Help. I'm currently running High Sierra, but I keep getting network related errors. Apple Support wants me to reinstall High Sierra to fix the errors. When I go to app store, High Sierra page, and hit "download", I get the error:
"macOS High Sierra failed to download / Use the Purchased page to try again."
Well, High Sierra isn't on my purchased page.
How do I get around this?
Thanks
MacBook Pro 17″, macOS 10.13
That is not how you get High Sierra in 2023. Using Safari only, select High Sierra from its link in How to download and install macOS - Apple Support and that will open a panel on the Mac App Store from which you download the full High Sierra 10.13.6 installer application into your /Applications folder. Cancel if it wants to proceed with the installation.
If you have a spare 8GB USB stick, you can also make a bootable installer from the High Sierra installer app following the instructions at Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support
Here is an example in the Terminal of how I created a bootable USB installer for Sierra. Just change the installer name to High Sierra with the appropriate escapes (\) for white-space.
That is not how you get High Sierra in 2023. Using Safari only, select High Sierra from its link in How to download and install macOS - Apple Support and that will open a panel on the Mac App Store from which you download the full High Sierra 10.13.6 installer application into your /Applications folder. Cancel if it wants to proceed with the installation.
If you have a spare 8GB USB stick, you can also make a bootable installer from the High Sierra installer app following the instructions at Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support
Here is an example in the Terminal of how I created a bootable USB installer for Sierra. Just change the installer name to High Sierra with the appropriate escapes (\) for white-space.
Scott Bernard wrote:
... I have an alternate bootable drive I can run on while installing on my main hard drive. But the alternate drive gives me the same error as above when I try to download....
I just successfully downloaded the High Sierra installer from the App Store after clicking the link found in this doc: How to download and install macOS - Apple Support
However, because I am running Catalina, I am greeted with this dialog when I launch the installer app:
You might try booting from your alternate drive and trying the download again.
I would advise that you first take a peek in the Applications folder on whatever startup drive you use, and see if the "Install macOS High Sierra" app exists there. If so, drag it to the trash, empty the trash and restart the Mac. Then try the download again.
Also, I don't see this mentioned in the thread, but have you tried to reinstall the High Sierra app by booting into Recovery? (Option-Command-R)
Reinstall macOS - Apple Support
D.I. Johnson wrote:
I just successfully downloaded the High Sierra installer from the App Store after clicking the link found in this doc: How to download and install macOS - Apple Support
You might try booting from your alternate drive and trying the download again.
I would advise that you first take a peek in the Applications folder on whatever startup drive you use, and see if the "Install macOS High Sierra" app exists there. If so, drag it to the trash, empty the trash and restart the Mac. Then try the download again.
Also, I don't see this mentioned in the thread, but have you tried to reinstall the High Sierra app by booting into Recovery? (Option-Command-R)
Reinstall macOS - Apple Support
That's the exact place I started from. I clicked on that page on High Sierra "10.13" here: (see pic), and get sent to app store, and then my original error as posted above.
I've tried the alternate boot drive MANY times, with only the same error.
I have no idea which attempt generated it, but there WAS an incomplete download of the installer sitting in my applications folder. Trashed now. Restarting, will reply with results later.
I have tried booting into recovery, and just kept getting network errors still. I'm re-trying download first, and if that fails, I'll document the recovery install attempt issues.
John Galt wrote:
The workaround will be to download the installer from the App Store as you tried, and it will require creating the "bootable USB installer" — a step you are not even able to reach.
For what it's worth I successfully downloaded HS from the App Store and created a "bootable USB installer" from it. Creating it took about fifteen minutes start to finish. It boots a compatible Mac and is installing HS on it as I write this.
Get Info reports the installer app is 5.23 GB in size.
I understand you were not able to do that, so all I can suggest is what you alluded to earlier: try again, perhaps from another, temporary User Account: Add a user or group on Mac - Apple Support. Try downloading it from the MAS while logged into that Account. Assuming that works use Apple's Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support instructions.
I do not intend to imply you're doing something wrong and you probably aren't. That's one reason for my initial reply: "ask Apple how to do that."
