified. It may have been corrupted during downloading. The update will be downloaded and checked again the next time that Software Update runs."

I tried creating a new admin account for my Macbook, but the same problem was repeated there.

This is bad right - since I can't reinstall Lion, upgrade to Mountain Lion, nor use software update! How did this turn out so bad?

Anyone? Please?

Thank you so much for answering!

Mac model is Macbook Pro Mid-2009. According to the seller it came with Snow Leopard, and he upgraded it to Lion.

I do have an Apple ID, can I still reinstall Lion on this particular Macbook even if it's registered for someone else?

I don't have any disks, and don't know where on earth I could find a Snow Leopard disk where I am now... :/

I downloaded the Safari from a website like Cnet, since the software update didn't update it correctly (gave an error message), and I thought I could just reinstall Safari altogether. What I didn't pay attention to, was the fact that the update I installed was for 6.0, which is for Mountain Lion!

Thanks anyway for your help! It is indeed a VERY odd situation, and I don't know what else to do anymore! I guess I have to start ringing overseas support to get support, since Apple makes online support so difficult!

Thanks!

bluespaceoddity said:

Which Mac model is it?
What is the Mac OS version that came with that computer originally?
(Not when you got it, but which is the system that came pre-installed from the factory?)

Unless Lion came preinstalled on that Mac at the time of release you don't actually have a license to run Lion on that computer. The license doesn't transfer with a second hand sale of a computer on which Lion wasn't originally installed.
http://images.apple.com/legal/sla/docs/macosx107.pdf
You may need to set up your own Apple ID and purchase a copy of Lion or Mountain Lion.

Computers shipped before Lion came with their own set of installation disks. Do you have any of those? If not you'll also need a Copy of Snowleopard.

Where did you get Safari 6.0?
It isn't listed in Software Update unless it is a supported version with the OS on that Mac and you apparently don't have an Apple ID for a download directly from the App store - which probably wouldn't have installed a version of Safari on an incompatible system anyway.

This is a rather odd situation, if you ask me. I suggest you contact Apple Support directly. If phone is not an option you should be able to reach them by E-mail or contact form.
Set up an Apple ID
http://www.apple.com/support/appleid/
have the serial number of the Mac ready to register it online
https://register.apple.com/
and they'll probably be able to tell you all about the specs of that computer and your installation options when you contact them:
http://www.apple.com/support/contact/

Click to expand...

Hi r0k!

Thank you for your help, it's relieving to see some people are reacting to this! I really appreciate it.

Re the 1), perhaps this is the case with everyone, but for some reason trying to download anything from Apple without Safari ends with an error message. Automatically it tries to open the Safari browser, which of course doesn't open, so I have to go around the system to copy & paste the link to Firefox and try open it there. It starts downloading (Firefox), and ends up with an error message saying that the appl couldn't be downloaded and I should check my internet connection and try again.
The downloaded file, OSXUpd10.8.2.dmg shows in the Firefox downloads as 92.8MB, but I don't know if that is the correct size - I thought it would be more than a gig. So I am too afraid to run this .dmg file, since I don't think it was downloaded properly...
however it says 'you have purchased this already, do you want to download it again for free?' I say yes, so it starts downloading again - until I get the error message again.

Re 2), I have around 150GB space free, of 500GB. I am not aware of partionioning at it sounds scary! In any case it seems I can't download Lion without Safari.

The story for the Safari 6 goes... The normal automatic Software Update failed for some reason, after several tries. So I troubleshooted in forums and found a recommendation to upgrade to a higher version. I did this by going to Cnet and downloading Safari 6.0 there, _without_ realizing (I know, stupid me!) that it was only meant for Mountain Lion! Once I had it, I tried re-installing, de-installing, downgrading, and nothing seems to work. The only solution I can think of now is to upgrade to Mountain Lion - which I can't do without Safari!

Hence: limbo!!

Thanks guys, you're the best!!

Snufkin <3

r0k said:

Here are 2 possible workarounds:

1) Using a browser other than Safari, go download the latest Lion combo update from Apple. Install the update and hopefully it puts Safari back the way it belongs.

2) How much HDD space do you have free? I would think you could resize your Macintosh HD partition to create about 25 GB of free space and create a new HFS+ journaled partition, then restore Lion to that new partition. Hopefully you could then boot to the new partition you just restored to and log in to the app store from there. You can then buy Lion using your own Apple ID for $29 US, download it and BACK IT UP to a USB stick before you do anything else.

One thing that's missing from your story is this: How did you get Safari 6 in the first place? Did you download it from somewhere other than the app store or software update?

Click to expand...

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Btw I found somewhere a hint that said this might be related to the fact that a 'Webkit' was removed when I uninstalled Safari with AppDelete (it scans for all related files and deletes them). I've been trying to find a way to re-instate this webkit, but don't know how. I think it's the reason I can't open AppStore - it and Safari seem to be interlinked through Webkit.

Anyone know anything about this? Thanks!

Hi! Thanks a lot - I downloaded the update combo and installed it successfully! However Safari still doesn't open. It keeps saying the following:
Check with the developer to make sure Safari works with this version of Mac OS X. You may need to reinstall the application. Be sure to install any available updates for the application and Mac OS X.


I also finally got access to App Store: but the download of Mountain Lion doesn't complete, because it seems to need Safari.

So I'm still stuck with the two issues:
i) Safari doesn't work, and I can't get it to work unless I can reinstall/upgrade the OS.
ii) I can't upgrade the OS without Safari!

--- unless someone knows a way to install Lion/Mountain Lion _without_ Safari??

Thanks for all your help!