I have an old Macbook pro and via the Recovery menu, Restore OSX (El Capitan). Everything seems to go fine and when it appears to finish and reboots, it goes back to the Recovery menu. I've done this a number of times and get the same result. What can I try next?
Mac Pro (2019)
Start up from macOS Recovery
Option-⌘-R
Upgrade to the latest macOS compatible with your Mac.
In Disk Utility>View, select Show all Devices, highlight the top left entry.
APFS won't work for Sierra or earlier, Sierra or earlier needs MacOS Extended Journaled. High Sierra won't work for APFS on earlier Macs.
What has often worked for others is to use this Restore Method instead of CMD+r keys...
Option-⌘-R
Upgrade to the latest macOS compatible with your Mac.
Messed up Factory Reset on MacBook Pro Mi… - Apple Community
2017 iMac failing to install Sierra in re… - Apple Community
Clean Install of High Sierra: Multiple Fa… - Apple Community
An Error Occurred While Preparing The Ins… - Apple Community
Start up from macOS Recovery
Option-⌘-R
Upgrade to the latest macOS compatible with your Mac.
In Disk Utility>View, select Show all Devices, highlight the top left entry.
APFS won't work for Sierra or earlier, Sierra or earlier needs MacOS Extended Journaled. High Sierra won't work for APFS on earlier Macs.
What has often worked for others is to use this Restore Method instead of CMD+r keys...
Option-⌘-R
Upgrade to the latest macOS compatible with your Mac.
Messed up Factory Reset on MacBook Pro Mi… - Apple Community
2017 iMac failing to install Sierra in re… - Apple Community
Clean Install of High Sierra: Multiple Fa… - Apple Community
An Error Occurred While Preparing The Ins… - Apple Community
Are you using the Disk Utility "Restore" feature? If so, that is not how you reinstall macOS.
Or are you selecting the "Reinstall macOS" option on the main Recovery Mode screen? If you are doing this, are you reinstalling macOS over top of itself? If so, that won't always fix things. You may need to perform a clean install which involves first erasing the drive before installing macOS. Before you erase the internal drive, I highly recommend that you install macOS to an external USB3 drive because we have seen a lot of users reporting that macOS can no longer be installed through Internet Recovery Mode (and seemingly even local Recovery Mode).
Better yet would be to create a bootable macOS USB installer as suggested by @BDAqua, but you will need access to another compatible Mac since your current Mac is unable to boot at the moment. For creating a macOS 10.11 USB installer generally requires access to another Mac from 2007 to 2015. If we knew the exact model of your Mac, we could tell if any later versions of macOS would be compatible which would expand your options for a compatible Mac.
However, there is a possibility you may have a hardware issue with the laptop such as a failing drive. It would really help to know why you are reinstalling macOS in the first place since that problem may be the reason why your reinstall process is failing as well.
It really helps to know the exact model of the Mac which you can get by clicking the Apple menu and selecting "About This Mac", or if the Mac is not booting, then you can enter the system serial number here:
Check Your Service and Support Coverage - Apple Support
Sorry Steve, not quite sure what is going on... do you have anybody that can create a bootable USB stick for you?
Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support
Hey,
I tried the Restore where I clicked on the Macintosh HD and did the restore. It copied the Recovery image into the Macintosh HD and I reboot. It never finishes the boot. I get the Apple and the progress bar goes to the end as if it's completed the boot process but it stuck there. I let it go for a couple of hours thinking it was still recovering but it never completes. I hit the switch and power cycle and it does exactly the same thing. Do you have any other suggestions?
Again, thank you for taking the time to help me.
Steve
Macbook Pro - Restore OSX fails with no error messages
