Reinstalling High Sierra on an old Macbook (2011).

I wanted to reinstall High Sierra on an old (2011) MacBook. But after choosing Reinstall, I received the message "The recovery server could not be contacted." My wifi connection and internet are functioning however. Could anyone advise me?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.13

Posted on May 20, 2023 6:30 AM

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Posted on Nov 12, 2023 3:47 PM

Hi, I had the exact same problem. It would show “the recovery server could not be connect” for me also but that was when I pressed CMD+R to go to recovery settings.


Instead I restarted my mac then pressed Option+R and tried to reinstall MacOS again and it worked perfectly! Just follow all the instructions.

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Nov 12, 2023 3:47 PM in response to Rik1957

Hi, I had the exact same problem. It would show “the recovery server could not be connect” for me also but that was when I pressed CMD+R to go to recovery settings.


Instead I restarted my mac then pressed Option+R and tried to reinstall MacOS again and it worked perfectly! Just follow all the instructions.

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Reinstalling High Sierra on an old Macbook (2011).

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