El Capitan. no packages were eligible for install.

jmaiers, the steps are correct. Just one note for other who may get stuck. OSX may NOT download if you change the system date first or if you retry the steps leaving the date in 2017. To get the download of OSX, make sure the date and time is current first. If you changed it in Terminal, go back and restore it to current date and time. Then let it download, run the install and let if fail. Then go to terminal and change the date and only let the install run again. Also, I had to clean the HDD to make it work. OSX did not want to install over the previous system.

Just change the date in terminal:

"date 010110152017"

Quit your terminal and hit install, that worked for me.

Charlee78 wrote:

Hi guys and gals!!

Been having a weird trouble lately. I've got a macbook pro 3.1 that was working alright but I bought a newer one so I took the SSD and did a swap between the 2. Problem is I wiped the hard drive that is now in my old Macbook before selling it and whatever I do I get this error:

Os x could not be installed on you computer. No packages were eligible for install.

What i did so far:

-I rebuilt another usb drive from a new El Capitan freshly downloaded from the App store.

-I formatted the hard drive, again.

-I re tried to install but still the same.

-I then held command+r and tried to install from there but I get the same issue.

-I then found a guide to adjust date and time but it was already correct.

-Reset SMC and PRAM and restarted the whole process.

-I tried to install on an external usb drive but still the same.

At this point I'm out of ideas...

Made an account to bump this since this saved my mac book air. It bricked when upgrading to Catalina and nothing worked. Safe Mode, Recovery, Internet Recovery, etc.

Setting the date to 2017 and re-installing El Capitan did the trick for me.

In the Terminal, someone says to use this : $ date -u 020100002016

But it fails if you use the dollar sign... just remove it and only type this : date -u 020100002016 (don't forget the white space each side of the -u )

Then hit ENTER and make sure you're not connect to the internet (disable WiFi) because the OS may reset the time automatically. QUIT the Terminal and the installer will bring you back to the INSTALL window... just hit the button RESTART and everything should be fine.

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

Thank you so much. Changing to June 15 2017 12:30 removed the error and ended my hours and hours of frustration.

Changing the year to 2017 was the trick. Ignore all others..

This was also helpful if you don't know how to write in to terminal properly... !

https://superuser.com/questions/1495770/upgrade-from-yosemite-to-el-capitan-no-packages-available-for-install-crea

Thank you, thank you, thank you!! Just reinstalled El Capitan on my old Mac! Tried and failed everything before reading your post...

OMG. This worked. Thank you so much. I was up all night trying to fix my Mac. Although I keep most of my stuff in iCloud I did lose a few things but nothing that can’t be replicated. Props.

It happens when the date you use does not correspond to the installer. Some use 2017, but I had to use 2016 in order to make it work.

How I set the time back?

This video and steps worked for me, one comment though, you need to close your Wifi or internet connection before the reset and after changing the dat