Can't get EL Capitan to download

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Level 1

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Can't get EL Capitan to download

This is what I get when I go to the "purchases" page. From the App Store....I simply get "an error has occurred, please download from the purchases page. I travel all over the world and I think I started the download in Sydney (I live in LA). The download was so slow on the hotel wifi that I had to give up and thought I would just resume the download when returning home. Now, what you see above is what I get when trying to download the OS. I DID go and delete what appeared to be small fragments of OS Capitan but I only found two icons/folders with kb's...not 598 MB of data to download. Is the Download file hidden?? Is there some way I can delete the 598 MB without having to wipe my entire computer and start again??....although I don't think I have any file with 598MB of OS Capitan in it unless it has a different name. I have gone to the App Store and then to the purchases store over and over again. I also went to the "Launch Pad" thinking it might show something downloaded or paused but nothing. Any help to get the download to complete or to wipe what is already on my hard drive keeping the OS from a clean download would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Kenyon

MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012), OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Nov 2, 2015 2:57 AM

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Answer 1

R C-R

Level 6

17,782 points

Nov 2, 2015 3:16 AM in response to AcuDocKenyon

I am not certain about this but I think OS X updates in the process of being downloaded are temporally stored in /Library/Updates (that is the root level Library folder, not the system or user ones). There should be two persistent files in that folder, index.plist & ProductMetadata.plist, but anything else in there is (I think) where packages that are part of the updater are stashed until everything is downloaded.

Once the download completes & the installation process begins the installer packages are run & files are deleted from the Updates folder afterwards, leaving just the two files mentioned above.

So, while you will have to do this at your own risk, it may help to delete everything in that folder besides the two plist files.

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Answer 2

Paul_31

Level 6

14,166 points

Nov 2, 2015 3:20 AM in response to AcuDocKenyon

Any download, or partial download, should show in your Applications folder with a file name of 'Install OS X El Capitan'. If you find that, perhaps move that to the Trash and delete it.

With the change of countries, I wonder if somehow the App Store has got 'confused'. Perhaps logging out of your account from the App Store>Store menu, and then logging back in again will sort it out. Worth a try if you haven't already?

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Answer 3

R C-R

Level 6

17,782 points

Nov 2, 2015 3:34 AM in response to Paul_31

Paul_31 wrote:

Any download, or partial download, should show in your Applications folder with a file name of 'Install OS X El Capitan'. If you find that, perhaps move that to the Trash and delete it.

As I mentioned above, it seems that some components of the download are temporarily stored in /Library/Updates. From what I can tell this is true for updated applications (like Safari) that are installed along with the OS itself.

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Answer 4

Paul_31

Level 6

14,166 points

Nov 2, 2015 3:39 AM in response to R C-R

R C-R wrote:

Paul_31 wrote:

Any download, or partial download, should show in your Applications folder with a file name of 'Install OS X El Capitan'. If you find that, perhaps move that to the Trash and delete it.

As I mentioned above, it seems that some components of the download are temporarily stored in /Library/Updates. From what I can tell this is true for updated applications (like Safari) that are installed along with the OS itself.

You may well be right, but I thought that only applied to updates to the OS, not when downloading the full installer of an OS.

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Answer 5

R C-R

Level 6

17,782 points

Nov 2, 2015 3:57 AM in response to Paul_31

As I said, I'm not sure about this, but I do know that when I stopped a download of the full version of 10.11.1 (not the update) there were files & folders in the /Library/Updates folder that appeared to be part of the same packages & bundles that I see in the contents of the copy of the "Install OS X Capitan.app" that I later saved for future use.

If nothing else, that would explain why the partial download of the installer app in /Applications/ shows a smaller file size than shown below the progress bar in the screen shot of the Mac App Store.

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Answer 6

Nov 2, 2015 3:58 AM in response to AcuDocKenyon

-Close the App Store.

-Open Launchpad.

-Click and hold any app, they start vibrate and a little X appears at the top left side of the apps (like on iOS devices)-

-Cancel osx El Capitan Install.app

-Start download again from the App Store.

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Answer 7

AcuDocKenyon Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 2, 2015 7:45 PM in response to tachipirina

Thanks Tachipirina...but that was one of the first things I tried. All of the remnants of El Capitan that I can find or locate using the search protocol have been deleted. I am still left with the download starting and then stopping....telling me to go to the "purchases" page and download, only to have it start and then stop. It's frustrating.....I have tried all the "easy" ways and so was hoping someone had some other ideas. :-)

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Answer 8

Nov 2, 2015 9:43 PM in response to AcuDocKenyon

Close the AppStore.

Open Activity Monitor and quit the following processes , if running:

-Storeuid

-Storelegacy

-Storedownload

-Storeassetd

-Storeaccount

Clear out:

~Library/ApplicationSupport/AppStore/updatedjurnal.plist

~Library/Caches

~Library/Cookies

~Library/LaunchAgents

~Library/Saved Application State

~Library/Safari (except for bookmarks.plist and TopSites.plist)

Restart Mac, empty trash and try again. This way must work!!

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