Reinstalling Mountain Lion loops back to login

I'm working on a Macbook Pro for my folks. It seems to have several issues some of which I was able to fix. However, I decided a fresh install would probably be the quickest way to get things running well again. I booted into the utility that lets you check/repair disk, reinstall os x, etc. I choose to reinstall os x. It prompted for the Apple ID associated with this computer. We entered it but the progress indicator never moves. Finally, it reprompts us to enter the Apple ID again. I've tried a few times with the same results. Any suggestions?

Are you using your folks' Apple ID and password? Have you tried logging out and back in and reset Safari (to get rid of cache, cookies, history, etc) before logging back in?

Similar Messages

  • I have reinstalled mountain lion on my MacBook Pro and can't get the games back App Store says they'll already installed how can i download them can anyone help

    I have reinstalled mountain lion on my MacBook Pro and can't get the games back App Store says they'll already installed how can i download them can anyone help

    I have eactly the same problem - it seems that the downloaded version on MBA is version 6.0 and on iPad is is version 2.0 -
    Issue is when i tried to save the presentation on MBA Keynote 09 - Keynote crashed.
    I tried to save is as Powerpoint in MBA and it crashed as well!
    Message was edited by: Innovaxin

  • How do i reinstall mountain lion on fairly new machine i have really messed it up i have no key or original login do ihave to to pay

    how do i reinstall mountain lion on fairly new machine i have really messed it up i have no key or original login do ihave to to pay

    You never have to pay to reinstall a Mac's original OS. If that was Snow Leopard or earlier though, you need its original discs.
    If the Mac was built after Lion was released, about August 2011, boot OS X Recovery - using two fingers hold the ⌘ and R keys while starting your Mac. When the Mac OS X Utilities screen appears, select "Reinstall Mac OS X".

  • How many times can you reinstall Mountain Lion?

    Since I bought the Early 2013 15" MacBook Pro retina laptop used only 17 battery cycles on it now (2.7 with 16GB ram running Mt. Lion) computer I have not reset it. I spoke to Apple and it is registered in my name, I made a new Admin. account and password and Apple had me delete the original owners. I took off anything he had left on it. Applecare also I bought in my name. Apple said I didn't have to reset it and would be fine so I left it. They deauthorized the previous iunes account and the previous owner gave me his ID to deauthorize the computer. It was already deauthorized when I checked. He then changed his password for his security. It runs beautifully and has a Samsung screen.
    I deleted the iLife apps and were going to buy them in my name (as his ID came up for updates) but now can't redownload in my name as it says I need Maverick OSon it to do so. I left the Mountain Lion 10.8.5 on it. If I contact Apple will they give me a redemption code for my name or how do I get older versions?
    If I reset to new how many times am I able to reinstall Mountain Lion? If I decide to sell it later will I be able to reset it again with no problem for the new owner?
    Thank you for your help. This forum is a source for many of us new owners to solve things.

    As long as you do the download with your Apple ID, it'll be in your name. Reverting back can be a little involved. If you have that in mind, you should make a full backup of your clean install of ML and save it somewhere. Then you can just copy the image back with Carbon Copy Cloner. External drives are cheap, that's how I'd do it.

  • I recently purchased an iMac from a friend who factory reset it, and now I can't reinstall Mountain Lion?

         As the title says, I can't reinstall Mountain Lion. When I turn on the iMac, it send me straight to OX X Utilities. When I click on Reinstall Mountain Lion, it asks for my ID, but then states I did not purchase Mountain Lion. How do I fix this issue? I've tried asking Apple Support, but to no avail. I don't think the guy I spoke with understood what was going on.
    I cannot get around OS X Utilities. There are only four options for me.
    Reinstall Mountain Lion
    Back Up (tried, nothing comes up)
    Get Help Online (which is what I'm doing here)
    Erase or Restore Utilities (I've checked this, it says my disks are not malfunctioning)
         My friend suggested signing into his ID to reinstall but when we did, it also said this ID has not purchased Mountain Lion. We logged into Apple Support went to registed devices and there was nothing there. I think he may have used another ID which is he searching for the info for. If we get the right ID, then maybe it will let us sign in on his name and reinstall Mountain Lion. But if he can't, or Apple won't take his ID, then I'm at a loss for options.
         So now I'm here, hoping someone else who bought a used iMac from a friend who factory reset it and needs info on how to reinstall Mountain Lion can help me. I don't know what else to do. If I can't get this thing sorted out, I'll have to drive to the apple store. The closest one is 60 miles away, so I'm not looking forward to that. Is that my only option now? What can I do?
    tl;dr I bought a used iMac from a friend who factory reset it, and now I don't know how to reinstall Mountain Lion. What are my options?

