Can't install OS on MacBook Air 2011

[Bolanders]

I decided to give my 2011 Macbook Air running Sierra to my wife and wipe it clean and start over. Reformatted drive and went to install Sierra and I get the message "The App Store download could not start because it has already been downloaded too many times".

I have no clue what to do now.

I have a USB drive that I can connect to my Mini which has Mojave on it.


ETA: Tried Internet Recovery and it took me to Lion which I got the message aCAn't download additional components needed to install Mac OS X.

 

[barbu]

Official installers are here. Make sure to read through the instructions. You’ll need a second Mac that is able to run Sierra to make it work.

 

[Bolanders]

Wow what a nightmare.


Found an old Mac mini which had Sierra on it. Downloaded High Sierra and created a bootable disk. Tried to use the bootable disk and it said Mac OS X High Sierra was damaged during the installation process. Shut off Wifi, opened up terminal and changed the date back to 2016. Closed terminal and ran the installation process again and did not receive the same error message and so far about 5 minutes remaining.

 

[dancingontheground]

Did you get it working? I'm having similar issues. I tried the internet recovery but won't install it. I get an error message "can't download the additional components needed to install Mac OS X". Can't get a startup USB disk to work either. Any other ideas?

 

[barbu]

Yeah what a cliffhanger! Lol.

 

[The_Martini_Cat]

You have to put that baby up on the lift, and drive a new macbook air underneath it

 

[4sallypat]

You may need to change the date to an earlier period of time due to certificates expired.

For High Sierra, I change the date & time using Terminal to 2018.
For Sierra, I would change to 2017.

 

[Bolanders]

You may need to change the date to an earlier period of time due to certificates expired.

For High Sierra, I change the date & time using Terminal to 2018.
For Sierra, I would change to 2017.

Yep that is what I did and it worked.
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Did you get it working? I'm having similar issues. I tried the internet recovery but won't install it. I get an error message "can't download the additional components needed to install Mac OS X". Can't get a startup USB disk to work either. Any other ideas?

Let me know if you cannot get it working as I have no problem helping you out

 

[Stevens371]

I have the same problem, I don’t have a second Mac though.

Any help would be appreciated

 

[Stevens371]

Yep that is what I did and it worked.
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Let me know if you cannot get it working as I have no problem helping you out

Sorry to open a closed thread!
Don’t suppose you can help?
I’ve tried booting from a USB using trans Mac. The usb doesn’t show as a boot option

 

[berynsw]

Sorry to open a closed thread!
Don’t suppose you can help?
I’ve tried booting from a USB using trans Mac. The usb doesn’t show as a boot option

I am having the same problems. @Stevens371 did you find a solution? I'm really hoping there's a way to get my macbook air working again

 

[Snara]

I am having the same problem with my Macbook Air 2011. I made a bootable installer of El Capitan , but could not find a way for my mac to recognize/startup from it.