"Recovery server could not be contacted" Error Message

You just need to make sure you reconnect the laptop to the Wi-Fi. It will disconnect to the wifi network in your house after you erase the utility disk

You gotta enter the current date. It worked for me. Try that. If still error exists, try contacting Apple!

I had the same and found out it dropped my Wi-Fi network. Check top right corner to be sure you are connected to the internet. Solved my problem.

Thank you. That solved it. Replaced the SSD and did a PARM reset and that may have clobbered my date, which was correct earlier today.

In the Utilities menu, launch Terminal.

Then run: `ntpdate -u time.apple.com`

This will update the system time. Once I did that, it worked for me.

Try check your local time on your Mac, maybe its different with Apple Servers and thats why its not working.

changign thee date worked Thanks for taking the time to share this solution

Make sure you’re connected to WiFi and it should work

Thank you. Changing the date fixed our issue. Which we would have known this when we were trying to update and it kept locking up.

I had this issue. the wi-fi was not connected. we selected the wi-fi symbol at the top and entered password. Try reinstalling again. It's installing. Bam!

The UTC time wasn’t an issue for me. It is something to do with age of the MacBook and the EFI partition. I tried to run a Windows 10 USB and cleaned all partitions including EFI, then quitted the installation. Restarted the OS X recovery, and the connection to the server was fine but the OS X given was Mountain Lion, the original version shipped with the device. I am planning to upgrade the OS X later.

It does feel like Apple could do a better job of suggesting solutions right in that message, which is itself misleading. Having a wildly wrong clock time appears to be a common occurrence when someone needs to do an OS restore, not surprisingly.

That error also pops up in my screen everytime I intend to upgrade my mac to high Sierra.... Many attemps and call from apple support... And after several days of trying... I finally did upgrade my mac... Since i dont have an adaptor from thunderbolt to ethernet... My option is only wifi... The upgrading needs a stable internet connection(just try and try with your wifi) and internet recovery command:

1. Shutdown your computer

2. Press alt+command+R

Internet recovery was my last option... And lucky me the download tooks only awhile.. Maybe the time i was downloading; the internet was at its peak (wifi only)... Then in mac utility.. Install the downloaded data... If you failed.. Just try again... Your patience is strongly needed... Hope this helps...

That error also pops up in my screen everytime I intend to upgrade my mac to high Sierra.... Many attemps and call from apple support... And after several days of trying... I finally did upgrade my mac... Since i dont have an adaptor from thunderbolt to ethernet... My option is only wifi... The upgrading needs a stable internet connection(just try and try with your wifi) and internet recovery command:

1. Shutdown your computer

2. Press alt+command+R

Internet recovery was my last option... And lucky me the download tooks only awhile.. Maybe the time i was downloading; the internet was at its peak (wifi only)... Then in mac utility.. Install the downloaded data... If you failed.. Just try again... Your patience is strongly needed... Hope this helps...

I guess you’ve already checked: but ensure that the wi-fi is connected by checking the wi-fi icon on the top right of the screen. If it’s grey (i.e. not connected), then select the right network and ensure it’s connected.