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How to reinstall El Capitan "Unavailable Error"

I have run into this problem in the past with mountain lion and once I purchased through the app store I could install on the machine I was setting up. I am having the same issue now with a macbook pro mid 2011 since I dont have El Capitan associated with my apple account it gives me 'Currently Unavailable Try again Later" error and can not reinstall. Any idea on how to resolve I am stuck right now.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, macOS Sierra (10.12.5)

Posted on Jan 26, 2018 9:13 PM

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6 replies

Jan 27, 2018 7:01 AM in response to adang976g

If you purchased the computer from someone else who installed El Capitan using their Apple ID you cannot reinstall it, you must sign into the Mac App Store using your ID and download the latest Mac OS that is available for your machine. If your Mac is a 2011 or later you can use Internet Recovery (command-option-r) to erase the hard drive and reinstall the original OS then upgrade to High Sierra from there.

If you insist on using El Capitan you will need to sign into the App Store on a Mac that cannot run High Sierra and download EL Cap, then make a bootable usb installer to use on your MBP.

How to reinstall El Capitan "Unavailable Error"

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