El Capitan. no packages were eligible for install.

Took me forever to figure this out and ive got it dialed in and want to help people with the same issue it happens every time you do a clean restore

no usb needed

1. use disk utility and clean drive you will install on...
2. Connect to a wifi or plug in ethernet and download os x (second option I believe ..) It will download and then try to install itself and then fail with no packages were eligible message with option to restart ....
3. shut off wifi (top right) or unplug ethernet cord
4. go to utilities -terminal- type this and only this, date 0115124517
5. it will show new date with new time it should be jan 1 12:45 2017
6. now hit restart ( wifi will reconnect automatically)- if using ethernet hit reset and connect ethernet cord

——it will now do its thing and you will notice a different screen then previous—- thank you for everyones input I figured a simplified straight to the point version would be beneficial to everyone- no usb needed

I did the steps as previous comments, but found I have to disable the wifi after changed the date to 2017. I did some minor changes based on previous comments and it works for me.

no usb needed

1. use disk utility and clean drive you will install on...
2. Connect to a wifi or plug in ethernet and download os x (second option I believe ..) It will download and then try to install itself and then fail with no packages were eligible message with option to restart ....
3. shut off wifi (top right) or unplug ethernet cord
4. go to utilities -terminal- type this and only this, date 0115124517
5. it will show new date with new time it should be jan 1 12:45 2017
6. (modified) I changed the wifi password, so that the macbook will not be able to connect to the network after the reboot. Actually wifi is not required in the next step because all required packages have been downloaded. If still connected to the network, the system time will be reset to the real time after reboot
7. now hit restart ( wifi will reconnect automatically, but failed due to the wrong wifi password remembered previously)- if using ethernet , please pull out the cable

——it will now do its thing and you will notice a different screen then previous—- thank you for everyones input I figured a simplified straight to the point version would be beneficial to everyone- no usb needed

P.S. you should change the wifi password back when the installation goes to the step asking for the user info, the internet is required now

Glad that worked for you. I tried several times before I got it to work. Read about 20 articles that didn’t work. Most said change the date but not to what or why it’s necessary. Finally stumbled on an article (on an Australian site) that said the cert for El Cap expired on the 24th of October and you needed to change the date to before that. Then it all made sense and finally worked! Since I’m selling my Mac, I’m leaving a note with that info included. Next owner will be covered.

After the online download, it restart and the installation failed… then go in the menubar and open the Terminal, and change the computer date to 2016 using the command “date 020100002016” then press enter. Close the Terminal, and it will reopen the installation window. Now you can click the Restart button. It will reboot and start the installation normally without issue. You can update the OS without problems. The issue is only with a clean installation or a reinstallation.

Was still having trouble with this even after changing date via terminal until I turned off WiFi! Did that step after a very frustrating 7 hours and countless restarts and voila!! Did it first time.

This tip is probably in this thread somewhere but it wasn’t until I realised the date and time were being reset to Pacific time that it must have been the internet doing something! 🙄

So remember guys and gals, turn off WiFi after terminal date and time revision.

Probably won’t work for all but might be a little less frustrating for others.

D.

Thanks mate! This really worked,

But one add on would be holding the option key and clicking on the WiFi, which then shows the option - "Disconnect from the network" (if already connected) and clicking it will ensure that the date changed in the terminal is not reverted back to the original date due to the internet connection at any stage further in this process.

After this you can proceed to the restart option shown and it works well.

jmaiers wrote:

1. Took me forever to figure this out and ive got it dialed in and want to help people with the same issue it happens every time you do a clean restore

no usb needed

use disk utility and clean drive you will install on...

2. Connect to a wifi or plug in ethernet and download os x (second option I believe ..) It will download and then try to install itself and then fail with no packages were eligible message with option to restart ....

3. shut off wifi (top right) or unplug ethernet cord

4. go to utilities -terminal- type this and only this, date 0115124517

5. it will show new date with new time it should be jan 1 12:45 2017

6. now hit restart ( wifi will reconnect automatically)- if using ethernet hit reset and connect ethernet cord

——it will now do its thing and you will notice a different screen then previous—- thank you for everyones input I figured a simplified straight to the point version would be beneficial to everyone- no usb needed

Just got my 2008 Mac Pro back into action with this tip! Initially I had to load Snow Leopard first and upgraded through the App Store download, then got the “no upgradable packages found” error in the El Capitan installer. After changing the date to 15 July 2017 @ 1:30PM (0715133017) the installer worked without an issue! Thanks a ton.

Charlie,

Just completer reinstall of El Capitan on my 2009 MacBook Pro after having same issue. The problem is that the certificate for El Capitan expired on Oct. 24, 2019 (as did some others). GolyApple is correct, reset the date through the terminal to something prior to cert expiration and it should work. (I used 090911552019). Mine worked and I had called Apple twice, they couldn't figure it out.

1. Boot El Capitan installer from your bootable USB drive.
2. Before pressing anything, move your mouse to the top left and locate ( Terminal ).
3. Open Terminal and set date by typing ( date 0101010116 ) command. Press enter.
4. This should have changed the date clock to 2016.
5. Close Terminal and continue the installation process. ENJOY!

Apple software releases are a mixed bag — the old installers aren’t available officially for easily fixing this kind of problem, there are some security mechanisms or just something that prevent users to fix by ourselves, and even I don’t want to fix it myself, their own services just don’t fix it.

Here's the link I learned and fixed the problem from.

https://medium.com/@mixth/a-journey-of-reinstall-el-capitan-in-macbook-mid-2009-a140743a0d15

I actually had to tweak this... after changing the date via the terminal, I would meet with the same issue. My iMac continued to revert back to current date after restart. I simply turned off my wifi in my office and restarted to install, which it did flawlessly. I turned the wifi back on in the office when the set up asked for that. All is well now.

I think maybe you made a mistake somewhere along the line it should work. What date did you set it to?

did you turn WiFi off after the message comes up?

1) message comes

2) reboot back into recovery mode and open terminal to set new date in 2017

3) turn WiFi off

4) reboot it and it should pickup where it left off but this time with a date that is in scope of the old Apple certificate (on the Apple servers)

Make sure to set the appropriate date, I noticed that some people uses a date that was not working for me. That's why it keep spinning... If everything is ok, it won't spin.

In the installation window, go in the menubar and open the Terminal, and change the date using the command “date 020100002016” (without the quotes) and press enter. Close the Terminal, and it will reopen the installation window.

Thanks for this answer, for other like me not reading carefully enough, what you type in terminal is:

date 0115124517

PS: I followed the instructions exactly and it worked (even as wifi reconnects on restart it doesn't change the date back)

Thanks!

OP didn't respond so I will. changing the date to mid 2017 did work using the terminal command with two digit inputs (date {month}{day}{hour}{minute}{year} EX: "date 0601120017" changes the date to June 1, 2017 at 12:00 PDT)