Mac lion cant download additional components

I have been working on this for a couple of days and have reached the end of my patience so am hoping that someone can point me in the right direction.

A friend has a MacBook Air 2011 11 inch and asked if I’d look at it. It was having trouble booting. After a while I decided the best thing was to reinstall the OS As I also had no luck. I went into recovery mode and was able to erase and reformat the SSD. After that I went to install lion from the internet.

No matter what I try I get the message - Can’t download the additional components needed to install Mac OS X. So I thought then I could just download it from the App Store and use my app on my Mac to create a bootable usb stick and do it that way. I didnt realize that Apple no longer lets you download that OS.

I then download the oldest OS that I could. But when I tried to install it on the MacBook it wasn’t compatible with that MacBook. I’ve been looking all over for tips but like I said am running out of patience. I have found various Lion iso on the net, but every time I try to create a a bootable usb it doesn’t work. I don’t know if it’s the file itself but have had no luck.

I have only kept copies of the last two Mac OS files as my Mac is only a couple of years old but for older ones I can’t seem to find a good copy of lion to install. I know it’s old, but would just like to be sure that there is no hope before telling her that it’s not worth it. If I had a working usb lion installer I’d think that I could at least eliminate the possibility of a hardware problem.

Im just looking for some tips or advice I’ve up. Thanks a Lot for the help.

I think Snow Leopard came with that macbook air, i remember in 2011 i purchased Lion for $19.99 in august for my 2010 edition. You need the usb of snow leopard, which i needed to reinstall a ssd drive this July. The second option is time machine and try the option key after the chime to reinstall through the internet. I had some weird situations installing snow leopard this year, so just keep on trying.
let us know how this went.

What macOS version installer(s) do you have, if any? A 2011 MBA will run up to and including High Sierra.

You could, if you have the installer file, use dosdude1's method to install an even later version of macOS. This is what I have done on an even older MacBook (2008…on Mojave now).

Thanks for the suggestion. I assumed that Lion was the original OS just because when I go into recovery mode that's what it tries to download. I did try the patcher. I do have a good copy of high Sierra. when I tried originally to install that it gave me the circle with the cross hair.

I did try the patcher but it also crashed out on me. It says that it couldn't personalize the volume. I'm not sure what Im doing wrong.

The macbook air with 2gb ram had the red circle after installed a security update on mojave in October, so i reinstalled snow leopard over that from the usb and that worked. Seems to me these macbooks were designed to reinstall from a certain osx that came with the macbook like the 2000’s.

The macbook air with 2gb ram had the red circle after installed a security update on mojave in October, so i reinstalled snow leopard over that from the usb and that worked. Seems to me these macbooks were designed to reinstall from a certain osx that came with the macbook like the 2000’s.

Yeah I am guessing that I need to install Lion before I can do anything else. unfortunately my trusty Install Disk Creator app doesn't seem to work. It always seems to say that it is lacking the file "Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia" Or can not be verified to not have Malware.

I don't know if this is an issue with the files, or is it my Mac with Big Sur preventing it? Is there a way to take an .iso and create a bootable usb stick? I just would like to get Lion installed to see if that fixes the issue. I do have Carbon Copy Cloner but am not sure if I can take an iso and make it bootable.

I needed a usb hub and had to plug that into the power adaptor side of the macbook air.
sometimes our MacBooks usb do not generate enough power

Well I finally got Lion installed. I tried backing the time and date to 2011, but didn't work. I stumbled upon a YouTube video that led me to a website that had .dmg of older Mac OS. He created a bottle USB stick with Windows and then used a program called TransMac to make the install USB.

Luckily I have an older PC tower sitting in my basement just in case. Sure enough I followed the guide and it worked. I'm not sure why I could get it to go on my Mac with Big Sur but am glad that I managed to get it going. Thanks for all of the help here.

Well I finally got Lion installed. I tried backing the time and date to 2011, but didn't work. I stumbled upon a YouTube video that led me to a website that had .dmg of older Mac OS. He created a bottle USB stick with Windows and then used a program called TransMac to make the install USB.

Luckily I have an older PC tower sitting in my basement just in case. Sure enough I followed the guide and it worked. I'm not sure why I could get it to go on my Mac with Big Sur but am glad that I managed to get it going. Thanks for all of the help here.

Hi CptKirk

Can you please share the link to the Youtube video?

Spent well over 15 working hours this week looking into this issue. I have a 2011 11" MacBook Air 64gb hard drive with 2mb of memory. Wanted to do a clean install and couldn't.

Thanks in advance

Looking over this link right now

Hi,
This is the video that helped me.

Hopefully it helps you out.

Finally got this Lion to install !!!

Feel so good after spending so much time and ignoring my family.

Thank you

I assumed that Lion was the original OS just because when I go into recovery mode that's what it tries to download. I did try the patcher. I do have a good copy of high Sierra. when I tried originally to install that it gave me the circle with the cross hair.

If you'd never installed 10.12 Sierra before that could be why 10.13 High Sierra didn't work. There have been Boot ROM updates over time. If you want to run High Sierra (or newer) I would update to the oldest OS X you have newer than Lion and install all updates then update to the next newer version etc.

Only after updating to High Sierra with any available security updates should you then consider whether you want to try an unsupported even newer Mac OS.

If you'd never installed 10.12 Sierra before that could be why 10.13 High Sierra didn't work. There have been Boot ROM updates over time. If you want to run High Sierra (or newer) I would update to the oldest OS X you have newer than Lion and install all updates then update to the next newer version etc.

Only after updating to High Sierra with any available security updates should you then consider whether you want to try an unsupported even newer Mac OS.

Hi

I'm really happy to finally have Lion OS X successfully install on an old 2011 MacBook Air. Several updates installed automatically as well. I never realized how old the OS is along with apps such as Safari.

Thinking of upgrading the OS. Before I deleted the hard drive, I had Mavericks.

Per MTLoin2000: Seems to me these macbooks were designed to reinstall from a certain osx that came with the macbook like the 2000’s.

Is there a recommendation of what OS X we should be installing in increments?

Thanks

OS X 10.7 Lion (Barolo) - 20 July 2011
OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion (Zinfandel) - 25 July 2012
OS X 10.9 Mavericks (Cabernet) - 22 October 2013
OS X 10.10: Yosemite (Syrah) - 16 October 2014
OS X 10.11: El Capitan (Gala) - 30 September 2015
macOS 10.12: Sierra (Fuji) - 20 September 2016
macOS 10.13: High Sierra (Lobo) - 25 September 2017

Per Apple:

MAC OS High Sierra
General Requirements
OS X 10.8 or later
2GB of memory
14.3GB of available storage to perform upgrade*

Been reading the Apple message boards and I noticed the following:
If you’re running Snow Leopard (10.6.8) or Lion (10.7) and your Mac supports macOS High Sierra, you will need to upgrade to El Capitan first.

I may do this today and let everyone know.

hi, i have a macbok air 11" late 2010 with 2 gb ram and i did reinstall many times. the best and stable OS so far is El Capitan, i do install at my niece macbook pro 2009 too.
Yes you need a usb for it and sometimes you will find error message to install it. I find a solution to handle the error message in this link below :

I did reinstall or clean install many times and i learned that back up is eessentia and very helpfull for mac user.

Hope this can help your problem. Now i am upgrade to MBA 13" 2017 after 10 years using my 11", can't wait to try big sur and the powerfull of 8 gb ram

So wasted more hours reading online while trying to upgrade to High Sierra. Try this Google video. This is the same person who posted the video above on how to create a bootable USB with Lion

I'm on High Sierra. Thanks guys