MacOS – After the brother deleted some system files from the Macbook Air I can’t reinstall macOS

internet-recoverymacmacos

After an accidental deletion of some system files the MacBook Air shows only a flashing files with a question mark. I’ve tried reinstalling the system through Internet Recovery. After choosing Reinstall macOS I get the message „To download and restore macOS, your computer’s eligibility will be verified with Apple”. After a short moment I am presented with „The installer information on the recovery server is damaged”. How can I fix that?

Thank you for your help in advance.

Best Answer

This is a pretty rare failure since the installers are signed. You would want to review a couple things:

  • https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904

    1. If you have a backup - consider using Disk Utility to erase the internal drive - then the installer would have less work to do. - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208496
    2. Consider your network - are you behind a proxy / firewall / or located a distance away from the main servers in US? Taking your mac to a new network might fix everything without needing to erase things.
    3. Shut down any caching servers that are local to your network. This might be hard to figure out if you aren’t the network admin or don’t have a mac. If you have another Mac running - run the command AssetCacheLocatorUtil

In the end - your computer couldn’t get a good image to start the install. This is almost always a network / server issue, but you might be able to fix it moving to a new network, validating the date/time on your Mac before you install the OS or changing the version of OS you request.

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