macOS could not be installed on your computer (FIXED)

[Scottsooner]

Hello all, I had this error when installing as well.

I did manage to finally restart my computer in 10.12 Sierra, as opposed to installing 10.13, and wanted to let others know about it, as this page was one of the top results as I was trying to desperately find a way to either install or recover. I'll get 10.13 installed soon, but I was a bad user and didn't back up before trying to install the first time. I will do that now.

In the meantime, for those that haven't had success installing 10.13, and are in this same could not install loop, and simply would like to get back to 10.12, here is what I did: Once I received the "could not be installed on your computer message" and it told me to quit the installer and restart, I went to Apple logo in the upper left (maybe had to click a bit to make the menu bar appear?), and there was an option to choose the startup disk. It had my 10.12.6 system folder as an option, I chose it, it restarted, and instead of booting with the Installer, it booted normally! I'm backing up now and very happy I didn't screw myself over.

Mildly interestingly, I have a Bootcamp partition, and in troubleshooting, I wanted to be sure the partition was fine, so I booted using Option to choose a drive to start up from. In this view, the two partitions were disk images. I point this out to contrast it to when I chose the start up disk from the menu bar option, the images were the OS folders and names, not the disk image icons and names. Hope this ramble may offer an additional person another avenue of success.

[doublepost=1513782354][/doublepost]I could not get this to work. I found the 10.12.6 hard disk and selected restart, however I got the same result. Was there something else you did?

 

[Bethany VC]

Hello all, I had this error when installing as well.

I did manage to finally restart my computer in 10.12 Sierra, as opposed to installing 10.13, and wanted to let others know about it, as this page was one of the top results as I was trying to desperately find a way to either install or recover. I'll get 10.13 installed soon, but I was a bad user and didn't back up before trying to install the first time. I will do that now.

In the meantime, for those that haven't had success installing 10.13, and are in this same could not install loop, and simply would like to get back to 10.12, here is what I did: Once I received the "could not be installed on your computer message" and it told me to quit the installer and restart, I went to Apple logo in the upper left (maybe had to click a bit to make the menu bar appear?), and there was an option to choose the startup disk. It had my 10.12.6 system folder as an option, I chose it, it restarted, and instead of booting with the Installer, it booted normally! I'm backing up now and very happy I didn't screw myself over.

Mildly interestingly, I have a Bootcamp partition, and in troubleshooting, I wanted to be sure the partition was fine, so I booted using Option to choose a drive to start up from. In this view, the two partitions were disk images. I point this out to contrast it to when I chose the start up disk from the menu bar option, the images were the OS folders and names, not the disk image icons and names. Hope this ramble may offer an additional person another avenue of success.

[doublepost=1513809777][/doublepost]Thank you thank you thank you!!!! I thought I had lost my MacBook Air for good!! Any chance you know what to do for a MacBook thst keeps randomly turning itself off? I tried SMC reset and NVRAM reset, neither worked.

 

[reinhas]

Hello all, I had this error when installing as well.

I did manage to finally restart my computer in 10.12 Sierra, as opposed to installing 10.13, and wanted to let others know about it, as this page was one of the top results as I was trying to desperately find a way to either install or recover. I'll get 10.13 installed soon, but I was a bad user and didn't back up before trying to install the first time. I will do that now.

In the meantime, for those that haven't had success installing 10.13, and are in this same could not install loop, and simply would like to get back to 10.12, here is what I did: Once I received the "could not be installed on your computer message" and it told me to quit the installer and restart, I went to Apple logo in the upper left (maybe had to click a bit to make the menu bar appear?), and there was an option to choose the startup disk. It had my 10.12.6 system folder as an option, I chose it, it restarted, and instead of booting with the Installer, it booted normally! I'm backing up now and very happy I didn't screw myself over.

Mildly interestingly, I have a Bootcamp partition, and in troubleshooting, I wanted to be sure the partition was fine, so I booted using Option to choose a drive to start up from. In this view, the two partitions were disk images. I point this out to contrast it to when I chose the start up disk from the menu bar option, the images were the OS folders and names, not the disk image icons and names. Hope this ramble may offer an additional person another avenue of success.

Success! Made my day! Thank you!

 

[RachD]

Fixed it by rebooting holding shift then redownloading the installer.

I just registered to ask about this. My MacBook is having this same problem. How do I delete the installer and how do I download it? Where is the installer? I have no idea what to do.

 

[TheShawnShawnie]

Hello all, I had this error when installing as well.