At 22 MB whatever the App Store gave you is clearly useless. Toss it.
If there is even a hint of difference between what you're doing and what I'm doing, it is in VikingOSX's reply elsewhere in this Discussion:
Using Safari only, select High Sierra from its link in How to download and install macOS - Apple Support and that will open a panel on the Mac App Store from which you download the full High Sierra 10.13.6 installer application into your /Applications folder.
That's where the difference lies.
You wrote that you "... booted off my alternate hard drive, logged in on an alternate user, logged into app store with alternate Apple ID, and it let me successfully download the small 22m High Sierra installer." The apparent missing step in that description is that you did not begin with the link quoted above. You should not be getting the "Use the Purchased page to try again" dialog in the MAS. That doesn't any make sense.
Once again I do not intend to add to your frustration and you may not be doing anything wrong. If you in fact following those instructions to the letter yet it does not result in a ± 5.23 GB installer app, then something else is going on for which I have no explanation. My suggestion is to contact Apple again and insist that they provide explicit, step-by-step instructions (which a number of us have already provided though). Apple even has the ability to screen share with you so that they can see what you're seeing and tell you to click here, open this, etc.
Last suggestion which admittedly amounts to desperate measures: Try following those instructions in "Safe Mode": Use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support. I doubt it will make any difference but it's simple enough to try.
Please let us know the outcome.
Scott Bernard wrote:
As it turns out, I really DID have network gremlins, accounting for quite a few forum threads I started recently. I'm not sure how many of the attempts in this thread would have worked if not for said gremlins.
The eventual answer was a new installation of High Sierra (ironic in this thread at least)...
Well, I have to revise my earlier post after further testing revealed some things, and other helpful users gave some really good instruction:
This is hard to explain, but some of you may have a LARGER problem, that's giving you the High Sierra full installer download errors. I'll detail what the larger problem is, and how you can spot it below. If you check and think you have the Larger problem, I'd highly recommend you go ahead and fix it, as it will keep causing "server" and "connection" errors until you do. There are more potential errors than just the examples I give below. Fixing the Larger problem requires a clean install of High Sierra, from the installer you already want to download, and might have been planning to clean install anyway.
Thread Topic Answers:
To Download High Sierra full installer, these are the ways I would try, as posted in this thread.
More than one of these worked for me:
Going back to the Larger problem topic:
The big discovery since my earlier post:
***ALL High Sierra Clean Installs come with the errors/problem... ...until you restart it once.***
Everything below is revised to reflect this.
We sort of finally found the main problem, and I have a working solution to get around it, since we can't fix it.
The (Larger) Problem:
It seems there is something local stopping connections to at least swscan.apple.com, but we don't know what/where it is in order to fix it in-place.
Do you have the same (Larger) problem?
1. First, I suspect you have to be on High Sierra to have this problem. I installed multiple Mojaves and they were all error-free.
2. Second, take a look at these related errors to the main problem. Errors 1-3 are the easiest to test for, but maybe some of the other errors already look familiar.
1) Can't add Google or Yahoo email accounts to Internet Accounts pane.
2) Software Update failing on High Sierra: (NSURLErrorDomain error -1012.)
3) iOS 17 iPhone 12 not showing up on 2009 iMac iTunes.*
aka. iOS 17 iPhones not connecting to iTunes, because support download fails.
*make sure you have the latest iTunes version if you test. On High Sierra this should be 12.8.3. For some users, this version never appeared in the App Store software Updates section. Get it here: Download iTunes 12.8.3 for Mac
4) Can't download High Sierra full installer. (this thread)
5) other unspecified "server" or "connection" errors.
3. Third, do errors 1-3 occur together? If you have 1 or 2 of the errors, but a 3rd one works fine, you likely don't have the problem described above, and this solution would be overkill.
The (Larger) Solution:
D.I. Johnson wrote:
I just successfully downloaded the High Sierra installer from the App Store after clicking the link found in this doc: How to download and install macOS - Apple Support
I would advise that you first take a peek in the Applications folder on whatever startup drive you use, and see if the "Install macOS High Sierra" app exists there. If so, drag it to the trash, empty the trash and restart the Mac. Then try the download again.
