"Recovery server could not be contacted" Error Message

I just met the same problem today.

The solution is go to the top right corner and click the WIFI connection, choose the correct network and enter your password. Once it shows connection, try again the whole process and it will go through.

When I started the system (with the alt key holding down), I already selected with network connection and enter the password. But it seems that the system did not use the network settings you specify when you select the recovery disk. So you have to do it again when you see the starting options.

Hope it helps for other users.

the easiest way to do this as well if you don't want to manually set the date/time is open the terminal utility (as stated before)

and type this ntpdate -u time.apple.com

OR sudo ntpdate -u time.apple.com

that's what I had to do, so it would sync up to apples servers and start my recovery install.

Hi there,

I had same problem, which my mac didnt have a battery at the time, but easy fix though try this:

When in recovery mode open a terminal window from

“Utilities” at the top menu

Once its open type this command in to sync with apple servers ntpdate -u time.apple.com

Once thats done exit terminal and just proceed the recovery should work howp it helps

I had this same issue. In the extreme upper right hand corner of your screen, you will see the wireless icon. Click on that icon and connect to a wireless network. Then it worked perfectly. I hope it helps.

hi guys . actually i had same issue and same error .

it happened for me when i downloaded update for macOs high sierra from app store and startet to update but at the middle of installing update . it gave me an error that you can not continue and things like that

but when i saw that my only choice is to use recovery installing i contacted with apple support ( actually they do their best )

actually you can solve this problem with one of this ways :

1- check your "date" time via Terminal by typing just date

because some times your date is not same as it should be and when you send request with server your time causes this error . and if your time was not correct search google and fix it

2- i'v heard from apple support you must just use wife or cable for updating ( i mean you can not share from you mobile phone for your laptop , but finally i updated my macOs via mobile hotspot) so try using wifi

3- try to use an internet which has a very good internet speed . (i think it's very important )

4- and this one is fantastic : i was connected to wife and it gave me same error , apple support said me turn your wifi on and off ( when you turn it on it must ask for wifi password again ,something like forgetting and again connecting) when i did this and entered password again and pressed continue and it worked( Boooom )

(but because of loosing my internet connection it gave a internet error and i had to do it again )

but this time when i restarted my computer and did all those things again . i didn't work . i think i tried maybe for 15 or 20 times and turning wifi on and off each time . but it wouldn't work . finally i was ****** i said let's do it once again and it worked (via hotspot)

5- so don' t give up ( i was busy with this error about 2 day )

i hope these things be able to help you if you have same problem ( i should mention that i had no hard drive problem and when i used "first aid" every thing was ok )

The problem for me was simply that WiFi wasn’t connected. Exit from the install menu and select “view help online” that will prompt for WiFi password - once you are connected you will be granted access.

I noticed my mac was not connected to the wireless network. After I connected it, the error was gone and the reinstall started...

Been having this issue and then realised I was no longer connected to the internet. Chose my connection, had to put in password again, and it started downloading!

Same thing happened to me. But later I realized that my Mac was not connect to the internet. Check the right upper corner, internet status. After reconnecting to the internet, reinstall started.

I just had this problem. Do a restart while holding Option. Ensure that your WiFi network is selected to give the system somewhere to look for the recovery server. Select your recovery drive for the startup.

And just to further clarify, use UTC, NOT your own time zone. If you don’t know what time it currently is in UTC use this: https://time.is/UTC

I just went through the same issue and couldn’t get past it until I used UTC time.

Thanks for the tip!

Restart your laptop, after the chime, press Command + R. You will likely have a globe that will prompt you to log to a network, choose your network and wait for it to get to the next screen. When you get to the recovery screen, look for Terminal and follow these instructions:

Type the following commands;

date 1112203217

which is November 12th 20:32 2017.

Just use the your correct time. That's my local time. If it still does not work;

type the following:

csrutil disable

reboot

and repeat the process above after restarting. Hope it works

Hi,

I just had this problem yesterday (October 26, 2018) and found a quick fix (today, October 27, 2018) on contacting the recovery server.

Check your internet connection first. (We usually have fast internet connection using wired lan, just re-plug it or use a fast wifi internet)

Then you need to update/set your date using the terminal. On the terminal, type ntpdate -u time.apple.com then hit enter. Wait for the command to be executed then close the terminal once finished.

Try to install the OS again.

I hope this helps. It worked for me.

If not, you can check out the following:

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy3SLxT4uH4

Best regards,

Adrian.

🙂😝

d4ma7or wrote:

What I had to end up doing was recovery booting , open disk utility and completely nuke everything but the recovery partition. Then boot back up into internet recovery mode. This takes forever but eventually you will get back to the recovery menu and from there just reinstall OSX , it will look like it’s hung up on 5 or 6 minutes or whatever but eventually it will finish. It might take a couple hours. Just wait it out and it will reformat your hard drive and your system will be like new. Oh, and you’ll lose any saved data so before you do this try to move your data around with the command line back in recovery mode.(look up copying files via terminal).

Check to make sure you are connected to the internet. I got the same message and when I checked on network preferences, it was disconnected from my wifi for some reason. I reconnected and was then able to reinstall Mac OS High Sierra.