El Capitan. no packages were eligible for install.

jmaiers, This worked for me. Thanks so much!!!

That worked! Thanks jmaiers. You're a champion. You saved me a lot of hassle with this. So, thanks :-)

And a Happy Thank You for this information. I used jmaiers directions with complete success. The only difference i used was to leave the ethernet cable disconnected until install was complete. Thanks to all others for additional help.

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

Same exact issue here. When I change the date and try to install I get "An error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running this application again."

Without changing the date, I get the same error as everyone else.

I might ask if anyone knows how I can run the installer manually - from the command line I can cd to /Volumes and see my main hard drive and the downloaded dmg file "Install OS X El Capitan" . If I could run the installer from the downloaded file, I'd saver about 2 hours for these tests and not download that installer file over and over.

also, a interesting thought - is the El Capitan download different for a Mac Mini vs a MacBook Pro laptop? When I start the installer download, it asks me to log in with my AppleID - If I login as myself, I have downloaded El Capitan as an upgrade to my Mini, but until this point not with a Mac laptop. JUst a thought. I will see if I can login with my daughter's AppleID and see if that makes a difference. Probably not but I'm clutching at straws

I did finally get it to work but I couldn’t do a recovery from the internet no matter what. And the recovery partition wasn’t loading either. But I was able to download it on another Mac and burn a usb installer, which still needed to have the date changed to install, but it finally did work. Thanks.

If anyone is still have issues after setting date to 2017, make sure you try this order of operations next:

reboot after failed install

once you're back in recovery, disable wifi

now open terminal and set date

now continue with installer

Hi all hoping someone can help me out here. I’m getting the ‘No packages’ are available when trying to reinstall El Capitan. Trouble is I now have a formatted drive, no backup. also after booting it cannot see the bootable usb with the installer on it. It does however see my external hard drive. I was thinking if I put the installer files on that it may work but I have no access to another Mac to do the transfer. Tried Trans Mac but that can’t see the external drive. Thanks. Ps. Tried changing the date to 2016 but unless the date is correct it comes up with an error.

Thanks for posting this solution. It worked for me. After a very long and frustrating journey, I've at last restored the OS using a USB drive. This solved the "no packages" error, but then after starting the installation, I got a generic message saying the OS could not be installed. I have no idea why Apple won't give a more helpful error message, like a clue about the date?

Thanks again!

Thank you so much! This is what helped me after spending almost 2 weekends trying to re-install OS (and failing) after wiping my Macbook so I could sell it. Sending tons of good karma your way! Cheers

No problem, thanks to everyone who added bits and pieces that helped me as well. I now have a time machine back up on multiple external hd’s :) which expedites some of the process if it happens again after a crash ect.

This was the magic bullet for me. Thank you, very frustrating problem. I had successfully updated a dozen or so iMacs from Snow Leopard (10.6.8) to El Capitan (10.11) in the past (like a couple years ago) and then I had this failure on two iMacs this month. One edit I had to make was to log in as Superuser; so I had to type the sudo -s command before I could reset the date. Thanks again for the fix jmaiers!

Hello forum members:

I have not been on this forum for a long time, but I was having problems with a 2007 iMac running El Capitan after erasing the hard drive (in order to give it to a friend) and receiving the 'no packages' warning.

I came across the work-around posted by jmaiers and it worked at treat. Saved me some real headaches, so thank you very much for the clear and concise procedure.

Best wishes,

Bob Sutton.

Where u changed the date? I can't find it in any menu :( :( I dont see the system options