No Packages Were Eligible For Install Mac

I have an older, MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2009) that I intend to give as a gift.

  1. No packages were eligible for install. Contact the software manufacturer for assistance. Quit the installed to restart your computer and try again. I tried using 'Internet Recovery' (Option+Command+R) and a bootable USB drive that contained El Capitan, both of which ultimately failed with the same message. Is there a way to get this to work?
  2. I downloaded the 'app' from the Store on the iMac and restarted to begin the installation process. During the install I receive the following message: OS X could not be installed on your computer. No packages were eligible for install. Contact the software manufacturer for assistance. Quit the installer to restart your computer and try again.
  3. Are you reinstalling Apple Mac OS X in your old laptop but getting error 'OS X could not be installed on your computer' and message appear 'No packages were.

For security reasons, I decided that I was a good to format the drive and reinstall OS X El Capitan.

My first effort was thwarted by an error:

This item is temporarily unavailable.Try again later.

After reading Wiped drive, now can’t reinstall El Capitan from Recovery because the “item is temporarily unavailable”, I supplied a different set of icloud credentials, and the process continued.

Eventually, however, the installation failed with a different message:

No packages were eligible for install mac appInstall

Os x could not be installed on you computer. No packages were eligible for install. What i did so far:-I rebuilt another usb drive from a new El Capitan freshly downloaded from the App store.-I formatted the hard drive, again.-I re tried to install but still the same.-I then held command+r and tried to install from there but I get the same issue.

No packages were eligible for install. Contact the software manufacturer for assistance. Quit the installed to restart your computer and try again.

I tried using 'Internet Recovery' (Option+Command+R) and a bootable USB drive that contained El Capitan, both of which ultimately failed with the same message.

Is there a way to get this to work?

To create a bootable USB drive, I needed the Install OS X El Capitan.app package.

Using my MBP 16', I used the Download OS X El Capitan link on Apple's support site to get the installer.

Unfortunately, running the InstallMacOSX.pkg package in the DMG failed:

This version of OS X 10.11 cannot be installed on this computer.

I 'found' a Install OS X El Capitan.app package and was able to create the bootable media.

Installing El Capiton on an old Mac Book Pro today, I received the error:

OS X could not be installed on your computer

No packages were eligible for install. Contact the software manufacturer for assistance.

Quit the installer to restart your computer and try again.

I checked Apple’s support Matrix (it is a very old macbook pro) at https://support.apple.com/kb/SP728?locale=en_GB and it was listed as supported.

After lots of Googling and investigation, I discovered that the date and time were not set to current, the macbook thought it was year 2000.

You can easily reset the time and date by following the steps below:

Install
  • Click Utilities on the menu bar
  • Select Terminal
  • Type date
  • Confirm the date is wrong
  • Type date 062112422016 (example: June 21st 12:42 2016)
  • Exit terminal
  • Click Restart

Once the Date and time are configured you will be able to install OS X.

No Packages Were Eligible For Install Mac App

Easy fix, for a ridiculous error!