I did manage to finally restart my computer in 10.12 Sierra, as opposed to installing 10.13, and wanted to let others know about it, as this page was one of the top results as I was trying to desperately find a way to either install or recover. I'll get 10.13 installed soon, but I was a bad user and didn't back up before trying to install the first time. I will do that now.

In the meantime, for those that haven't had success installing 10.13, and are in this same could not install loop, and simply would like to get back to 10.12, here is what I did: Once I received the "could not be installed on your computer message" and it told me to quit the installer and restart, I went to Apple logo in the upper left (maybe had to click a bit to make the menu bar appear?), and there was an option to choose the startup disk. It had my 10.12.6 system folder as an option, I chose it, it restarted, and instead of booting with the Installer, it booted normally! I'm backing up now and very happy I didn't screw myself over.

Mildly interestingly, I have a Bootcamp partition, and in troubleshooting, I wanted to be sure the partition was fine, so I booted using Option to choose a drive to start up from. In this view, the two partitions were disk images. I point this out to contrast it to when I chose the start up disk from the menu bar option, the images were the OS folders and names, not the disk image icons and names. Hope this ramble may offer an additional person another avenue of success.

Whatever just happened to my Mac for this error to of occurred when I switched it on just now - your simple speak saved my sanity as my computer works again. Obviously whatever happened with the download and shut down didn’t work. Not had to troubleshoot on a Mac before as in 2 and a bit years had no issues with mine. Cheers from London!

 

[fragrantsound]

this totally worked for me. thank you.

[doublepost=1515040214][/doublepost]Oops, replying on my phone. I touched the wrong thing.
This worked for me too!

 

[Ramblinmeg]

Hello all, I had this error when installing as well.

I did manage to finally restart my computer in 10.12 Sierra, as opposed to installing 10.13, and wanted to let others know about it, as this page was one of the top results as I was trying to desperately find a way to either install or recover. I'll get 10.13 installed soon, but I was a bad user and didn't back up before trying to install the first time. I will do that now.

In the meantime, for those that haven't had success installing 10.13, and are in this same could not install loop, and simply would like to get back to 10.12, here is what I did: Once I received the "could not be installed on your computer message" and it told me to quit the installer and restart, I went to Apple logo in the upper left (maybe had to click a bit to make the menu bar appear?), and there was an option to choose the startup disk. It had my 10.12.6 system folder as an option, I chose it, it restarted, and instead of booting with the Installer, it booted normally! I'm backing up now and very happy I didn't screw myself over.

Mildly interestingly, I have a Bootcamp partition, and in troubleshooting, I wanted to be sure the partition was fine, so I booted using Option to choose a drive to start up from. In this view, the two partitions were disk images. I point this out to contrast it to when I chose the start up disk from the menu bar option, the images were the OS folders and names, not the disk image icons and names. Hope this ramble may offer an additional person another avenue of success.

You just saved my sanity THANK YOU!!!!!

 

[tohmer]

I was having this issue on an early 2011 17-inch MacBook Pro with 10.13.2

Did a Safe Boot, then used Disk Utility First Aid. Restart, problem solved.

 

[UMIT YAYLA]

Hello all, I had this error when installing as well.

I did manage to finally restart my computer in 10.12 Sierra, as opposed to installing 10.13, and wanted to let others know about it, as this page was one of the top results as I was trying to desperately find a way to either install or recover. I'll get 10.13 installed soon, but I was a bad user and didn't back up before trying to install the first time. I will do that now.

In the meantime, for those that haven't had success installing 10.13, and are in this same could not install loop, and simply would like to get back to 10.12, here is what I did: Once I received the "could not be installed on your computer message" and it told me to quit the installer and restart, I went to Apple logo in the upper left (maybe had to click a bit to make the menu bar appear?), and there was an option to choose the startup disk. It had my 10.12.6 system folder as an option, I chose it, it restarted, and instead of booting with the Installer, it booted normally! I'm backing up now and very happy I didn't screw myself over.

Mildly interestingly, I have a Bootcamp partition, and in troubleshooting, I wanted to be sure the partition was fine, so I booted using Option to choose a drive to start up from. In this view, the two partitions were disk images. I point this out to contrast it to when I chose the start up disk from the menu bar option, the images were the OS folders and names, not the disk image icons and names. Hope this ramble may offer an additional person another avenue of success.

