2011 imac a1311 unable to install macos ( tried a few methods )

[imac newb]

bought the imac used. i have no previous mac id or anything similar.
hdd has been wiped a few times by me and also by the person i got it off of.
hdd has a recovery partition ) about a 2 gb one
when attempting to re-install lion ( it was either lion or mountain lion )i have been getting the " unable to connect to the recovery server " error.
when i try restarting it to get it to go to the newest macos it will accept, it tries to get high sierra for itself.
it always fails to be able to get that to install either.

i have tried to make sure the date is correct. it is set correctly according to the imac,,,
any help to get it to where i can start and properly be able to have it start up and act like a normal macos would be a great help.

i have also read up a bit that i might have to install lion or mt lion and then go through upgrading it through the different mac os (es)
i guess if i have to try getting it to accept an os that way, than i could do it that way.

is the problems i am running into because it still has the original ( factory i would guess ) recovery partition and i would really like to have it upgrade itself to mac os high sierra.
when i look at the mac hd utility i remember it also having mac os extended journaled and the same on the other one but it is not journaled ( i think thats the proper terms.... have to look at it again....i know one side (recovery partition ) is set as one thing and the other is set to a different is set asthe diggerent version. i can upload screen pics if they would be helpful.

 

[Andrey84]

Hi,

It's not very clear what's happening exactly.

1. Do you have a fully working Mac OS right now?
2. How are you reinstalling Lion - is it via booting to macOS recovery? And why do you want to reinstall it?
3. What is the reason for failing to install the High Sierra update via Settings - also internet connection?
4. Before or during the install, have you connected to your WiFi correctly?
5. Have you tried creating a USB installer with High Sierra, booting from it, deleting all HDD partitions, creating a new Apple File System (APFS) one and making a clean High Sierra install? If you have a working Mac OS right now, it should be reasonably straightforward to do. Download the update package via Settings and then run a simple command in Terminal to create the installer USB. All the information is here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102662.

 

[tensixturtle]

I agree that the suggestions @Andrey84 made are of course good to check. One more thing you can try when you're in macOS Recovery is you can you try going to Utilities > Terminal and typing in date 1016200017 or something along those lines, and trying the install again. For these older operating systems the certificate can expire and it won't let you install, so you have to make the computer think it's an older date (e.g. 2017)

 

[imac newb]

andrey84
1 A just to be very clear here, no it is not an up and running imac with any working mac os on it at all.
when i got it , they had "someone " take off all of their personal info and they left it in that state .... i am trying to get it out of that state and back to a normal useable mac.

1 B i cannot get any operating system on it to get it up and useable. i just purchased the imac secondhand and am trying to get it up and running ( to be able to be used normally )
A secondary side note here... i have nothing on this computer that is mine. no data, no files, nothing at all i want or need from it other than to try and make the computer able to be used.
for instance, i do not yet have an apple id or any other apple related stuff. that i will get to doing once i can get it to be an up and running and useable computer.

2 i am trying to let it either " fix itself " through the macos recovery, and put lion back onto itself, or for it to set itself up so it will use high sierra. i just do not know if the recovery software will let the computer put high sierra on there if it has a recovery partition that says it came with lion installed.

2 B if it is unable to reinstall lion, i do not really care if the computer wants to put high sierra on itself, but it is failing to be successful trying to load either mac os listed above.

3 the error message keep getting is the recovery server can't be contacted or whatever it says. i will give it another go at the recovery servers, but i have been trying it since i bought the machine, give or take a few days dec 20th....

4 i have tried to get it to go through the recovery process on wifi ( yes i put it correctly on my network and put my password in as well ) and also connected via an ethernet cable as well. no dice... ( i meant to put all that about doing the ( attempts ) at recovery with myself trying to do them through the internet.i just got in a bit of a hurry typing out my initial post and tbh just thought that using the built in mac os recovery thing that is built into it would probably be the route 99% of people that were trying this would be doing.

5 as far as making a bootable usb i will try that again at a later date as one was already attempted and i managed to make that usb stick so windows doesn't even know it is a usb stick. ( longer story...)
i was under the impression that if the computer gets set up with lion or high sierra, they are supposed to be used with the macintosh extended journaled format..... apfs is basically only for the other operating systems that are newer, and is more targeted to ssd drives as well.

