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User profile for user: KurtABum
KurtABum Author
User level: Level 2
267 points

Old Internet Recovery

Hello Everyone!

This is not a problem but more of a question. A few months ago, before I replaced my failing HDD hard drive, I went to restore macOS Mojave from internet recovery. However to my surprise after a few minutes of internet recovery, it had booted into a recovery mode from macOS Lion. Is there any reason that this happened? Is there any way I can do It again? However now I am running macOS Catalina happily. :) Below is some picture of what it should have been and what it turned out as.


Anything would be appreciated!


Thanks Kurt M

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.15

Posted on Oct 26, 2019 4:40 PM

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User profile for user: HWTech
HWTech
User level: Level 9
61,610 points

Posted on Oct 26, 2019 6:17 PM

To expand upon @John Galt's answer: To force Internet Recovery Mode to boot to the oldest version of macOS still available from Apple you boot using Command + Option + Shift + R. Booting with Command + R will boot to Internet Recovery if the local recovery partition is not available or recognized. Sometimes no matter what key combination you use with Internet Recovery Mode you may always boot into the oldest macOS version still available. I've seen this occur on several of our organizations Macs and appears to be an Apple server issue. I don't know if Apple can fix this for you or not, but you may want to contact Apple while your computer is still supported by Apple or at least keep a copy of the older macOS installers archived for emergencies.

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User profile for user: HWTech
HWTech
User level: Level 9
61,610 points

Oct 26, 2019 6:17 PM in response to KurtABum

To expand upon @John Galt's answer: To force Internet Recovery Mode to boot to the oldest version of macOS still available from Apple you boot using Command + Option + Shift + R. Booting with Command + R will boot to Internet Recovery if the local recovery partition is not available or recognized. Sometimes no matter what key combination you use with Internet Recovery Mode you may always boot into the oldest macOS version still available. I've seen this occur on several of our organizations Macs and appears to be an Apple server issue. I don't know if Apple can fix this for you or not, but you may want to contact Apple while your computer is still supported by Apple or at least keep a copy of the older macOS installers archived for emergencies.

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User profile for user: John Galt
John Galt
User level: Level 10
147,360 points

Oct 26, 2019 6:05 PM in response to KurtABum

macOS Recovery will first attempt to boot the local Recovery Partition. If it is unusable or not present, it will load Internet Recovery which I think you expected.


You can force that to happen by adding an Option key to the ⌘ r startup key chord. In other words if you deliberately want to force macOS Internet Recovery hold ⌘ ⌥ R while you start your Mac.


Refer to Reinstall macOS - Apple Support. Step 2 describes the various and confusing startup key combinations.

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Old Internet Recovery

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