You saved my life bro! Appreciated

 

[Gregintosh]

Had this problem on a 2012 MacBook Pro Retina. Booted into Recovery, unlocked boot disc, and restarted. It worked after that. Strange since I didn't think that actually does anything.

 

[rahhb.riley]

You saved my bacon matey! Worked a treat and such a simple fix - THANK YOU!!!!

Just checking back in randomly, so so sooo happy to see my experience was able to help others. I almost didn't write this up, I'm no expert, but thought, I really ought to pay this forward. Sometimes it's the simple things! Hope everyone is doing well!!
[doublepost=1517162648][/doublepost]

[doublepost=1513782354][/doublepost]
I could not get this to work. I found the 10.12.6 hard disk and selected restart, however I got the same result. Was there something else you did?

Sorry, I don't have notifications turned on and only just now saw this. Hopefully you're up and running by now?! Sorry I don't have more insight at this time.
[doublepost=1517162810][/doublepost]

[doublepost=1513809777][/doublepost]Thank you thank you thank you!!!! I thought I had lost my MacBook Air for good!! Any chance you know what to do for a MacBook thst keeps randomly turning itself off? I tried SMC reset and NVRAM reset, neither worked.

I don't, I'm sorry! I have been fortunate over the years to be just computer literate enough to painstakingly work through my own problems with tenacious research. Frankly, if I were in your boat, and still had issues after that... I'd prolly research replacing the battery, just incase. They're cheap and easy to do, and hell, if the computer is very old, could probably use it, regardless? Not sure what the process on an Air would be though. Best of luck!

 

[mattyBeat]

signed up to MacRumours just to thank you guys. Changing wifi then choosing start up disk did the trick.

Thanks all!

 

[igurutech]

A similar problem happened to me but it was little different after downloading the macOS High Sierra when I tried to install it. Much to my surprise that I got error message "the recovery server could not be contacted. I followed all the steps from Apple discussions forum but no help. This blog post at https://iguruservices.com/support/recovery-server-could-not-be-contacted-error/ has finally fixed my problem when I connected to a secure WiFi connection and corrected the system time.

 

[Ken.Hemmerling]

... I went to Apple logo in the upper left (maybe had to click a bit to make the menu bar appear?), and there was an option to choose the startup disk. It had my 10.12.6 system folder as an option, I chose it, it restarted, and instead of booting with the Installer, it booted normally! I'm backing up now and very happy I didn't screw myself over...

Thanks so much for this. My system reported 10.13 as the startup disk but following the same steps, my system rebooted cleanly and seems to be OK.

 

[blabkabla]

Hello all, I had this error when installing as well.

I did manage to finally restart my computer in 10.12 Sierra, as opposed to installing 10.13, and wanted to let others know about it, as this page was one of the top results as I was trying to desperately find a way to either install or recover. I'll get 10.13 installed soon, but I was a bad user and didn't back up before trying to install the first time. I will do that now.

In the meantime, for those that haven't had success installing 10.13, and are in this same could not install loop, and simply would like to get back to 10.12, here is what I did: Once I received the "could not be installed on your computer message" and it told me to quit the installer and restart, I went to Apple logo in the upper left (maybe had to click a bit to make the menu bar appear?), and there was an option to choose the startup disk. It had my 10.12.6 system folder as an option, I chose it, it restarted, and instead of booting with the Installer, it booted normally! I'm backing up now and very happy I didn't screw myself over.

Mildly interestingly, I have a Bootcamp partition, and in troubleshooting, I wanted to be sure the partition was fine, so I booted using Option to choose a drive to start up from. In this view, the two partitions were disk images. I point this out to contrast it to when I chose the start up disk from the menu bar option, the images were the OS folders and names, not the disk image icons and names. Hope this ramble may offer an additional person another avenue of success.

Thanks! But how to delete the installer? What directory is it in?

 

[EKS2131]

am assuming you mean 'installed'... delete the installer, & redownload it.

and if that doesn't work, go to https://beta.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/
sign into your account, click the link for the beta (may help to redownload feedback assistant).

anyway, something like this worked for me.

[doublepost=1518292746][/doublepost]How do I delete the installer if I can’t get beyond the first error screen?

 

[fargol]

I had this error while installing High Sierra as well. I have a Late 2013 Retina MacBook Pro with FileVault turned ON.