TENSIXTURTLE
i had seen someone else say to try that as well , but i just haven't actually given it a try yet...
i have been under the working assumption that i would have to either put lion back on ( what everyone keeps saying on the internet is that it will not let itself put lion back on there, that i could basically just let it upgrade itself to the highest operating system that apple says it is able to run ( high sierra ) but as i have mentioned above, i was not sure if it having a recovery partition that says it should have lion on it if the recovery servers would block it , acting like i was attempting to install a system onto the mac that ( i am just guessing here )it is not going to let me do because it is encountering the recovery partition that says it has the old os and therefore i am not going to be able to " recover it" through the recovery system.....do i have to erase the recovery partition to let it go through to recover ????? so it can put high sierra on, and after it gets it installed will it then create a recovery partition that is created from high sierra ????

also, it is supposed to have been upgraded to 16 gb of ram before i got it, but i am for the time being just saying it has the standard amount of ram mounted inside of it ....i never bothered to mention the ram amounts b/c i figured getting it up and running should be do-able with either amount in it. when i first went to look at buying the imac, it was supposed to have been a late 2012 that the owner had upgraded the ram to 16gb.... it really is a mid 2011 with an unknown tbh amount of ram
everymac.com is where i got its true specs.

 

[imac newb]

also guys, give me a day or 2 to try some of that stuff mentioned above, b/c i have a busy few days ahead here....
i also have thought about buying a second mac to use it to help re-start this current mac ( i can't remember the name of the app, but i saw a video of someone using that method to revive a dead mac.... i am looking into that as well...

also on the internet connection things i mentioned above, i failed to say that i have a decent internet connection but not the fastest and most stable one.and this being an imac, i can't just exactly waltz the lil fella right into a a place that has decent fast/very stable internet.

 

[Andrey84]

Ok thank you, makes sense.
Are you based in the U.S.?
Do you have any friends with a Mac?
I like doing clean installs from a bootable USB, with full deletion on all data and volumes, this always worked for me, but of course the Macs were all working.
I read that High Sierra needs APFS, so be mindful of that.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

Try this.
Do exactly what is described.

1. Connect the iMac to ethernet. Not wifi -- ethernet.

2. It needs to be off before you start.

3. Press and HOLD on the keyboard this key combo:
Command-OPTION-R

4. KEEP HOLDING DOWN THOSE KEYS.
Reach around and press the power-on button.
KEEP HOLDING DOWN THOSE KEYS.

5. Again, KEEP HOLDING DOWN "Command-OPTION-R".
You are trying to get the iMac to boot to INTERNET recovery.
This is NOT THE SAME as "the recovery partition".

6. You should see what looks like a "spinning globe" on the display.
When you see it, let go of the keyboard.

7. The internet utilities take a while to load, be patient.

Can you get to the internet utilities by doing the above?
If so, come back and tell us.

You've succeeded in taking "the first step".

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

OP:

Try this.
Do exactly what is described.

1. Connect the iMac to ethernet. Not wifi -- ethernet.

2. It needs to be off before you start.

3. Press and HOLD on the keyboard this key combo:
Command-OPTION-R

4. KEEP HOLDING DOWN THOSE KEYS.
Reach around and press the power-on button.
KEEP HOLDING DOWN THOSE KEYS.

5. Again, KEEP HOLDING DOWN "Command-OPTION-R".
You are trying to get the iMac to boot to INTERNET recovery.
This is NOT THE SAME as "the recovery partition".

6. You should see what looks like a "spinning globe" on the display.
When you see it, let go of the keyboard.

7. The internet utilities take a while to load, be patient.

Can you get to the internet utilities by doing the above?
If so, come back and tell us.

You've succeeded in taking "the first step".

I assume that the recovery solution will not work, Fishrrman.
I experienced the same situation myself. Neither local Recovery nor Internet Recovery worked. I had to installed my iMac using the USB installer.

The cause was a simple flaw in the Recovery program of those old iMacs. They keep pointing to an old link to download Mac OS files to install, while they were changed either intentionally or unintentionally by Apple.

This leads to the only solution that is installing via USB installer.

 

[Fishrrman]

Re Nguyen's post above:

OK, that might explain why so many with 2011 iMacs seem to have trouble with internet recovery.

The OP said it was his only Mac.
If that's the case, he's going to have to go "the USB boot install" route, with no way to make one (I know about "transmac" on the PC side, but folks seem to report lots of problems with it).

Perhaps the best solution for him would be to go on ebay and BUY a "ready to use" bootable USB flashdrive from one of the sellers there. Should run $20-25. I'd recommend OS 10.12 "Sierra".

