Unable to install El Capitan: "No packages were eligible for install"

During installation of El Capitan I receive the error: "OS X could not be installed on your computer. No packages were eligible for install."

I am presented with the option to restart, after which the computer enters the installer again and I am shown the same error. Holding down the option key during reboot gives me the option to enter the OS X installer or the Recovery disk. From the Recovery disk (version 10.11) I am able to use Disk Utility to verify that everything is in order with the hard drive. Attempting to use the Reinstall OS X option fails and I am given the message: "An error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running this application again." Repeated attempts have shown the same error.

The laptop is a mid-2009 MacBook Pro (previously) running the latest version of Yosemite (10.10.5).

Ideally I'd like to either continue with the installation of El Capitan or return to the version of Yosemite already installed on the laptop. At the moment the laptop is unusable. I have a time machine backup of Yosemite I could revert to if need be.

Anybody else experience this problem? Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11), Mid-2009

Posted on Oct 1, 2015 1:28 AM

23 replies

Feb 4, 2016 7:02 PM in response to Kriedi

Thank you so much. Saved my ***!!!

Feb 7, 2016 12:16 PM in response to ajsfromnyc

Oh my gosh, I found this thread about 1 hour too late! I was stuck in the same "unable to install" loop going from Mavericks to El Capitain on a late 2009 iMac. Booting from an external disk and using disk utility to repair the original drive turned up no problems, so finally resorted to the seeming only other option which was to restore a from a Time Machine backup since the original mavericks drive was now unbootable.

Now waiting for a restore that says it will take 14 hours...this has killed my entire days' workflow - argh!

Will try the date change fix after all is said and done if I'm still getting a packages error message on next attempt.

Thanks for posting this - better late than never I suppose!

mintinta

Level 1

9 points

Mar 7, 2016 12:21 AM in response to Kriedi

I have the same problem, however the date on my system is set correctly to my location in Australia, so there is nothing to change, and still cannot install El Capitan from a 64Gb bootable Sandisk.

colinbc

Level 1

0 points

Mar 19, 2016 6:08 AM in response to Kriedi

I found a solution that worked for me. It was related to not having the correct date set for my system.

To fix check out https://bensmann.no/changing-system-date-from-terminal-os-x-recovery/

I dont know much about computers but this was simple.

husham63

Level 1

8 points

May 5, 2016 12:46 PM in response to Kriedi

Thanks a lot. This helped me out...

Like Coldplay519 and !mmie said..., edit the date in Terminal will be enough to proceed the install of El Capitan.

Nov 10, 2016 10:58 AM in response to Kriedi

Had to force a data change in terminal.

From the installer click on Utilities in the menu bar at the top of the screen. Then click terminal, in terminal enter

date 111013232016 (i.e., Nov 10, 01:23pm 2016)

Upgrade went off without a hitch after that

Nov 28, 2016 1:39 AM in response to Kriedi

I was trying it the entire day. But I had to restart after setting the date on terminal to install. Otherwise it was the same error message again. Nevertheless, this has help me! Thank you!!

Jul 15, 2017 2:45 AM in response to Kriedi

Exactly my problem as well. Changed the date/time via terminal and the installation continued. Thanks for posting the solution!

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Unable to install El Capitan: "No packages were eligible for install"