After restarting a number of times with no success, I did the following:

1. Held down Command+R on boot to go into recovery mode.
2. Started the Disk Utility in Recovery Mode and mounted the boot disk. The Disk Utility prompted me for a password for the boot disk.
3. Perhaps I typed in the password wrong, because it didn't work. I exited the disk utility, and started it again. This time I was able to mount the boot disk after typing in the password.
4. Exited the disk utility, and the recovery program. When it prompted me to select a boot disk, I was able to select the system boot disk.
5. On reboot, the install succeeded.

I also have a mid-2012 non-Retina MacBook Pro with a Samsung SSD and FileVault turned on. I didn't have the same problem there.

On both laptops I did run into the error: "macOS could not be installed on your computer. File system verify or repair failed." That was on the initial installation try. In both cases a restart cleared it up.

[doublepost=1518508766][/doublepost]Thx to the person who posted these steps: it worked on my desktop mac OS 2017:
1. Held down Command+R on boot to go into recovery mode.
2. Started the Disk Utility in Recovery Mode and The Disk Utility had a disk selected already. Closed it. Prompted me to select a disk (i selected my hrd disk (1 option))
3. The computer was fine upon restarting

 

[MacTef]

Hello all, I had this error when installing as well.

I did manage to finally restart my computer in 10.12 Sierra, as opposed to installing 10.13, and wanted to let others know about it, as this page was one of the top results as I was trying to desperately find a way to either install or recover. I'll get 10.13 installed soon, but I was a bad user and didn't back up before trying to install the first time. I will do that now.

In the meantime, for those that haven't had success installing 10.13, and are in this same could not install loop, and simply would like to get back to 10.12, here is what I did: Once I received the "could not be installed on your computer message" and it told me to quit the installer and restart, I went to Apple logo in the upper left (maybe had to click a bit to make the menu bar appear?), and there was an option to choose the startup disk. It had my 10.12.6 system folder as an option, I chose it, it restarted, and instead of booting with the Installer, it booted normally! I'm backing up now and very happy I didn't screw myself over.

Mildly interestingly, I have a Bootcamp partition, and in troubleshooting, I wanted to be sure the partition was fine, so I booted using Option to choose a drive to start up from. In this view, the two partitions were disk images. I point this out to contrast it to when I chose the start up disk from the menu bar option, the images were the OS folders and names, not the disk image icons and names. Hope this ramble may offer an additional person another avenue of success.

This Worked! Thanks!

 

[vincenzo.vitale]

Hello all, I had this error when installing as well.

I did manage to finally restart my computer in 10.12 Sierra, as opposed to installing 10.13, and wanted to let others know about it, as this page was one of the top results as I was trying to desperately find a way to either install or recover. I'll get 10.13 installed soon, but I was a bad user and didn't back up before trying to install the first time. I will do that now.

In the meantime, for those that haven't had success installing 10.13, and are in this same could not install loop, and simply would like to get back to 10.12, here is what I did: Once I received the "could not be installed on your computer message" and it told me to quit the installer and restart, I went to Apple logo in the upper left (maybe had to click a bit to make the menu bar appear?), and there was an option to choose the startup disk. It had my 10.12.6 system folder as an option, I chose it, it restarted, and instead of booting with the Installer, it booted normally! I'm backing up now and very happy I didn't screw myself over.

Mildly interestingly, I have a Bootcamp partition, and in troubleshooting, I wanted to be sure the partition was fine, so I booted using Option to choose a drive to start up from. In this view, the two partitions were disk images. I point this out to contrast it to when I chose the start up disk from the menu bar option, the images were the OS folders and names, not the disk image icons and names. Hope this ramble may offer an additional person another avenue of success.

You saved my day. Thanks

 

[gacek87]

Hello all, I had this error when installing as well.

I did manage to finally restart my computer in 10.12 Sierra, as opposed to installing 10.13, and wanted to let others know about it, as this page was one of the top results as I was trying to desperately find a way to either install or recover. I'll get 10.13 installed soon, but I was a bad user and didn't back up before trying to install the first time. I will do that now.

In the meantime, for those that haven't had success installing 10.13, and are in this same could not install loop, and simply would like to get back to 10.12, here is what I did: Once I received the "could not be installed on your computer message" and it told me to quit the installer and restart, I went to Apple logo in the upper left (maybe had to click a bit to make the menu bar appear?), and there was an option to choose the startup disk. It had my 10.12.6 system folder as an option, I chose it, it restarted, and instead of booting with the Installer, it booted normally! I'm backing up now and very happy I didn't screw myself over.

