How to Fix the macOS Could Not Be Installed on Your Computer Error
Why macOS Couldn’t Be Installed on Your Computer
There are several reasons why a macOS installation might fail. Hopefully, the error message that you saw told you exactly what the problem is. That way, you know where to start your troubleshooting from.
Some of the most common reasons macOS cannot complete the installation are:
- Insufficient storage on your Mac SSD Drive.
- Corrupted macOS installer file.
- Problems with your Mac’s startup disk
- Incompatible Mac hardware.
Whatever the cause of your macOS installation error, it is usually easy to fix it yourself. Follow the tips below to fix the issue.
Before Troubleshooting Your macOS Installation Error
If your macOS installation could not be completed, you might find yourself stuck in a loop where the installer comes up every time you restart your computer. Follow these quick steps to exit that loop and protect your data before troubleshooting the error.
Step 1. Boot Up Your Mac in Safe Mode
Safe Mode stops several programs from launching on startup, and they include the macOS installer. Booting your Mac in Safe Mode breaks you out of any startup loops and they stop any troublesome programs from running in the background.
To enter into your Mac Safe Mode, restart your Mac and hold down the Shift key while it powers on. Release the key when the Apple logo comes up or when you hear a startup sound. It should say Safe Boot in the menu bar on the login screen.
Step 2. Create a New Backup Using Time Machine
It is always important to back up your Mac before installing a major update of macOS. These updates usually modify the core files in your operating system, so if anything goes wrong you might be required need to completely wipe your Mac to fix it.
To do that, connect an external drive to your Mac and use Time Machine to back up your Mac. Time Machine is the simplest way to protect all your data in several incremental backups. These allow you to restore the files from particular dates instead of just keeping only the latest version of all the files.
Step 3. Check Your Mac’s Compatibility in the App Store
Before you start with our troubleshooting tips, you should take a moment to ensure that the just downloaded version of macOS is compatible with your Mac.
To do that, open the App Store on your Mac and look for the version of macOS which you want to install. Click that app to view its details in the App Store and scroll down to the details section.
Below Compatibility, the App Store would tell you whether that software would Work on this Mac or not. If it is not compatible, you cannot install that macOS version upgrade.
What to Do When the macOS Installation Couldn’t Be Completed
Now that you have backed up your Mac and made sure that it is compatible with the latest version of macOS, it is time to try fixing your installation error with the troubleshooting tips that are found below.
Since there are so many potential causes to this macOS error, any one of these suggestions below might fix the problem. We would start with the quickest and easiest tips to save you as much time as possible while fixing the error.
1. Restart Your Mac and Retry the Installation
Sometimes, all you need to do to fix some errors on macOS is to restart your Mac and try the process again. To do that, open up the Apple menu at the top-left of your screen and choose Restart from the dropdown menu to do that.
If your Mac is unresponsive, press and hold the Power button to force a shutdown. Don’t do this while the installation is in progress, though, since doing so can corrupt the files in your operating system.
2. Set Your Mac to the Correct Date and Time
It is possible that the date or time on your Mac is wrong. When this is true, it can lead to several troubles connecting with Apple’s servers, which might be the reason that your installation was failing. To fix that, open up the System Preferences and go to Date & Time to correct it. Click on the Padlock and enter your administrator password, then choose to Set the date and time automatically.
3. Create Enough Free Space for macOS to Install
A typical macOS installer usually makes use of up around 4-5GB of space on your Mac. But to complete a macOS installation, your computer would actually need about 20GB of free storage.
This is because the macOS installer needs some extra space to unpack files and folders. Without that additional free space, the installer would have no room to work and cannot complete the installation on your Mac.
4. Use Recovery Mode to Reinstall macOS
If macOS still would not install properly, you might need to reinstall the whole operating system instead. You can do this by using the Recovery Mode on your Mac.
To do that, restart your Mac and hold the Option + Cmd + R while it powers on. Release the keys when you see an Apple logo when you hear a startup sound, at which point a macOS utility window comes up. Click Reinstall macOS to install the latest version of macOS.
