User profile for user: Glitterglow
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'The Recovery server could not be contacted'. Cannot reinstall High Sierra after wiping Mac Pro 2012 for re-sale. Please help! Thank you.

Hello,


Having bought a new Mac Studio, I wiped my Mac Pro 2012 the Apple correct way (using the article below) ready for re-sale. Now when trying to reinstall it's old OS High Sierra, I get this error message when trying to download it 'The recovery server could not be contacted' (please see attached photo). On calling Apple they just say my computer is 'obsolete' (despite it working fine until I wiped it). I did not wipe the start up drive. I am connected to the internet. We have tried ethernet cables too.


I have tried this article https://gist.github.com/levlaz/16b63384bd5e1bee3593be0d91aedbd7 & tried to re-set the time using this command multiple times (including restarting) but it didn't work.


"To fix this.

  1. Open up a Terminal from the utilities menu
  2. Enter the following command
ntpdate -u time.apple.com
  1. Try to install High Sierra again. It should just work™."

Can anyone help me? I can't re-sell it like this & it was a working computer before!


Thank you.


What to do before you sell, give away, trade in or recycle your Mac – Apple Support (UK)




Mac Pro, macOS 10.13

Posted on Sep 18, 2023 9:10 AM

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User profile for user: HWTech
HWTech
Community+ 2026
User level: Level 9
74,926 points

Posted on Sep 18, 2023 9:30 AM

We have been seeing these reports for about a month now. Some of the regular contributors notified those in charge of the forums, but we still see these reports and have not had any status updates from Apple.


Either Apple doesn't care to fix the problem, or Apple has secretly & quietly taken those servers offline for the older macOS online installers....seems to affect macOS 10.7 to 10.13, and I think maybe even 10.14 & 10.15. I'm thinking this may be intentional by Apple due to the excruciating silence.


You can provide Apple with product feedback here (Apple won't respond):

Product Feedback - Apple


You can also contact Apple corporate to let them know your displeasure about this sudden & unexpected removal of a critical feature (Apple may respond):

Contact - How to Contact Us - Apple


You may also want to check out your local consumer protection laws to see if any apply since Apple did make Internet Recovery Mode the main option for reinstalling the OS on many of their Macs. Many people don't have access to a working compatible Mac in order to download & create bootable macOS USB installers.


In the mean time, your only option is to create & use a bootable macOS USB installer, but this requires access to another Mac compatible with the OS installer you want to create. If you have access to a compatible Mac, then you can use the instructions in this Apple article for creating a bootable macOS USB installer:

Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support


Another possibility if you have access to another Mac, but it is not compatible with any OS for your 2012 Mac would be to try using MDS. I've never personally used it, but saw another respected forum contributor suggest it recently.



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User profile for user: HWTech
HWTech
Community+ 2026
User level: Level 9
74,926 points

Sep 18, 2023 9:30 AM in response to Glitterglow

We have been seeing these reports for about a month now. Some of the regular contributors notified those in charge of the forums, but we still see these reports and have not had any status updates from Apple.


Either Apple doesn't care to fix the problem, or Apple has secretly & quietly taken those servers offline for the older macOS online installers....seems to affect macOS 10.7 to 10.13, and I think maybe even 10.14 & 10.15. I'm thinking this may be intentional by Apple due to the excruciating silence.


You can provide Apple with product feedback here (Apple won't respond):

Product Feedback - Apple


You can also contact Apple corporate to let them know your displeasure about this sudden & unexpected removal of a critical feature (Apple may respond):

Contact - How to Contact Us - Apple


You may also want to check out your local consumer protection laws to see if any apply since Apple did make Internet Recovery Mode the main option for reinstalling the OS on many of their Macs. Many people don't have access to a working compatible Mac in order to download & create bootable macOS USB installers.


In the mean time, your only option is to create & use a bootable macOS USB installer, but this requires access to another Mac compatible with the OS installer you want to create. If you have access to a compatible Mac, then you can use the instructions in this Apple article for creating a bootable macOS USB installer:

Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support


Another possibility if you have access to another Mac, but it is not compatible with any OS for your 2012 Mac would be to try using MDS. I've never personally used it, but saw another respected forum contributor suggest it recently.



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'The Recovery server could not be contacted'. Cannot reinstall High Sierra after wiping Mac Pro 2012 for re-sale. Please help! Thank you.

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