I forgot to ask, how large is the installer you successfully downloaded?
Partial download installer deleted, restarted, I get exact same error as the original post above. Bonus, it created another partial download installer in my Applications folder.
Trying booting into recovery next unless I get another suggestion first. Deleting partial installer first of course.
Scott Bernard wrote:
Help. I'm currently running High Sierra, but I keep getting network related errors. Apple Support wants me to reinstall High Sierra to fix the errors. When I go to app store, High Sierra page, and hit "download", I get the error:
"macOS High Sierra failed to download / Use the Purchased page to try again."
Well, High Sierra isn't on my purchased page.
How do I get around this?
I stumbled upon another method to get past the "Purchased page" error while working on something else.
(written from a High Sierra system)
2. apply notes below to the ANSWER procedure found here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/50144017/xcode-failed-to-download-use-the-purchases-page-to-try-again-xcode-9-3-macos
Again, ignore the original post, and go to the ANSWER.
notes to ANSWER procedure:
I will save you the hassle. It is no longer possible to download and install High Sierra.
An Apple Store can probably install it though. They ought to have a variety of local (USB / NetBoot) installers.
Whether it will resolve the network-related problems is another story though. If you describe them perhaps a more viable solution can be suggested.
D.I. Johnson wrote:
Also, I don't see this mentioned in the thread, but have you tried to reinstall the High Sierra app by booting into Recovery? (Option-Command-R)
Reinstall macOS - Apple Support
Ok, spinning globe like normal, then language prompt I don't recall seeing before despite going further than this on previous attempts.
Chose "Reinstall MacOS":
Clicked "continue":
The same error I got on previous attempts here: "The recovery server could not be contacted". I have tried this on two different internet connections with same result:
The unanswered question is why it works for some users and not others.
Please do the following. Control-click the High Sierra link in How to download and install macOS - Apple Support and choose Copy Link.
Paste it into a human-readable text field.
This is the result I get:
macappstores://apps.apple.com/app/macos-high-sierra/id1246284741?mt=12
The "macappstores" prefix tells Safari to redirect to the App Store (which is the reason it might not work in other browsers). The numbers at the end tell the App Store what to offer.
Solved, but detailed solution post was already removed by Apple for violating post guidelines. I read the guidelines and I don't know what they think I violated, and they didn't say.
My attempt at a non-violating answer is as follows:
I found a non-Apple app, not on the Mac App Store, and the app had a utility function to download the full installer direct from Apple.
If you use the biggest web search engine, there should be a full tutorial page from a popular site among the top results that details the very simple process.
I have already downloaded and successfully run Apple's High Sierra installer with no issues. The installation is fully updated to latest version.
Good luck.
John Galt wrote:
Try downloading it from the MAS while logged into that Account. Assuming that works use Apple's Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support instructions.
I booted off my alternate hard drive, logged in on an alternate user, logged into app store with alternate Apple ID, and it let me successfully download the small 22m High Sierra installer. I'm not sure if it's a net installer, or if it prompts the full installer download. Unfortunately, this small installer runs, but hits the same error as the recovery installer. I tried running it on a second internet connection as well, and get the same thing:
"The recovery server could not be contacted".
22meg small installer get info below
same error
sorry for picture quality.
what now?
D.I. Johnson wrote:
Is it deprecated or just broken?
Apple has been completely silent on the matter. Either they don't know, don't care, or they know and have chosen to remain silent. All I know is that the applicable Recovery method has not worked since about June of this year. I am no longer expecting it to return.
John Galt wrote:
Please do the following. Control-click the High Sierra link in How to download and install macOS - Apple Support and choose Copy Link.
Paste it into a human-readable text field.
This is the result I get:
macappstores://apps.apple.com/app/macos-high-sierra/id1246284741?mt=12
macappstores://apps.apple.com/app/macos-high-sierra/id1246284741?mt=12
same as you
Just out of curiosity, I tried downloading SIerra from the same web page. I clicked and it went straight into my Safari downloads. After it finshed, I tried it and it runs without error.
Can't download High Sierra full installer.