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Has anyone had the error while trying to reinstall El Capitan (mid 2009 MacBook Pro) where it says “OS X could not be installed on your computer. No packages were eligible for install.“? I’ve already tried adjusting the date in terminal to no avail. I’ve booted in recovery mode with no luck. Tried creating a bootable USB and had no luck either.
MacBook Pro 13”, macOS 10.15
Good afternoon jyj081,
Welcome to the Apple Support Communities!
If I understand your issue, you have a mid 2009 MacBook Pro that you have upgraded from OS X El Capitan and you are trying to reinstall that operating system. Your profile shows a MacBook Pro with macOS Catalina. But this particular model can't be upgraded to macOS Catalina. Are you asking about a different computer? What operating system was it upgraded to?
Mac Hardware Requirements
How to reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery
Please reply to this thread with the additional information requested, and I'll do my best to help you with this!
Take care.
Hi Chris,
Thanks for your reply! You're right, I am asking about a different computer. I do have a new MBP with Catalina installed on it (I'm typing on it right now). The other computer is the mid 2009 that I'm trying to reinstall El Capitan on. Once I had migrated all my info onto this new machine, I wanted to deleted everything off the Mid 2009 MBP and reinstall El Capitan to have around as a dummy computer at my studio.
I've had no luck though. I've tried reinstalling in recovery mode and failing that, I got a USB and created a bootable copy to use...however, I keep getting the error stating that OSx Could Not be Installed and that there are no eligible packages. I tried to modify the date through Terminal as I've seen suggested, but the date was current and didn't seem to make a difference.
Any thoughts of what else I could try?
Try to adjust the date to mid 2017. It worked for me on 2 different macbook pros.
Thank you so much Charlee! This solved my issue. I set the date to somewhere in Aug 2017 and then OsX El Capitan installed no problem. You're a lifesaver!
Hi jyj081,
Based on the information you've provided, I think contacting Apple Support may be the best way to troubleshoot this issue.
Take care.
My pleasure!!
OSx Could Not Be Installed....date change did not fix the issue
