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it seems apple has locked my macbook pro from upgrading to el capitan or anything higher than 10.6. it was el capitan but rebuild to higher version. after a rebuild.. dont get me started on sparsebundle crap
This is in fact a common issue back in the day! You likely have the older HFS file system and the OS installer you are using doesn’t have the ability to upgrade the file system to HFS+ As you likely had OS9 on your system and never updated the file system. To fix this you’ll need to first make a backup of your user accounts, apps & data onto an external drive so you can then wipe the drive, reformat it with GUID journaled file system (HFS+)and install a fresh copy of El Capitan OS-X 10.11.x, then restore your stuff. You’ll also need to make a bootable FireWire drive or CD with the needed OS installer files as well before you move forward. You’ll also encounter another issue, as Apple has expired the installer certificates so the systems date need to be rolled back so the installer thinks it’s back in time (2011) following this:
You’ll need to OS installer image file How to get an old macOS installer from Apple and following this guide How to make a bootable OS X 10.11 El Capitan installer drive Do make sure your bootable OS installer disk is working before you proceed. Restart your system holding the Option key you should see a listing of the bootable drives plugged in your system, using the arrow keys select the Installer to see if it boots up. If it does you’re good to go.
Please tell us your exact machine. You find out enter your serial number at this site and it will tell you. https://everymac.com/ultimate-mac-lookup… Apple has not locked your machine. They however are not supporting it. I suspect the message your are getting when trying to install is that the installer is damaged. It is probably fine, just expired. If this is the case, go to your Date and Time. Turn off the automatic time set and change the date back to one a couple of months ahead of the date listed on your installer. If it is something else, let us know. We can fix this.
I know as their machines age, they drop software updates for them. There are some workarounds but I’m not familiar with them.