 

[imac newb]

ok guys i have been pretty busy trying a few different methods to get things to get to a working solution.

i can not seem to get it to load into the app store no matter what i have done and tried.

i did go through the process of logging into the system and making sure i could get in and be sure i was fully into the system as an admin so i could make changes to the system etc.

when i logged into the system i had to go through the apple 2 factor id thing through apple.
i did that successfully.

i do not know what to try next. i know that i am definitely not alone in having the problems logging into the app store, or itunes, both which i tried with no luck.

oh another bit of sad news on trying to get this stuff to work..... i bought a newer macbook air to try and get that one to work and use, so if i had it up and running i could try to use dfu mode to get the other one to work.......now i have 2 macs that both have the same problems.
by the way, i can not get safari to update ( no app store connections )
so when i try to go to the apple store itself through the browser, it will not go through.....that's why i can not just download something newer even without trying to use the app store. i just really figured someone on the forums had encountered these issues, and found a way to get even just 1 part fixed and i could try and get stuff working.

2011 imac 21.5 which has mac os x 10.7.5
mid or late 2012 macbook air 11" running 10.8.5

like i mentioned, they both have the same issues, and the same not connecting problems.
i don't really care for the option of trying to make a bootable usb

even if i wanted to get a bootable usb from online, do i still have to go through catalina, then to sierra, then on to high sierra ???
or can i just get a hdd ( with high sierra preloaded on it ) and get at least one of these two up and running, then try to get dfu from the app store

also if i get a hdd with high sierra preloaded, will it be able to connect to the app store etc ???? or will i still have these same issues, just with a different operating system giving me problems ???

 

[imac newb]

also as a quick follow up, i have to dive into the macbook air anyway, because it is in need of having the battery replaced, and although it has an ssd in it already, it is basically just as slow ( in hdd response times,etc... ) as any computer running a normal regular hdd..... so i would want to get it replaced as well hen i am in there doing other stuff.

 

[imac newb]

ohh also another oddball discovery, this one concerning how to get the mac to talk to the recovery server.

i had to change wpa3 ( preferred i think it said ) to wpa 2 what ever the next lower setting was. that made the router talk to the older macs a lot easier..... i had even been trying before that try with even ethernet connection and it didn't even like the internet that way. but changing the wpa to that older setting let it go through

 

[rin67630]

i had to change wpa3 ( preferred i think it said ) to wpa 2

Don't mess with that. Connect an Ethernet cable.

 

[rin67630]

they had "someone " take off all of their personal info and they left it in that state .... i am trying to get it out of that state and back to a normal useable mac

Can you access internet with this stuff (from an Ethernet cable) ?
You might have what you need to make a bootable install stick yoursef.

I read that High Sierra needs APFS, so be mindful of that.

No, High Sierra runs well on HFS+, has a (wonky) support on APFS, which I strongly don't recommend on a HDD.

 

[imac newb]

those top replies were when i was still trying to get it to just actually go through and have itself be " factory reset "
through doing the standard internet recovery process.
what got it to go through for my 2 systems was changing the wpa settings. neither of the 2 macs i have now have had any issues at all getting through and using the command + R types of recovery. that was definitely a fix for that part of my problems, at least for both of these 2 macs. both can use it with no issues since i made that change.

with the imac, i had problems getting it to connect to the internet servers with either a wifi connection or a wired one....
after i fixed that setting it went right through. and internet recovery works ok on both on wpa 2 .

my problem i am running into now is i still can not use the app store. still will not connect to it.
i can not use itunes. it gives me the same connection errors trying through that way as well.
i can not update firefox..... no app store and half the ti,e i can not go to a lot of pages, i would guess because of security issues, etc....
i can not update the operating system on either one for the same reasons on both computers.

if i could get it past the hurdle of can not connect/can not update, i could let it up date itself to catalina, and the to sierra then high sierra......but i am currently stuck at this point right now.

as for the whole high sierra hfs or apfs debate it is said to be ok to use apfs if you are going to be using a ssd, not a regular hdd . that is what i have read from a few places online .

right now i am leaning pretty heavily towards getting a new ssd for my imac, ( a preloaded one from ebay ) then seeing how my luck goes after that part.....
like i mentioned, if i could get the app store to let stuff update that would be nice

another try here.... what if i completely erase the imac hdd, like if i had a hdd failure, would it get high sierra for itself afterwards ??? i did see high sierra try to install on one of the failed attempts....
what i mean by the above statement is my imac still has a lion ( 10.7.5 ) recovery partition.... do i have to delete that part of the hdd so it will think the hdd is just a new blank one or do i have to leave it on there ??

i am going to retry to get it to internet recover to the latest mac os it will take ( for my imac it is high sierra )
the above attempt is not only free, but i might just be able to get it to work that way.... which would be fine just to get it so i can use it and the app store etc.....

 

[rin67630]

with the imac, i had problems getting it to connect to the internet servers with either a wifi connection or a wired one....
after i fixed that setting it went right through. and internet recovery works ok on both on wpa 2 .

