Having trouble installing macOS High Sierra on Macbook Pro 2017

Simultaneously hold down these keys:

Apple(Command) + Option + R (ie not just Apple/Command + R). In the 'Reinstalling MacOS' field, it will offer you Ventura or other recent OS and off you go. If you only hold down 'Command + R' the system takes you to an older recovery setup offering older OS like High Sierra, which Apple no longer supports. That's why you get the message: 'Recovery Server Could Not Be Contacted.'

If you have a bootable backup on an external drive, can you start up from that drive? Then get a High Sierra installer from the App Store?

How to download and install macOS - Apple Support

I have yet to be able to download macOS with Windows. The download links just don't respond; links to Apple.com do work. But then, getting to the store from a Mac is incredibly simple. Why would you want to inject an intermediate step such as Windows? You need the file on your Mac, go to the App Store on your Mac.

seano786 wrote:

would i be able to download high sierra from my windows pc to my external drive and then install it in the macbook? would i have to reformat the external drive?

You won't be able to download a High Sierra installer on a Windows PC using the App Store link in the "How to download and install macOS" article. On a Mac, that link causes Safari to open the App Store application (and tell it to display a normally-hidden page). Windows PCs don't have the App Store application.

I don't know if there are any less-well-advertised links that would allow you to download a .DMG file (Mac disk image file) containing the installer.

My very first computer was a brand spanking new Apple ][ bought around 1986 IIRC. The first "Business" computer I used was a Radio Shack TRS-80. My company eventually evolved to Windows about the time Windows 3.0 came out and the last OS I used at work was XP in 2008. Along the way I learned a few lesson the hard way. One I learned was to have a disaster recovery plan.

Every computer user needs to have a USB mouse and keyboard. Every computer user needs to backup to multiple destinations and be 100% consistent about it. For my wife and I it also means a standby router and modem. Every time we upgrade computers, we keep the best running of the old ones as a backup. And every Mac computer user needs, as a part of the macOS recovery disaster plan at least two bootable flash drives for just such cases as yours.

It takes a little time to setup and a small amount of time to keep operating correctly, but what we do has saved our bacon on at least two occasions.

seano786 wrote:

any other suggestions? or why it says "the recovery server could not be contacted" when trying to install?

It needs to have an Internet connection to communicate with the recovery server. If you are connecting via WiFI, then somewhere along the line you may need to select your WiFi router and enter your WiFi password. Hopefully the Mac will auto-configure its IP address, etc. with the aid of the router if it can make a WiFi connection.

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.

Ok I had this same problem and I finally got High Sierra to install. Here is what I did.

Step one you will need to download a copy of the high Sierra dmg file.

macOS.High.Sierra.10.13.6.dmg

Step two you will need to download the High Sierra Patcher tool

here

Step Three on the current Mac you will have to allow the patcher app to install for use through the security settings

Step four connect a blank thumbdrive to your Mac to install the High Sierra OS to needs to be over 16gigs

Step five run the High Sierra patcher program and point it to the .DMG file you downloaded earlier and tell it to install it on the thumb drive

This process takes some time to complete and failed the first time I tried it so try again. The second time the process finally completed.

Step six On the old Mac start the Mac while pressing command option and R

Step seven make sure the this Mac is not connected to the internet via wifi

Step eight go to utilities at the top of the screen and open the terminal app

Step nine type the command

date 0101010118 and press enter

this will set the date and time on this Mac.

Step ten close the terminal app, connect the usb stick you made to this Mac, and then restart the Mac while holding the option key.

Step ten select the thumb drive that has High Sierra operating system installed on it and go through the installation process.

So far this is the only way I have been able to get this to work. I ran all of the initial processes using my M2 MacBook Pro 13" so it should work for all of you if you need to create a usb Mac OS disk.

Hopefully this helps you guys it took me forever to get this to work!

https://macpaw.com/how-to/recovery-server-couldnt-be-contacted