"Software couldn't be verified" error 2009 imac

This is a recurring issue I've had among every different update dmg that I've tried, from apple's website and internet archive, where I get the same error every time I try to update my late 2009 model iMac. I have already reinstalled macosX with the disk I had with the box, then used the inbuilt updater to get to version 10.6.8, and I have also tried changing time and date to an earlier date to when the certificates would still be valid, but neither have worked. Any help or answers would be greatly appreciated.

https://youtu.be/_QgqliaL--U

Earlier Mac models

Posted on Jul 25, 2025 08:54 PM

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2 replies

Jul 25, 2025 11:29 PM in response to A2zb1

It seems the Lion installer's certificate has expired.


Did you download a fresh version straight from Apple?


How to download and install macOS - Apple Support


It is possible that the installer is somehow outdated or corrupted at Apple's site, though.


I guess the installer should display the expiry date via a dropdown. So did you try to set the Mac's clock before the expiry date via the Terminal (you might have to disconnect from the net so the Mac does not automatically reset the current date):


"sudo date 0110120019" or something like that in MMDDhhmmYY format


You could try to make a bootable USB installer from the Lion installer. In the past I made it with Disk Utility but I won't go into details here because that method might not work anymore.


Internet Recovery is one option but maybe that old Mac does not support it, and it provides only the first or last supported OS X, not necessarily Lion, if you want that.


BTW why do you want Lion? I used it while it was new but then I have used either the newest my Mac supports or Snow Leopard for its PowerPC Rosetta feature and/or El Capitan for a snappy virtual machine 32-bit support via VMware Fusion or Mojave 32-bit support on a real Mac.

"Software couldn't be verified" error 2009 imac

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