Very strange... a wired Ethernet connection does not need any WPA.

 

[Ben J.]

I agree that the suggestions @Andrey84 made are of course good to check. One more thing you can try when you're in macOS Recovery is you can you try going to Utilities > Terminal and typing in date 1016200017 or something along those lines, and trying the install again. For these older operating systems the certificate can expire and it won't let you install, so you have to make the computer think it's an older date (e.g. 2017)

This is the best suggestion yet, IMO.
I've seen this myself. Even stopped me installing from a bootable installer, IIRC.
I just want to add; when you set back the date a few years via Terminal, you must make sure any internet connection (wifi or cable) is disabled, or the mac will readjust the date quickly by itself.
Lots of reports on it online, but a bit hard to find one clear source of info.
Here's an article on it:
Appleinsider

 

[imac newb]

when i did get the imac to do recovery itself, i did reset the date via terminal of course it fixed the date back to the right correct date after it was restarted....
that was the main issue i had been encountering when i started this post.

now my main problems are the no app store and no ability to get it to update itself.....

just gotten to try a few different recovery attempts

cmd/apple key/shift r = lion 10.7.5 ( what it already has and doesn't work correctly ) tried 4 times

cmd/apple key/r = screen says high sierra ( every time ) and afterwards i get " the recovery server could not be contacted " error tried 5 times

i tried both with a wired ethernet connection, and also with wi fi connected no luck either way

i also tried in those attempts changing the date, and as soon as it fails, the next time you check the date again ( immediately after it just got done failing ) the date has been reset to the current date and time

i am pretty basically running out of ideas to try and get it to update the os to high sierra like i want it to do.

do i need to delete the recovery partition so it doesn't see that and just goes right for high sierra only ???

has anyone done what i am trying to do without deleting the recovery partition ??
if i have to delete it, then so be it at this point. 10.7.5 is basically dead in all of mac terms ( also so is 10.8.5 on my mac book air, fwiw )

just now reset the time setting to not allow auto updates......i will update you all after i see if this works

 

[Ben J.]

when i did get the imac to do recovery itself, i did reset the date via terminal of course it fixed the date back to the right correct date after it was restarted....
that was the main issue i had been encountering when i started this post.

now my main problems are the no app store and no ability to get it to update itself.....

just gotten to try a few different recovery attempts

cmd/apple key/shift r = lion 10.7.5 ( what it already has and doesn't work correctly ) tried 4 times

cmd/apple key/r = screen says high sierra ( every time ) and afterwards i get " the recovery server could not be contacted " error tried 5 times

i tried both with a wired ethernet connection, and also with wi fi connected no luck either way

i also tried in those attempts changing the date, and as soon as it fails, the next time you check the date again ( immediately after it just got done failing ) the date has been reset to the current date and time

i am pretty basically running out of ideas to try and get it to update the os to high sierra like i want it to do.

do i need to delete the recovery partition so it doesn't see that and just goes right for high sierra only ???

has anyone done what i am trying to do without deleting the recovery partition ??
if i have to delete it, then so be it at this point. 10.7.5 is basically dead in all of mac terms ( also so is 10.8.5 on my mac book air, fwiw )

just now reset the time setting to not allow auto updates......i will update you all after i see if this works

The mac doesn't have to be set permanently to an earlier date, just when running an installer. Download a macOS installer (there are many sites other than Appstore where you can find them), place it in your Applications folder and create a Bootable USB installer with a simple Terminal command. This has to be done on a working mac and macOS, of course. Then, on the mac you want to install on, disconnect internet and turn off wifi, set back the date, plug in the USB installer, and the installation should complete without problems. Later the mac will correct the date and time, but it will run fine.

 

[rin67630]

The mac doesn't have to be set permanently to an earlier date, just when running an installer. Download a macOS installer (there are many sites other than Appstore where you can find them), place it in your Applications folder and create a Bootable USB installer with a simple Terminal command, disconnect internet and turn off wifi, set back the date, and the installation should complete without problems. Later the mac will correct the date and time, but it will run fine.

Yes and with a more current installer the date will not interfere too.
Don't waste your time with Lion. Start at least with high Sierra.

 

[tensixturtle]

If I understand correctly, you have Lion (10.7) installed and working currently? If your internet is working, you can try downloading the installers for macOS from here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102662
If Safari on Lion doesn't open this page, there's direct links (bypassing App Store) for Yosemite and Sierra. Perhaps updating incrementally from Lion -> Yosemite -> Sierra -> High Sierra will work. You'd still want to change the date in System Preferences (or Terminal) before running the installer itself.
Getting to a newer OS such as High Sierra (10.13) should also fix your App Store problems.