    If the system didn't ship with Mountain Lion originally and you didn't purchase Mountain Lion yourself, then you will need to purchase. A purchase by the system's original owner cannot be transferred to you.
    Unless you have another system on which you have purchased Mountain Lion, you will need to first install Mac OS X 10.6.8 on the iMac, for which you'll need either the original installation disks, if the iMac came with 10.6, or a retail copy of 10.6. Install 10.6 and upgrade to at least 10.6.6, and then you can buy Mountain Lion from the Mac App Store, presuming of course that the imac can support Mountain Lion. See:
    http://www.apple.com/osx/how-to-upgrade/
    Regards.

  • A few questions before proceeding to uninstall/reinstall Mountain Lion

    Since I'm new to this forum I inadvertently closed the discussion that I initiated myself without it being resolved, so I'll copy what I had asked in the previous discussion over to a new thread:
    23-Oct-2012 16:08 (in response to ds store)
    Since yesterday I've done this:
    Safe boot
    smc reset
    pram reset
    hardware test looped 5 times off of original discs: no trouble
    check battery: good condition
    reinstalled flash with click for flash in Safari, updated Firefox to 16
    Startup Manager: Volumes are Mac hd and recovery 10.8.1: did repair disk and permissions repair
    Onyx: did everything and rebooted. There was trouble with epson permissions that was fixed and still recurred, went to users and deleted printers and then went to epson and downloaded uninstall from July 2012 and removed with that anything that was there
    Still crashes though, so I thought I would do this, I'm nervous about it though:
    command r boot off Recovery HD partition and Disk Utility Erase with Security Option: Zero the OS X drive/partition. Check under Partition: Options: GUID and Format: OS X Extended Journaled and apply if not already set.
    Quit and install 10.6 or 107+ from Apple's servers.
    Reboot, use the same user name as before (different password advised)
    quit and install 10.6 or 107, what is 107? does this mean 10.8? I'm confused by that
    so I must write down the user name, not the owner name, both of which I changed
    I also before had created a new user and deleted my friends user accounts, so that was done already but didn't help.
    when you say different password advised, you mean change that later in users?
    When adobe asks for id are they asking for my id that I created to get to this forum or my user name and computer password or the computer name and password?
    I'm ready to do this once I get things ironed out.....I'm afraid something awful will happen....but I guess I've done what I can for the most part otherwise.
    Thank you for your help, it's been great!
    23-Oct-2012 16:28 (in response to ds store)
    I also did try to command r and reinstall mountain lion but when I entered my adobe id they said that it has not been used in the app store.....
    so I'm not sure where that leads, whether entering my friends id and password might have lead to a free reinstall or even how to get any reinstall,
    however I'm happier with the idea of a fresh restart...but worried I won''t be allowed to or run into a message like that ....or it will cost a huge amount
    but you say I believe that it is quite simple and free?
    23-Oct-2012 16:31 (in response to ds store)
    "quit and install from apple servers"
    is this something that happens within the program without rebooting? Is the "install from apple servers"given as a prompt after you select the "quit" button?
    23-Oct-2012 16:42 (in response to ds store)
    Do I need to download and install this?
    http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1492
    I have noticed that somethings have improved with all these changes, I continue to delete programs that seem outdated and unneccesary, however there still seems to be lots of crashes, and a clean install deleting everything and starting again with mountain lion is what I'd like to do once I get these final things sorted out.
    Thank you

