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internet recovery for mac not working

Hello, I followed the support suggestions to erase my HD on a 2015 Mac book Pro laptop. Now when I try to restart to reinstall OS holding command R it goes into "internet recovery" and takes a while and then just fails. Can someone help me?

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 11.6

Posted on Mar 11, 2022 8:55 AM

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Posted on Mar 11, 2022 12:25 PM

sorry, I should have given more info. after pressing Command - R upon startup it goes into rotating globe image and says "Starting Internet Recovery, This may take a while" The few different times I've tried it it has taken between 6 and 15 min. It WAS connected to my Wifi before I erased the HD and my other computer is on the Wifi and having no connectivity issues. The progress bar underneath the spinning earth slowly fills and eventually fails before reaching full. The image then changes to the globe with the triangle containing an exclamation point. The txt says support.apple.com/mac/startup and below that it says "-2003F". Thanks so much for looking at this!

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12 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 11, 2022 12:25 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

sorry, I should have given more info. after pressing Command - R upon startup it goes into rotating globe image and says "Starting Internet Recovery, This may take a while" The few different times I've tried it it has taken between 6 and 15 min. It WAS connected to my Wifi before I erased the HD and my other computer is on the Wifi and having no connectivity issues. The progress bar underneath the spinning earth slowly fills and eventually fails before reaching full. The image then changes to the globe with the triangle containing an exclamation point. The txt says support.apple.com/mac/startup and below that it says "-2003F". Thanks so much for looking at this!

Mar 11, 2022 1:06 PM in response to rebeltoft

In Internet Recovery, these low negative thousands error messages indicate that your provided Wi-Fi Network is inadequate in some fashion, and cannot be used (for this purpose) in its current state.


Common problems include:

Hidden Network-name

required use of a proxy server to get Internet access

required use of a login page to get Internet access

Use of a login server or certificate to get Internet access

Use of PPPoE in the Mac to get Internet access (typically only applies to DSL)

Use of Fixed IP address rather than good old DHCP

Variance of the time by more than five minutes

Failure of Router to provide workable DNS server addresses, or providing 0.0.0.0 [may produce -2002f]


If you have an Ethernet port, you may in some cases be able to move your Mac close to the Router and connect to the Router using Ethernet.


The higher the number, the more obscure the problem.


If your battery was completely depleted, the Date&Time could have reverted to the default, which will not work. There is a terminal command to reset to current Internet Date&Time -- post back for assistance.

Mar 12, 2022 10:05 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thanks so much for this Grant!

I will admit to not being completely certain that none of your

suggested connectivity problems exist.

I'm just using standard Verizon home wifi so I feel that

sound like it rules out a few.


And the laptop was fully charged and plugged in for the entire

procedure so I don't think that was a problem. But if you think resetting

the Date Time might help I'd be willing to try that certainly.


I don't have an ethernet port in the laptop so that potential solve isn't possible.


I did back up with time machine prior to this ill advised move.

is it possible somehow to reboot it back to its former self using that?


Thanks so much for your help with this!

Mar 12, 2022 10:59 AM in response to rebeltoft

now we are getting somewhere. but it is not such a great place to get to.


Yosemite wants to see formatted drive whose Directory is in good shape (Directory passes Disk Utility First Aid) and is NOT formatted APFS (used for High Sierra and later), but MacOS Extended format.


From where you are, you should be able to select Utilities off a menu (or possibly quit Installer and get back to Utilities) launch Disk Utility and run first aid, or ERASE the drive again, and ensure it is MacOS Extended format.

Mar 12, 2022 11:47 AM in response to rebeltoft

You should consider upgrading to al least 10.11 El Capitan. The changes are not very dramatic from Yosemite, but Internet support is better, and your ability to get an even more advanced version, if you decided to do so, will be better.


10.11 El Capitan is the Gateway for all later versions, because once it is installed and fully updated, it has an improved Mac App Store.


How to get old versions of macOS - Apple Support


Mar 12, 2022 10:47 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I want to assure you I tried MANY MANY times before posting my original question but after your advise to just try again I did and it Worked! ha! so thanks for that nudge to just try again. So I clicked to Install new OS and am now shown a page asking me to "Select the disk where you want to install OS X" But no disks are shown to choose. the area below is just blank and there is no way to get the Install button to be clickable. Any help with this one? Or maybe I should just do it again and click restart from time machine back up. Again, thankyou sooo much for this help. Amazing!

Mar 12, 2022 11:57 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Wow, you knew what was coming next didn't ya. So before I (mistakenly) decided to wipe the HD on this laptop I was Running the latest version of Monterey as my Mac Book was made in late 2015 just squeaking in under the requirements. But now when I try to Download it it says that I cant install it on this computer. And when I click on the About this Mac it now says my Mac Book Pro is from Mid 2014 !! Doh! Any idea how to fix this?

internet recovery for mac not working

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