El Capitan Not Installing

To get the latest features and maintain the security, stability, compatibility, and performance of your Mac, it's important to keep your software up to date. Apple recommends that you always use the latest macOS that is compatible with your Mac.

Learn how to upgrade to macOS Big Sur, the latest version of macOS.

Jul 22, 2021 Finally, if the above solutions do not work out for you, what you can do is download and install the operating system in macOS Safe Mode. This is only for the users that are trying to upgrade from their current version to El Capitan. This means, if you do not have macOS installed already, this will not work for you. If upgrading from macOS Sierra or later, your Mac needs 35.5GB of available storage to upgrade. If upgrading from an earlier release, your Mac needs up to 44.5GB of available storage. To upgrade from OS X Mountain Lion, first upgrade to OS X El Capitan, then upgrade to macOS Big Sur. This is not an exhaustive list of the issues affecting Apple OS X El Capitan, but it is a good collection of the more well known issues and their respective fixes. Oct 01, 2015 Go to the Applications folder. Open the program called “Install OS X El Capitan”. Follow the on-screen instructions. If this program is missing or will not run, then move it to the trash and empty the trash, followed by re-downloading it from the App Store. An alternative approach is to create a dedicated installation drive from the El. When it starts up in the El Capitan installer, can you not just quit the installer? The date to use an older copy is Oct 23 or earlier, but not sure how you will be able reset it. Moitori (Tori Hernandez) November 17, 2019, 6:15am #3.

Check compatibility

The version of macOS that came with your Mac is the earliest version it can use. For example, if your Mac came with macOS Big Sur, it will not accept installation of macOS Catalina or earlier.

If a macOS can't be used on your Mac, the App Store or installer will let you know. For example, it might say that it's not compatible with this device or is too old to be opened on this version of macOS. To confirm compatibility before downloading, check the minimum hardware requirements:

  • macOS Catalina 10.15 hardware requirements
  • macOS Mojave 10.14 hardware requirements
  • macOS High Sierra 10.13 hardware requirements
  • macOS Sierra 10.12 hardware requirements
  • OS X El Capitan 10.11 hardware requirements
  • OS X Yosemite 10.10 hardware requirements

How To Download El Capitan

Download macOS using Safari on your Mac

Safari uses these links to find the old installers in the App Store. After downloading from the App Store, the installer opens automatically.

  • macOS Catalina 10.15 can upgrade Mojave, High Sierra, Sierra, El Capitan, Yosemite, Mavericks
  • macOS Mojave 10.14 can upgrade High Sierra, Sierra, El Capitan, Yosemite, Mavericks, Mountain Lion
  • macOS High Sierra 10.13 can upgrade Sierra, El Capitan, Yosemite, Mavericks, Mountain Lion

Safari downloads the following older installers as a disk image named InstallOS.dmg or InstallMacOSX.dmg. Open the disk image, then open the .pkg installer inside the disk image. It installs an app named Install [Version Name]. Open that app from your Applications folder to begin installing the operating system.

  • macOS Sierra 10.12 can upgrade El Capitan, Yosemite, Mavericks, Mountain Lion, or Lion
  • OS X El Capitan 10.11 can upgrade Yosemite, Mavericks, Mountain Lion, Lion, or Snow Leopard
  • OS X Yosemite 10.10can upgrade Mavericks, Mountain Lion, Lion, or Snow Leopard

Oct 24, 2019 I was able to install El Captain on another USB Drive (64GB) connected GIGABYTE PC. This went absolutely fine and I now have a fully indepentent USB Drive which i can simple connect to the PC and the El Captain OS boots up. Case 2: I next tried to use the same bootable USB to install El. Simply fill in the fields below and we'll call you back to confirm your booking. This link points to the 10.11.1 update and not the base 10.11. Have you been able to do a install of El Capitan from this link or are you just updating an existing El Cap install? – fsb Sep 22 '16 at 14:52.

As with prior versions of OS X, the new version 10.11 “El Capitan” is available as a free purchase from the App Store, and should then download and run to allow you to upgrade your system. If all goes well, you should see the OS X installation window that instructs you to begin the upgrade process, but there may be instances where this does not appear, or does not work when you attempt the install.

