Cannot update (upgrade) macOS because "The recovery server could not be contacted."

[danqi]

I am trying to upgrade a 2014 rMBP from High Sierra to Big Sur. I found this Apple page with the App Store links:

How to download and install macOS - Apple Support

Download and install current or previous versions of the Mac operating system on compatible Mac computers.

support.apple.com

Unfortunately, trying to use the Big Sur (or any other) installer results in the error message "The recovery server could not be contacted."

When googling I could only find fixes for people trying to re-install their system from recovery mode, usually after wiping their drive. But I could not find any solutions for simply updating.

Any ideas?

 

[Bigwaff]

Unfortunately, trying to use the Big Sur (or any other) installer results in the error message "The recovery server could not be contacted."

Are you connected to WiFi or ethernet? I have to ask... can't assume... the internet is accessible from your network? Are you downloading an installer from the app store or are you booting your rMBP into Internet Recovery (holding Option-Command-R at boot)?

 

[danqi]

I actually managed to solve it myself by doing the following:

I booted into recovery mode and while in recovery mode changed the NVRAM link from the updater's error log from https to http. Then I rebooted normally and the updater did run as expected.

 

[Bigwaff]

while in recovery mode changed the NVRAM link from the updater's error log from https to http.

“NVRAM link”? Now you’ve got me curious. Can you expand on this in detail? Sounds like a handy trick for others who might be having same issue. Thanks.

 

[danqi]

“NVRAM link”? Now you’ve got me curious. Can you expand on this in detail? Sounds like a handy trick for others who might be having same issue. Thanks.

Sure.

What I did was basically procedure #3 as described here: https://mrmacintosh.com/how-to-fix-...h-sierra-recovery-is-still-online-but-broken/

Just with 2 differences:

1) I used the link from my installer log, which was different than the link in the article. Probably because I was running the Big Sur installer, not the High Sierra one, since I was trying to upgrade, not re-install.

2) I only booted into recovery mode to change the NVRAM. I then booted again normally and ran the Big Sur installer from the Mac App Store.

This worked perfectly.