High Sierra update error: The Recovery Server could not be contacted.

Guys - this fix works. Notice time needs to be set in UTC. A quick google search of "what is current utc time" will give you the time you need to enter into the terminal. I has issues installing because I was setting my computer to local time (6pm). As soon as I set to UTC (10pm) it worked the first try.

Seems like the issue was the date for quite a few people. Anyone have any input on what else it could be? I'm getting this error on my MBP and date checks out fine (is set automatically so that would make sense).

I was also getting the same error. Updating the date helped me.

Refer to this https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8088693?answerId=32407109022#32407109022

date 1027180017

Get a terminal window, frome the recovery menu. The menu bar at the top, not the window dot in the middle. Then enter the date command and you should see some some old date at January 1st. My MBP has a battery problem and wasn’t plugged in for a while so the system date got reset.

To fix type

date 1016200017

which is October 16th 20:00 (or 8pm) 2017.

So mmddhhmiyy
all two digits.

I have this error, too. I have tried again late at night, in the morning and during the day. After 2 days I still get this message. The error log says something about not having a Bridge05 to connect, does this help in solving the problem?

The other issue that causes this occurs when your Mac has recently been in for service.

During service, that may have set the "update server" to the address of the one in the back of the Apple store, and forgot to re-set it later.

is your Time Zone set correctly?

System time is maintained as UTC, but presented to you as Local Time. if you have not set the correct Time Zone, the time will appear correct to you, but the stored UTC will be off by several hours.

Much easier to set date with "ntpdate time.apple.com"

Hi,

The server could be temporarily offline for some reason. Try again later.

I don't know what to say at this point. I've seen a number of people with the same issue, but have yet to see a solution.

tried this several times. Didn't work. Still getting error message.

To make a secure connection, your date&time must be correct within five minutes.

Great tip, worked for me first time.

Frustrating though that when your in Internet Recovery Mode the UTC server isn't automatically grabbing the current UTC time and avoiding this problem.

Nice, thanks for a simple and efficient solution.

TBJ

This worked!!! Thank you for the explanation on setting the date.

This one did the trick for me, thanks!