OS X El Capitan remains available for Mac computers that can't upgrade to macOS Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra or Sierra, or that need to upgrade to El Capitan first. Then double-click the file named Install OS X El Capitan. Click Continue and follow the on-screen instructions. My problem is that my Mac starts up to the 'El Capitan' installer. After restarting several times, OS X is still on screen telling me that 'no packages were eligible for install'.

First, the OS X installer should run automatically, but if not then you can try running it manually:

  1. Go to the Applications folder
  2. Open the program called “Install OS X El Capitan”
  3. Follow the on-screen instructions.
If this program is missing or will not run, then move it to the trash and empty the trash, followed by re-downloading it from the App Store.

An alternative approach is to create a dedicated installation drive from the El Capitan installer, and use that to install the upgrade. For this, you will need a spare external drive (USB drive, or hard drive) that is at least 8GB in size, and then perform the following steps:

  1. Attach the drive to your Mac
  2. Use Disk Utility to format it to HFS+ with a GUID partition scheme, naming it INSTALLER
  3. Open the OS X Terminal and run the following command (copy and paste all 5 lines):

Press Enter to run the pasted command, and supply your password when prompted (it will not show when typed). Note that if you get any errors, be sure your USB drive is formatted and named “INSTALLER” so the command will properly target it. You will also need to have first downloaded the OS X El Capitan installer from the App Store, and have this present in your Applications folder.

Installing

The Terminal may take a while to complete this step, but when done you can reboot your Mac and hold the Option key to show the boot menu, and then select the El Capitan installation drive you just created to run the installer and upgrade your Mac’s internal hard drive.

/mac-os-catalina-iso-download-for-vmware/. If the procedure still fails with an error, then hopefully you have a full system backup ready, which you can restore to your Mac using the option to restore from a Time Machine backup in the OS X Recovery partition, or whatever cloning software you use. When done, attempt the above procedures to try again.

Install El Capitan App

Check compatibility

You can upgrade to OS X El Capitan from OS X Snow Leopard or later on any of the following Mac models. Your Mac also needs at least 2GB of memory and 8.8GB of available storage space.

Install El Capitan On Mac

El Capitan Not Eligible For Install Data

MacBook introduced in 2009 or later, plus MacBook (13-inch, Aluminium, Late 2008)
MacBook Air introduced in late 2008 or later
MacBook Pro introduced in mid 2007 or later
Mac mini introduced in early 2009 or later
iMac introduced in mid 2007 or later
Mac Pro introduced in early 2008 or later
Xserve models introduced in early 2009

To find your Mac model, memory, storage space and macOS version, choose About This Mac from the Apple menu . If your Mac isn't compatible with OS X El Capitan, the installer will let you know.

Make a back-up

Capitan

Before installing any upgrade, it’s a good idea to back up your Mac. Time Machine makes it simple, and other back-up methods are also available. Learn how to back up your Mac.

Get connected

It takes time to download and install OS X, so make sure that you have a reliable Internet connection. If you’re using a Mac notebook computer, plug it into AC power.

Download OS X El Capitan

For the strongest security and latest features, find out whether you can upgrade to macOS Catalina, the latest version of macOS.

El Capitan Install Loop

If you still need OS X El Capitan, use this link: Download OS X El Capitan. A file named InstallMacOSX.dmg will download to your Mac.

Install the macOS installer

Installing

Double-click the downloaded file to open a window showing its contents. Then double-click the file within, named InstallMacOSX.pkg.

Follow the on-screen instructions, which will guide you through the steps necessary to install.

Begin installation

After installation of the installer is complete, open the Applications folder on your Mac, then double-click the file named Install OS X El Capitan.

Click Continue and follow the on-screen instructions. You may find it easiest to begin installation in the evening so that it can complete overnight, if needed.

Allow installation to complete

Please allow installation to complete without putting your Mac to sleep or closing its lid. Your Mac may restart, show a progress bar or show a blank screen several times as it installs both OS X and related updates to your Mac firmware.

Download El Capitan Installer

Learn more

El Capitan Failed To Install

  • OS X El Capitan won't install on top of a later version of macOS, but you can erase your disc first or install on another disc.
  • You can use macOS Recovery to reinstall macOS.