What does this mean? I’m trying to reinstall macOS High Sierra! Can’t get past this error message “the recovery server could not be contacted”
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Solved.
In my case I was trying to do a re-install of the OS form the startup utilities and kept getting this error.
The trick was to set the clock. Start the Terminal app from utilities to get a bash terminal. Type `date` to display the current date/time. In my case it was set to January 1st. I remember it was common with Windows Update to fail to update your system if the system clock was not "close" to the correct time.
Set the date with:
date 1114125317
(this example sets the date to November 14th, 12:53 2017)
Re-run the recover OS option and it should work.
Connect to the wifi or cable first. Simple.
Make sure your WiFi is connected by clicking the WiFi icon in the top right corner then try it agin
Make sure you're connected to the internet before you try to reinstall.
When I got the error, I noticed that I’d been disconnected from the Wi-Fi (top right), so you might need to reconnect to your Wi-Fi network
Check your WiFi connection. That's all it took for me.
I had the same issue, now i've solved it easily.
My macbook pro 15 inches Core i7 was out of battery (Broken) that's why the date wasn't updated then i could not be connected to server, so I applied the process below:
Start your mac pressing Command R for 20 seconds, when recovery utility is able, open terminal and type the actual date on the next command:
date 0204100518
Was on feb (month 02) day 4 (04) at 10:05 am (1005) year 2018 (18), then press enter and that's it, just go to install os x without any problem. I hope it works for you too.
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.
After that recovery worked. Must have something to do with certificate validity or something maybe.
Thank YOU!
It was date and time reset!
How does Apple not know this?
Love!
its just change the date by going to terminal on the recovery page! put the month, date, hour and year like that: 1121175217
AND ITS DONE , TRY TO INSTALL AGAIN
type the date as noted. hit enter. it will say -bash-3.2# again or something similar.
Just close terminal. try to install again
I didnt use utc time and it worked for me. Just noting that in case local time works for them and not utc.
Thank you....this worked for me. My date was showing 1/1/00.
Check the date/time fix.
Are you inputting the UTC time? Google the it and use that time.
On the right upper corner turn on your wifi network?
"Recovery server could not be contacted" Error Message
