I'm in the process of reformatting my old mid 2011 iMac that has Yosemite on it. I made it to the step where I have to reinstall the operating system, so I sign into my Apple ID and it's telling me payment declined? I was never informed that it would cost money to reinstall the operating system, and it's not telling me how much. Help?
There is no cost for Yosemite, however, you must have a valid and active account which means a current credit or debit card. However, I don't quite get what you are doing to reinstall Yosemite because you don't need to use the App Store directly.
Install or Reinstall OS X from Scratch
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears.
Erase the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the
left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on
the Security button and set the Zero Data option to one-pass. Click on
the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall OS X: Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Install button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
because it is three times faster than wireless.
This should install the version of OS X that you had installed.
I erased my hard drive, and when I go through the steps to reinstall Yosemite, it prompts me to log into my apple ID and will not let me continue, because 'Payment declined'. I do have a visa debit connected to my apple account which I use for music on my Macbook Pro. Do I need to connect an actual credit card or something?
Are you entirely sure that is the OS that your iMac is trying to install? Mountain Lion and earlier OS X versions cost money to install, and your iMac came with either OS X 10.7 or an earlier version, which costs money.
Log into any of the app stores and edit your account. There may be a new agreement or something like that which needs to be accepted. However, I've never seen that message associated with that type of thing.
If that doesn't resolve the issue, contact App Store support: http://www.apple.com/support/mac/app-store/
Hayden Kaminsky wrote:
Are you entirely sure that is the OS that your iMac is trying to install? Mountain Lion and earlier OS X versions cost money to install, and your iMac came with either OS X 10.7 or an earlier version, which costs money.
That's not it. With Internet Recovery you can reinstall the shipping OS, but it is always licensed to that Mac. There would still not be any payment required.
Yep! It's definitely %100 Yosemite that I'm trying to install.
Yeah, I'll try to fiddle around in my account settings. Thanks! If that doesn't work, I'll go through apple support.
It costs money to reinstall OS X Yosemite?