    No, please don't do that. Here's how you do one or the other:
    Downgrade Lion/Mountain Lion to Snow Leopard
      1. Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer Disc. After the installer
          loads select your language and click on the Continue
          button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the
          Utilities menu.
      2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the
          mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status
          of the drive in DU's status area.  If it does not say "Verified" then
          the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing.  SMART
          info will not be reported  on external drives. Otherwise, click on
          the Partition tab in the DU main window.
      3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions
          from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS
          Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the
          partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on
          the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
      4. Quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.
    This will erase the whole drive so be sure to backup your files if you don't have a backup already. If you have performed a TM backup using Lion be aware that you cannot restore from that backup in Snow Leopard (see below.) I suggest you make a separate backup using Carbon Copy Cloner.
    If you have Snow Leopard Time Machine backups, do a full system restore per #14 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.  If you have subsequent backups from Lion, you can restore newer items selectively, via the "Star Wars" display, per #15 there, but be careful; some Snow Leopard apps may not work with the Lion files.
    Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing the Drive
    Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
    Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
    When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list.  In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive.  If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
    Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.
    Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
    Install or Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion from Scratch
    Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
    Boot to the Recovery HD:
    Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
    Erase the hard drive:
      1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
      2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the left side list. Click on
          the Erase tab in the DU main window.
      3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on the Security button and set the Zero
            Data option to one-pass. Click on the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
      4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
    Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button.
    Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

  • How do I Reinstall Mountain Lion on a used Macbook Pro?

    So I just recently purchased a 2011 Macbook Pro off of Craigslist.  A friend picked it up for me, installed an extra copy of Windows 8 he had for me under my name, and made sure the OSX Mountain Lion side worked fine.  Somehow, after the first time I restarted OSX it would no longer boot up, but Windows worked fine.  So I booted up in the recovery partition, reformatted the OSX partition, and attempted to install Mountain Lion.
    The problem is that I don't have it listed under my Apple I.D. as purchased, which makes sense because the last Macbook I bought came with Leopard.  I tried to buy it on the Windows side through iTunes, but I'm not able.  So my question is can I just buy Mountain Lion on someone else's Mac through the App store under my I.D., and will I then be able to reinstall Mountain Lion through the recovery partition?
    Or will I have to resort to resetting my Macbook Pro to factory defaults, losing the copy of Windows 8 I was given, and reverting back to the original OS, which I'm guessing is Lion?

    Well, you need to log in to the App Store on a Mac, using your AppleID, and purchase Mountain Lion. Then, on the konked out Mac's Recovery Partition you'll be able to sign in with the same AppleID and download the ML installer you are now eligible to use.

  • I lost iLife after reinstalling Mountain Lion

    I bought my iMac in April last year, it is the 21.5 inch mid/late 2011 iMac (if I'm not wrong), the thing is I used to install lots of things in here until I decided it was worth to erase all the unimportant content, but to make myselfe sure I decided to back up in an external hard drive everything I thought it was important and then I proceded to reboot the system and enter in restore mode while startup (using cmd + r, as you may know).. Once in there I went to disk utilities and erased my HDD and after that I proceeded to reinstall Mountain Lion. Everything went OK, I entered my Apple ID and Password and the installation went through without any further problems. When I started to reconfigure everything I noticed iPhoto was missing, so I inmediately checked if iMovie and GarageBand were there, but they were not. So I logged in the Mac AppStore but there said I should bought them (which actually makes sense, because I got iLife with my iMac) but I honestly don't know what to do. I used to use a lot these softwares, and it would be nice to have them back.. Do you have any idea of what should I do?
    I also would like to add that my iMac came with OS X Lion, I bought Mountain Lion personally.. if that has something to do with..
    Thanks for your attention,
    PD: Please bear in mind that I'm from Argentina, any mistake you can found wasn't intencionally, sorry if you happen to find many

    Thank you very much for your help and your time, this problem was in deed very simple to solve, I tried to click the buy app button just to see what happens and it turned out that was the right thing to do.
    If any one has this problem here is a screenshot that will more or less tell you what you got to do:

  • Need to reinstall mountain lion from snow leopard

    i was using mountain lion before my hard drive went bad and had to replace it. however, snow leopard is the only OS disc i have so that's what i used to reboot the computer once i replaced it. how do i now reinstall mountain lion back to this computer? thanks.

    i updated the snow leopard so i now have the app store but when i go to purchases and hit "download" on my previous mountain lion purchase it doesn't do anything and when i click on the application name it says "The item you've requested is not currently available in the U.S. store."?? and yes, this is the same store i bought it from.

  • Best way to reinstall Mountain Lion on MBP?

