Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
OS X Installers Downloaded Prior to February 14 No Longer Work After Certificate Update
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
This actually affected me. Had to use a USB installer twice last month, once on the 11th and again on the 17th. The second time it just didn't work and had no idea why. The client location I was at had a single T1 as their internet connection which is about ~1Mbps (which he raved about how fast it was). This meant that it was going to take me 11 hours to re-download an installer from the App store if I did it while I was there.
Fortunately I had a virtualized OS X server on my laptop with a 10.11.2 net install that didn't appear to be affected so I was able to finish my project without having to come back the next day.
Do you happen to have those two installers either on your internal drive or on an attached external drive. If the MAS sees those installers anywhere it will show that "Downloaded" button and not allow you DL again. That has been my experience anyway.El Capitan and Yosemite are unavailable for me but I can download all the previous versions.
Mine for Yosemite and El Capitan both show "Download."
[doublepost=1457105958][/doublepost]
They are stored in the Keychain application.
Why the heck can't they set these certificates to expire far enough into the future that this will never be a problem?
Just set them to expire Dec 31 2099 or something. You can work around them by setting the date back anyway, so it's not like this effectively prevents installs. It's just annoying.
Just set them to expire Dec 31 2099 or something. You can work around them by setting the date back anyway, so it's not like this effectively prevents installs. It's just annoying.
I don't think so - I have 10.6 on a couple of keys that was made from a disc. I've just partitioned an old mini and am installing 10.6 off the key now, with no errors.
Exactly. I have one pretty old MacBook that I use as a spare machine for waching DVDs or grabbing a quick news check etc. I figured to download El Capitan onto that thing, and then make an installer for upgrading my main laptop and a a newer spare. Wrong....
Only the re-download is disabled ! I can see them in the list of purchases (Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite and ElCap) but I can only download ElCapitan - all the others are disabled (greyed out). Any suggestions ?
ETA 2hours35
Let's see...how long will it take me to re-download Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite, and El Capitan on my 768 kbps (at best) internet connection?
Has anyone tried this idea? Just wondering.
OS X Installers Downloaded Prior to February 14 No Longer Work After Certificate Update
OS X Installers Downloaded Prior to February 14 No Longer Work After Certificate Update
So any non-App Store installers are unaffected by this (10.0-10.6)? How about the Lion installer USB that Apple sold in 2011-2012 for ~$69? As that's not downloaded off the App Store, would it also be unaffected?
**** happens sometimes, even to Apple. What you want to do? Find the guilty and send him/her to Gitmo?
Please use proper caps. Part of the feline population is offended by your assumption. They're all special and beautiful.
Because certificate checking is a critical part of ensuring that the software you are installing is legitimate and has not been tampered with.
Certificates expire so that in case anyone has stolen the keys or cracked them, the window of vulnerability for people being tricked by them is smaller.
I had that happen with my wife's computer. I moved her SSD from her 2008 MacBook to a 2012 MacBook Pro and I needed to reinstall OS X 10.11.2 to enable Handoff but it wouldn't download right. It wouldn't appear in the Applications or anything. I kept trying with no luck, then finally decided to search with Spotlight and it found it, strangely enough, and I was able to run the installer even though it was nowhere to be found on the computer. Then the version it installed was 10.11, kinda weird.El Capitan and Yosemite are unavailable for me but I can download all the previous versions.
View attachment 619709
[doublepost=1457161491][/doublepost]This appears to only affect original installers and not USB drives created with something such as DiskMakerX correct? I guess I can delete my backup installers now :/
I do the same, too! As I'm typing this, Im downloading a fresh copy starting with Mavericks.
Why, everybody knows that all the Apple certificates are on the same server as the Dormant Cyber Pathogen.
Thanks, you've solved it.
I deleted the old installers from the external drive and they are both now available as downloads in the MAS. At first El Capitan was still greyed out but it returned after a reboot.
OK to explain properly... the certificates are set to expire within a time-frame that is 'safe' from key cracking.
i.e., it is assumed that based on current and projected processing power that 2023 would be a reasonable time frame for the key length of the current cert to be safe from a committed adversary like the US government for example. e.g., it is considered unlikely that the key could be cracked before 2023, but confidence beyond that point is not good.
Older certificates may have used shorter keys (because using longer keys requires more CPU).
If keys are stolen (rather than cracked) apple can revoke the certificates before they expire.
This is really unreliable annoying, silly, ... if this would be Windows we would all be lying on the floor laughing, ...
... but, unfortunately this is where the state of Mac OS X has come to, ...
I wish there still would be security and bug-fixes for 10.6, ...
One major version bump per year also appears to be too much for a sane user experience on the Mac, ...
... but, unfortunately this is where the state of Mac OS X has come to, ...
I wish there still would be security and bug-fixes for 10.6, ...
One major version bump per year also appears to be too much for a sane user experience on the Mac, ...