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I have an old iMac (Mid-2007 Core 2 Duo, A1225) that our workgroup is retiring. My colleague wants to use it for her son. I migrated all data to a new iMac, wiped the drive, and initiated reinstall from the recovery partition. After AppleID verification the iMac states El Capitan is "temporarily unavailable". Apple help states to use Cmd-R to avoid having my AppleID associated with the computer. I can't progress to installation point without an AppleID sign-in. Apple help states to use Internet Recovery instead. This model apparently doesn't support Internet Recovery. I can't get any further. I am at a total loss. I've tried resetting everything that can be reset, a different AppleID, finding another identical computer running El Capitan to sign into and download El Capitan installer to verify that the macOS version is associated with the purchase history of the AppleID in use... this is utterly ridiculous. I have an identical 2010 model iMac at home that MY son uses as a Minecraft box. I acquired it used, wiped the drive, and did an install from recovery partition. I cannot understand why it worked then, but fails now. What am I missing - or has Apple made changes such that it is now impossible to actually install this OS even on hardware that supports nothing higher?

dr.nixon
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  • I've had a problem like this before. Have you tried (1) installing El Capitan with a bootable installer drive (2) Rebooted into the recovery partition and set the time. I know that this may seem like a ridiculous thing to do, but for some reason the time/date that the computer is set to can fix installing/setting up problems. – Sam Feb 20 '19 at 23:36
  • You can make a bootable drive using a tool (http://dosdude1.com/apps/Mac%20OS%20X%20USB%20Drive%20Creator.zip). You need a copy of the El Capitain installer app (https://itunes.apple.com/app/os-x-el-capitan/id1147835434?ls=1&mt=12) and having a thumb drive that is 8gb or bigger – Sam Feb 20 '19 at 23:40
  • And to set the date (via terminal), the command is date mmddhhmmyy (month, day, hour, minute, year – Sam Feb 20 '19 at 23:42
  • You would have to set the tome/date in the recovery partition. You can get to terminal from there by clicking Utilities (on the top bar), and selecting terminal. – Sam Feb 21 '19 at 00:08
  • Also, another solution (now that I think about it) is pushing the skip signing in with your Apple id button, but that won't fix your problem if it's an OS problem instead of an apple id problem – Sam Feb 21 '19 at 00:10
  • The apple id doesn't sound to be the problem though, so I suggest a clean wipe (all partitions) and install from a bootable installer drive. – Sam Feb 21 '19 at 00:12
  • Also, that computer can actually run newer mac operating systems using macOS patchers from dosdude1.com/apps – Sam Feb 21 '19 at 00:13
  • Sorry, wrong link for the patchers. They can be found at http://dosdude1.com/software.html – Sam Feb 21 '19 at 00:27
  • A couple of things....avoid the patches, you're adding a layer of complexity to a user who may or may not be able to support themselves. If they want to install the patchers to upgrade past the officially supported version, let them do it.. Second, the key to this is to sign out of the services before wiping the drive and re-installing. See: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201065 – Allan Feb 21 '19 at 01:39
  • Time on the system is correct. It’s also been removed from prior AppleID. I don’t see any option to skip verifying ID when running the installer. As I do have access to another system running El Capitan I should be able to pull the installer and create a bootable disk. Worth a try anyway. – dr.nixon Feb 21 '19 at 02:24
  • @Allan the patchers are extremely easy to use, all you have to push are a few buttons to make the drive, and a few more to install the os and run the patch. There is also a step by step guide at the same page as the patchers – Sam Feb 21 '19 at 04:30
  • @dr.nixon the computer that you are making the drive on doesn't have to be El Capitan, as you can download any macOS installer on any version of macOS – Sam Feb 21 '19 at 04:32
  • The 2010 iMac can run High Sierra, that's why you can't get El Capitan for it. El Cap is only available for machines that cannot run anything later. – Tetsujin Feb 21 '19 at 08:54
  • Sam - have you tried? App Store won't let a machine running Mojave download anything lower. High Sierra machine would not let me download El Capitan installer because "version was lower than current machine" even though Apple help explicitly stated a High Sierra machine could download it. – dr.nixon Feb 22 '19 at 19:14
  • Tetsujin - my mistake. Model is a 2007 Core 2 Duo, not a 2010 model. Corrected this in the question above. El Capitan is the latest OS this machine can run. – dr.nixon Feb 22 '19 at 19:17
  • OK, then it becomes a simple issue, especially as you have another identical working Mac you can use - https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/309399/how-can-i-download-an-older-version-of-os-x-macos – Tetsujin Feb 24 '19 at 09:00
  • Tetsujin - will the installer still check app store sign-in prior to running the actual install though? Because if so, I think it's highly likely it won't work and will stall at the same spot. Recovery partition has the installer already loaded. My guess is that the app store authentication is failing. But we've tried it with multiple AppleIDs, all of which have El Capitan associated as a past purchase. – dr.nixon Feb 25 '19 at 15:57

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