"Recovery server could not be contacted" Error Message

Hi, I was able to change the date from the terminal but the issue i face now is how to get back to disk utility after changing the date to continue the recovery process. My macbook has a battery problem so restarting will just bring me back to having the date and time revert to the wrong one.

Thanks.

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.

brsm1990 wrote:

There's one thing I'm missing... since when is an INTERNET CONNECTION required to install software I purchased on a device I purchased!?

When you're trying to use internet recovery. Or, re-download High Sierra.

Changing the date in terminal is still the answer. I updated from 30/10/2017 to 28/05/2018 & the recovery begins.

What a stupid oversight from Apple. It's an internet-based recovery, putting in a time/date call before checking the recovery server would be trivial. Instead, thousands of frustrated Apple customers have to either find this thread or visit a service agent.

This kind of error is still far too prevalent in the entire computer industry.

Jun Chen wrote:

bought used iMac, and trying to reinstall macOS High Sirrra, but keep saying The recovery server could not be contacted

Read the other messages in the thread you posted to for a solution. There are several, depending on your circumstances.

I ran in to this problem and found a solution....

Actually your Mac looses it's wifi connection sometimes when you wipe your drive. Clicking the wifi button (top right corner) and connecting to the internet will set the correct date and time for you. After that it works, enjoy 👌

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 )

Just had the same problem with a MacBook Pro mid2010. Since the thing was collecting dust for a year, the date was back to factory.

So, open terminal and write “date”. If you have the same problem it schould day 2001. Check this article for how to change it back https://bensmann.no/changing-system-date-from-terminal-os-x-recovery

when the message "the recovery server could not be contacted" appears, press ok. You go to the bar above where you see utilities presses terminal where a box will appear. ein which aparce -bash-3.2 # there we proceed to write: date press enter appears the date, then repeats again bash-3.2 # date where we are going to write 05200018 press enter. from there we go to the bar above where it says terminal and we click on remove terminal. We return to click on reinstall mac Os, click continue, continue and from there we just follow the instructions on our computer

None of these suggestions work. If people are reading these posts then they have a wi-fi signal already. Apple can't deny someone from downloading a large file because their bandwidth speed is not at certain level.

I was able to manually download the full dmg for Sierra from the app store after doing some digging. Idk why Apple has to have us download a smaller app to run and then download basically the same target file.

So if anyone has a clear set of instructions on where to download the dmg file that would be fantastic.

Spent 45 minutes with Apple support chat today and they guy had no freakin' clue what to do....I remember the days when you could click on the update and it would automatically start downloading with no drama or youtube videos.

In my case this message turned out to be be simply because the machine was not connected to WiFi (WiFi symbol greyed out on the top right of the screen). Clicking on the WiFi symbol, selecting a network and entering the network password did the trick.

Just ran into this myself after the most recent Mojave update screwed it up, the solution for my case was hold option key after powering on and then select your network and retype password. Then press and hold Command R until you see the apple logo to get into recovery mode and do the the OS reinstall. Then go in software update and turn off updates and let others be the beta tester for Apple.

I figured this problem out. It’s sooooo simple. All you have to do is go to the far right hand corner and select the WiFi connection and put your password in. It’s really hard to see because the WiFi symbol is almost camouflaged in the gray bar at the top. Once you do this I’m sure it’ll work.

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.