El Capitan install file corrupted, can't redownload from App Store

Question

Level 1

4 points

El Capitan install file corrupted, can't redownload from App Store

I was planning on doing a clean install of El Capitan on a 13" late Macbook Pro 2011, but have run into some issues:

(1) Main issue: Can't re-download El Capitan install file from App Store, the button is greyed out, saying "Downloaded". (After creating a bootable USB with it, I deleted it). I have I've activated Debug mode to make sure it's not in download folder, emptied the trash and restarted. Still shows Downloaded, even in the Purchased tab it is greyed out. How can I force download? Is there somewhere else I can download it than from the App Store? I found some old forum posts talking about this issue, but those are old links that don't seem to work (the most recent release is Dec. 8, 2015). If you know how to do this, you can stop reading here...

(2) Full background: I downloaded and installed El Capitan on a bootable USB (that I created). After reformatting the new drive, I restarted holding Option and selected the bootable USB, proceeded through the steps. Once I got past the user agreement, selected the destination HD for the install, etc. where it would normally take an hour or so do install, I got the error: "This copy of the install OS X El Capitan application can't be verified. It may have been corrupted or tampered with during downloading." Thus my reason to want to re-download, but can't.

(3) Full full background: I got a new SSD and was going to do the clean install on the new HD. I backed-up with Time Machine and installed El Cap on the new drive, hoping to skip the bootable USB step. Just for safety, I (thankfully) also still made the bootable USB. When I went to start-up after installing the new SSD, I got the grey screen with a folder and a question mark in it and couldn't get it to start-up. I restarted with Cmnd-R and got a failure error when verifying/repairing: "Problems were found with the partition map which might prevent booting." Since I had the bootable USB, I just reformatted and successfully verified. That brings me back to (2) above.

I have the Time Machine and the original HD, but am hoping I can avoid either restoring from the Time Machine or taking my computer apart again and just re-download. Any thoughts? (Sorry for the length, but wanted to give all the info in case there was something I'm missing).

Thanks!

MacBook Pro, late 2011, 13"

Posted on Dec 29, 2015 12:34 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 2, 2016 11:58 AM in response to whyyouareeye

Re-download El Capitan installer:

Unplug all external drives from your Mac.

Unmount all network drives if you have any connected.

Check your Applications folder. That's the place where OS X installers get downloaded to.

Check your LaunchPad. If you find the El Capitan installer in there, remove it.

Open App Store.

Log OUT of App Store.

Close App Store.

Reboot your Mac.

Open App Store.

Log IN to App Store.

Check if the download button is available again.

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Answer 2

whyyouareeye Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 2, 2016 12:00 PM in response to bigschwabbel

Thank you, this worked to download the OS again from the App Store.

Unfortunately, when I went to install/boot from the USB, it still was corrupted. I ended up going to the Apple Store's Genius Bar and they copied a disk image over with the new OS X 10.11.

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Answer 3

Feb 15, 2016 2:32 PM in response to whyyouareeye

I've been having the same exact problem and tried what was suggested to you. Unfortunately, it did not work for me. If anyone has any other possible solution, I'd love to hear it.

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Answer 4

Mar 15, 2016 7:57 PM in response to RalphTomaccio

Hope this reaches you in time. This has a good success rate for me.

I've experienced an identical issue. I've also had issues with the date on the new computer stopping the install. Sometimes you can have a certificate issue. Sometimes the installer thinks your computer is too old. I've heard a lot of voodoo explanations. In this case it's likely the certificate issue and you need to pick a date between the certificate start and end dates it deems valid.

So merely by advancing the date you can bypass the OS check and get started.

Try running Terminal in Recovery mode. Type "date 0101120017". You are setting the date to Jan 1, 2017. 12 Noon. You don't need sudo. Then try the install again.

After the install you will set the date back or just let the Mac set it automatically via NTP after you connect to the Internet.

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Answer 5

Mar 16, 2016 4:49 AM in response to GeorgeSupport6411

I found that the reason I could not RE-download ElCapitan is because the OS will not allow you to do so if it sees that there is a copy of the previous download anywhere in sight on your computer, no matter where it is, whether it's in your Applications folder or even on another attached hard drive. Removed it and unmounted my external and was able to re-download easy-peasy!

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Answer 6

Mar 24, 2016 9:47 AM in response to GeorgeSupport6411

I was getting the "This copy of the install OS X El Capitan application can't be verified. It may have been corrupted or tampered with during downloading." message, so as suggested by GeorgeSupport6411, I open the terminal window and typed "date", and saw it was set to a date in the year 2000, so reset that using "date 0101120017" and started the installer again and it worked fine, so thanks for that.

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Answer 7

thoennes

Level 1

20 points

Apr 23, 2016 8:02 AM in response to whisperax

As Ralph said, *anywhere* on your computer. I'd add: no matter what it's named.

In my specific situation, the installer in /Applications had been marked as hidden. Also, the installer had been renamed with an (old) on the end of it. Doesn't matter. It was still detected as an installer (even though it was corrupt, hidden, and renamed).

So for me, I had to make sure the installer was not hidden and was really deleted and not just renamed.

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