Installing High Sierra on MacBook Pro from 2012

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Level 1

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Installing High Sierra on MacBook Pro from 2012

After formatting everything I had on my hard drive and reinstalling OS X Mountain Lion on the computer (the one that came originally with it) the App Store won't open up though logged in with my Apple ID, neither most web pages from Safari, like the official page of Apple. Normally, the only thing it allows me is search on Google.

I've tried to download the .dmg on my new Mac and, then, transferring it to the old one through USB, but when I open the installer the system tells me that it requieres the .0 version of the upgrade, and not the last one as is offered by Apple.

Also I've tried to create a bootable installer from the new Mac but, as it's not an Intel based one, the system doesn't let me install it.

I suppose that the principal problem is not being able to access to the App Store and the vast majority of web pages, but I don't know if it is due to an expiry of certificate or not (changing the date to 2012 hasn't work anyways)

MacBook Pro 15″

Posted on Aug 29, 2023 1:01 PM

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Answer 1

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HWTech

Level 9

56,054 points

Aug 29, 2023 4:51 PM in response to Totò_Nap

Assuming you had macOS 10.15 installed at some point on this laptop (or 10.13+), then you should be able to access the online macOS 10.15 installer using Internet Recovery Mode (Command + Option + R)...at least theoretically since some Macs may just boot to the online installer for the OS which originally shipped with the laptop from the factory.

Another option assuming you had macOS 10.15 installed on this laptop (or 10.13+) and you have access to another Mac from 2012 to 2018, then you can create a bootable macOS 10.15 USB installer using the instructions in this Apple article:

Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

Otherwise you can use any computer capable of accessing Apple's website to download the macOS 10.11 installer directly from Apple servers outside of the App Store which you can then transfer to the 2012 laptop. You can find links to various macOS installers using this Apple article (make sure to carefully read the instructions since the 10.11 installer requires multiple steps in order to extract the real installer app from the downloaded .dmg file):

How to download and install macOS - Apple Support

Once you have macOS 10.11 installed you should be able to access the App Store to get the other later macOS installers.

I'm providing multiple options so you may be able to go directly to 10.15 instead of taking multiple steps with multiple upgrades.

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Answer 2

Totò_Nap Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 1, 2023 8:05 AM in response to HWTech

Thanks for the reply. Apparently the problem was not the operating system itself, but the version of Safari and App Store from I was trying to download them.

If someone has the same problem, I just downloaded Google Chrome from that outdated Safari and it was all fine: it did let me access to all web pages on the Internet, including those that you told me.

Regards,

Totò

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Installing High Sierra on MacBook Pro from 2012

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