MacOS Mojave failed to download

[lsolesbee]

I'm running High Sierra 10.13.6 on my MacBook Pro mid 2014 and am pushed to upgrade OS because Family Tree Maker software to ancestry.com website connection is no longer supported.
So I try to upgrade to Mojave 10.14. Cannot find Mojave in App Store so it takes awhile to find working links which take me to Apple App Store, revealing Mojave.
I click on DOWNLOAD and immediately get a popup saying "MacOS Mojave failed to download Use the purchased page to try again."
I tried Catalina with the same result.
Neither Mojave nor Catalina appear in the purchased page, though I do see Mavericks and Mountain Lion OS

I called Apple support and was sent several links:
https://support.apple.com/kb/SP777?locale=en_US gives Mojave requirements, asked if I had 12.5GB space (I have 90GB free)
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211683 same page I found with links to hidden OS in App Store
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212526 If an error occurred while updating or installing macOS
which includes
1. I've tried restarting laptop.
2. I've tried installing from laptop started in SAFE mode
3. I tried one weird process I found...reinstall iTunes - change DNS - delete container "com.apple.appstore" - empty trash - restart Mac. No change.
4. run DiskUtilty, run First Aid on each element of startup disk, all checked out ok. reboot, same error.
5. next considering running MacOS Recovery

decided to check with all you experts first

 

[Fishrrman]

Here's another way to get Mojave that WILL work.

First, you need to download dosdude1's "Mojave Patcher" from this URL:

macOS Mojave Patcher

We ARE NOT going to "patch" Mojave.
We just need this utility because of a special feature it offers.

Next, open the Mojave Patcher.
If you get an alert about "natively supported hardware", just dismiss it. It's not important.

Then, go to the "Tools" menu.
There's only one choice -- "download Mojave".

Try that. It should download a full Mojave installer.

If you want to make a bootable USB installer, I recommend either
Diskmaker X:
DiskMaker X 8.0.3 (10.6 MB)
or
Install Disk Creator:

Make a Bootable USB macOS Installer Download the update for Big Sur compatibility -

What’s needed for a clean install on a Mac A backup of the disk before it’s erased. Two options are to use Duplicate (a free utility which can copy and paste an entire bootable volume), or Mac Backup Guru (a paid, fully featured backup utility with unique incremental backups capability) for...

macdaddy.io

Download BOTH of these.
If one doesn't seem to work, TRY THE OTHER ONE.

You'll also need a USB flash drive (I recommend 16gb).

 

[lsolesbee]

i wonder if this changes things... after above events, next day in Launchpad I see an icon "Install macOS Mojave" so i'm wondering if the first time i tried download, in App Store, maybe it put "Install macOS Mojave.app" in my Applications folder.

Maybe since it already downloaded that app, subsequent tries gave: MacOS Mojave failed to download

anyway, running the "Install macOS Mojave.app" gives a new error...

'The recovery server could not be contacted'​

i tried most posted solutions to no avail...

i'll try dosdude1's "Mojave Patcher" and see if that works... THANKS

 

[Fishrrman]

"i'll try dosdude1's "Mojave Patcher" and see if that works..."

Let us know how it goes...