Mildly interestingly, I have a Bootcamp partition, and in troubleshooting, I wanted to be sure the partition was fine, so I booted using Option to choose a drive to start up from. In this view, the two partitions were disk images. I point this out to contrast it to when I chose the start up disk from the menu bar option, the images were the OS folders and names, not the disk image icons and names. Hope this ramble may offer an additional person another avenue of success.

You, are a Godsend. Thank you for saving my baby.

 

[Dan T]

Hi all,

I have a 2014 15" rMBP and after the reboot on the update I'm getting the following message:

macOS could not be instead on your computer

The path /System/Installation/Packages/OSInstall.mpkg appears to be missing or damaged.

Quit the installer and try again.

I restarted loads of times without any success.

Any clues on what should I do?

Thanks in advance.

[doublepost=1519684232][/doublepost]I've been able to resolve this by doing the following:
- Restart the Mac and hold the <OPTION> key when you hear the startup tone
- You'll see at least two drives listed - one will be your machine's hard drive and other will be "Mac OS Installer". Select your usual hard drive
- Log in to the machine
- Open App Store and search for "High Sierra"
- Download and run the upgrade again
- Done

 

[uzer42]

While some of the options above might work for some, for the others the only way i've found to resolve this is to back up the data via thunderbolt/firewire and reinstall the OS then try the upgrade again. I think it all depends on where the OS installer screws up.

 

[Lajafu]

Bro you are a ****ing life saver!! BTW- to access the Apple logo click on the wifi icon and try to change the Wifi connection and the apple will appear of the top left. Thanks again!

I have joined this forum just so I can thank you for the 'wifi icon' tip on behalf of my daughter at uni - you have saved her dissertation and final year work. (and now, needless to say, an external hard drive is on its way to her!!!)

 

[TrishkaNeedsHelp]

QUOTE="rahhb.riley, post: 25146381, member: 301233"]Hello all, I had this error when installing as well.

I did manage to finally restart my computer in 10.12 Sierra, as opposed to installing 10.13, and wanted to let others know about it, as this page was one of the top results as I was trying to desperately find a way to either install or recover. I'll get 10.13 installed soon, but I was a bad user and didn't back up before trying to install the first time. I will do that now.

In the meantime, for those that haven't had success installing 10.13, and are in this same could not install loop, and simply would like to get back to 10.12, here is what I did: Once I received the "could not be installed on your computer message" and it told me to quit the installer and restart, I went to Apple logo in the upper left (maybe had to click a bit to make the menu bar appear?), and there was an option to choose the startup disk. It had my 10.12.6 system folder as an option, I chose it, it restarted, and instead of booting with the Installer, it booted normally! I'm backing up now and very happy I didn't screw myself over.

Mildly interestingly, I have a Bootcamp partition, and in troubleshooting, I wanted to be sure the partition was fine, so I booted using Option to choose a drive to start up from. In this view, the two partitions were disk images. I point this out to contrast it to when I chose the start up disk from the menu bar option, the images were the OS folders and names, not the disk image icons and names. Hope this ramble may offer an additional person another avenue of success.[/QUOTE]
This

Thank you, you life saver

[doublepost=1513776001][/doublepost]Thanks man wifi tip was really helpful

 

[aredondo]

Hello all, I had this error when installing as well.

I did manage to finally restart my computer in 10.12 Sierra, as opposed to installing 10.13, and wanted to let others know about it, as this page was one of the top results as I was trying to desperately find a way to either install or recover. I'll get 10.13 installed soon, but I was a bad user and didn't back up before trying to install the first time. I will do that now.

In the meantime, for those that haven't had success installing 10.13, and are in this same could not install loop, and simply would like to get back to 10.12, here is what I did: Once I received the "could not be installed on your computer message" and it told me to quit the installer and restart, I went to Apple logo in the upper left (maybe had to click a bit to make the menu bar appear?), and there was an option to choose the startup disk. It had my 10.12.6 system folder as an option, I chose it, it restarted, and instead of booting with the Installer, it booted normally! I'm backing up now and very happy I didn't screw myself over.

Mildly interestingly, I have a Bootcamp partition, and in troubleshooting, I wanted to be sure the partition was fine, so I booted using Option to choose a drive to start up from. In this view, the two partitions were disk images. I point this out to contrast it to when I chose the start up disk from the menu bar option, the images were the OS folders and names, not the disk image icons and names. Hope this ramble may offer an additional person another avenue of success.

Thank you so much for taking the time to post this. I had the same issue installing 10.13.4 and Your steps fixed it for me!