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Cannot get macOS on MacBook Pro A1278 (2011)

Hello there!

I bought a MacBook Pro from 2011 as a secondary device to lend to my sister.

It came without a hard drive (thus no backup) so I bought an Intenso 2,5" SATA III SSD with 256 GB. When I booted up the device in recovery mode (cmd + R) I formatted the SSD to macOS Extended (journaled).

However when I try to download macOS X Lion I get the message that the download is not possible.

I cannot create a boot stick with my MacBook Air M1 (2020) because it does not support the old software. Therefore I am stuck.


Do you have ideas why exactly the download fails and what I can do?


P.S: When booting the MacBook over the opt-Key the SSD does not show up.


Thank you for your time

Posted on Aug 8, 2022 2:57 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 8, 2022 10:31 AM

Have you tried booting into Internet Recovery Mode using Command + Option + R to see if it can access the online macOS 10.13 High Sierra installer? Unfortunately sometimes even this key command will still launch the online installer for the OS which originally shipped with a Mac, plus it requires this Mac at some point in the past had macOS 10.12.6+ installed so the system firmware has access to the online installer.


If you can only boot to the macOS 10.7 online installer, then launch the Terminal app from the Utilities menu and use the following command to set the computer's date & time to Jan. 2, 2017 @ 11:33am:

date  -u  0102113317


If the command does not produce any errors, then quit the Terminal app and select the "Reinstall macOS" or "Reinstall OS X" option. If you still have problems, then try setting the date to 2016, then 2015 since the installer has an expired certificate.


Otherwise you will need access to another Mac from 2008 to 2018 in order to create a bootable macOS USB installer using the instructions in this Apple article:

How to create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support


To create a bootable macOS 10.13 USB installer will require a Mac from 2010 to 2018.

To create a bootable macOS 10.11 USB installer will require a Mac from 2008 to 2015.

Here is an article which shows which versions of macOS are compatible with various Apple hardware in order to identify a Qualifying Mac. A Qualifying Mac is one which is compatible with the OS you are trying to create.

https://eshop.macsales.com/guides/Mac_OS_X_Compatibility


Similar questions

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 8, 2022 10:31 AM in response to Sasch03

Have you tried booting into Internet Recovery Mode using Command + Option + R to see if it can access the online macOS 10.13 High Sierra installer? Unfortunately sometimes even this key command will still launch the online installer for the OS which originally shipped with a Mac, plus it requires this Mac at some point in the past had macOS 10.12.6+ installed so the system firmware has access to the online installer.


If you can only boot to the macOS 10.7 online installer, then launch the Terminal app from the Utilities menu and use the following command to set the computer's date & time to Jan. 2, 2017 @ 11:33am:

date  -u  0102113317


If the command does not produce any errors, then quit the Terminal app and select the "Reinstall macOS" or "Reinstall OS X" option. If you still have problems, then try setting the date to 2016, then 2015 since the installer has an expired certificate.


Otherwise you will need access to another Mac from 2008 to 2018 in order to create a bootable macOS USB installer using the instructions in this Apple article:

How to create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support


To create a bootable macOS 10.13 USB installer will require a Mac from 2010 to 2018.

To create a bootable macOS 10.11 USB installer will require a Mac from 2008 to 2015.

Here is an article which shows which versions of macOS are compatible with various Apple hardware in order to identify a Qualifying Mac. A Qualifying Mac is one which is compatible with the OS you are trying to create.

https://eshop.macsales.com/guides/Mac_OS_X_Compatibility


Cannot get macOS on MacBook Pro A1278 (2011)

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