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bidwellian

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 2, 2010
32
7
Does anyone know how to remove a certificate handshake or at least set it back in time for a MacOS installer?

I need to do a fresh install of Mavericks on my Mac PRo.

Thanks in advance!
 
Does anyone know how to remove a certificate handshake or at least set it back in time for a MacOS installer?

I need to do a fresh install of Mavericks on my Mac PRo.

Thanks in advance!
Download a new copy of the installer from the App Store.
 
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Information courtesy of Randy Singer:
Terminal Fix for OS Installer Certificate Update
Use the Terminal app to set a date to bypass the OS installer expired certificate, without having to download a new installer:

1. In the OS X Installer, choose Utilities > Terminal.
2. Enter:
date 0201010116
and press Return.
3. Quit Terminal and continue the install.

That Terminal command sets your system date to 1 February 2016 -- before the certificate's expiration -- so the installer can continue. Once you have completed the installation, visit System Preferences>Date & Time to reset the system date.
 
Downloading a new copy of the installer from the App Store makes this completely unnecessary. A fresh download will have a new certificate.
Thank you. :)
I know, but downloading a new copy does not answer the OP's question of how to work around the installer expired certificate. I did not see the harm of providing the information since you already offered the best solution of downloading a fresh copy. I can think of at least 3 circumstances when downloading a new copy may not be practical in the moment. The OP may have a urgent need to complete the installation to get a working system and does not currently have the resources to download a fresh copy.
 
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I agree with chrfr that downloading fresh copies is generally the best solution.

When I found out the certificates expired for all my previous bootable usbs I made over the years for every point release from 10.7-10.11.3 I decided to redownload them from the mac app store and got new copies of 10.7.5, 10.8.5, 10.9.5, 10.10.5 and 10.11.3 with updated certificates and remade the bootable usbs.

However with the exception of el capitan this solution is only good for the final point releases.

What if I want to reinstall something like 10.7.3 instead? There is no way to redownload that with an updated certificate.

Hence CoastalOR and Randy Singer's terminal date trick is still sometimes needed.

I find it amusing that my bootable usbs of tiger, leopard, snow leopard and snow leopard server have not expired!
 
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I find it amusing that my bootable usbs of tiger, leopard, snow leopard and snow leopard server have not expired!
Those old installers aren't signed, so there's no certificate to expire. A mixed blessing, I suppose.
 
I have combo updates for older OS'es for my old macs. Some of the drivers are no longer available online. When I try to download a new copy they require the latest OS which I can't use...

I was hoping someone knew how to edit the plist inside the instaler to fix the problem. Like setting the date to 2999 or something like that.

Thanks
 
I know this problem, and it's quite annoying. The retail DVD version of iWork 09 has the same problem.

It's not a problem if you keep everything up-to-date, but I have a mini-museum of older Macs in my apartment, and this makes it harder to reinstall things.

I have a new MacBook Pro and iMac that run the latest OS and software. I have an older MacBook and Mac mini that run Mavericks, with iTunes 11 and the newest iWork and iLife they support. I have an even older MacBook and iMac that run Snow Leopard, iTunes 10 and the DVD versions of iLife 11 and iWork. And a few Tiger machines as well. I like to do this because it's nice to look back at how Apple's software and hardware has evolved over time.

The 'signed installer' stuff makes this harder to do. You could download a new Mavericks installer, but that would include iTunes 12 and Safari 9. If this is your only machine, you probably want new, up-to-date software. But it doesn't work for me and my collection of old Macs.
 
You could download a new Mavericks installer, but that would include iTunes 12 and Safari 9.
That's not what I've found, usually Apple stops updating the installers after the last numbered release build (such as 10.9.5). That means any security updates, or newer versions of iTunes, Safari, etc. released after that update, would have to be installed afterward.

Of course, if you want to roll back to an older numbered version, you do have to have an older copy of the installer and change the date as detailed above. But both iTunes 12 and Safari 9 came after 10.9.5 in this instance, and usually there is little to no reason not to install the latest numbered version of an OS (even on 10.8.5 which came with iTunes 11, I was able to roll back to iTunes 10.7 on my 2006 iMac).
 
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