    Hi.
    My wife has had a MacBook Pro since 2009. Over the years it has become soooooo slow. She's got tons of stuff on it including old versions of software, and programs she never uses. Honestly, I think it's just bogged down from all her crap over the years. So here's the problem I'm having. I want to back it up and do a fresh install, but I don't want to use Time Macine because I'm afraid all of her old programs and bugs and such will just go right back on her computer. So the only thing I've come up with is clicking and dragging all of the folders onto an external drive and then back again. Is there a better way? A better program or process or tutorial? Any advice would be massively appreciated. THANK YOU!
    Specs
    Mac OS 10.8.4
    2.53 GHz Intel Core i5
    4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
    500GB HDD

    If there is only one account, your Wife's, than you can just drag the "Macintosh HD" onto a large enough external hard drive. (***I would highly suggest you check to make sure the same amount of GB are on both drives after you have moved it all over to the external hard drive. You can do this by:
              Click on the Apple in the left top corner.
              Click about this Mac
              Click more info
              Click storage
    hope this solution works!)
    To reinstall Mountain Lion from scratch, follow these instructions below:
    Choose Apple menu > Restart. Once your Mac restarts (and the gray screen appears), hold down the Command (⌘) and R keys.
    If you’re not connected to the Internet, choose a network from the Wi-Fi menu (in the top-right corner of the screen).
    Select Disk Utility, and then click Continue.
    Select your startup disk from the list on the left, and then click the Erase tab.
    From the Format pop-up menu, choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled), enter a name for your disk, and then click Erase.
    After the disk is erased, choose Disk Utility > Quit Disk Utility.
    Select Reinstall OS X, click Continue, and then follow the instructions.

  • Can I reinstall Mountain Lion if I don't like Maverick???

    I want to try installing Maverick on a one-month old Macbook Air.  (purchased in September of 2013)
    If I don't like it, can I reinstall Mountain Lion???

    Yes you can. Just make sure to go and download the installer under the Purchased tab on the Mac App Store. I have to warn you first that you'll have to do a clean install of the OS if you want to revert back to 10.8 after upgrading to 10.9 which is I why I recommend that you do a backup beforehand using Time Machine or something similar. That way you could restore your applications and user accounts with files using Migration Assistant. Let me repeat it one more time, once you are in 10.9, the installer for OS X Mountain Lion won't allow you to downgrade using it while booted from your main volume. Look around online on how to create a bootable USB installer so that you can reformat the internal drive and do a clean install of OS X. Hope this may of help.

  • I need to reinstall Mountain Lion from a Time Machine backup, but it says that the last backup is 6 months old

    Hi, I need to reinstall Mountain Lion on my MacBook Pro, so I made a backup yesterday and today I tried to reinstall everything from that backup.
    To my surprise, Time Machine says that the last full backup was made on February!
    I've always made regular backups during these months on my Time Machine HD, what can I do to reinstall everything from the backup I made yesterday?
    Thank you very much.

    Most likely, some folders were inadvertently excluded from your backups, and as a result you can't restore your data in Recovery, Setup Assistant, or Migration Assistant.
    Starting from a fresh installation of OS X, set up a new administrator account and log in. Follow the instructions on this page to associate your existing backups with the new installation.
    You should now be able to enter Time Machine and restore your user data from a snapshot.* I suggest you do this in two stages. Quit all applications except the Finder before you begin.
    Restore all the visible items at the top level of your home folder.
    Hold down the option key and select Go ▹ Library from the Finder menu bar. Enter Time Machine and restore all items in the Library folder. Log out and log back in as soon as the restore is complete.
    Any other invisible folders or files at the top level of your home folder that you want to preserve will have to be restored separately. For most users, that isn't necessary.
    You'll have to reinstall all third-party applications from scratch, or restore them from another kind of backup, if you have one.
    *If you don't see any snapshots in Time Machine, exit the time-travel view and then hold down the option key while selecting
    Browse Other Backup Disks...
    from the Time Machine menu, which has an icon that looks like a clock running backwards. Select the backups of your computer by its previous name. If you don't have the Time Machine menu, open the Time Machine preference pane in System Preferences and check the box marked
    Show Time Machine in menu bar

  • How to reinstall Mountain Lion after Mavericks OS has been installed without using the time machine?

    Hi, I upgraded to Maverics a few weeks ago, and since than my computer has been very slow. It NEVER happened before. Now, I want to go back to Mountain Lion, but I didn't back up my computer with the time machine. I'd appreciate if anyone could tell me how to reinstall Mountain Lion again over Maverics? Thanks a lot for your help!

    You will need either a bootable flash drive with Mountain Lion to install, if you have one, or reinstall Snow Leopard if your computer can boot Snow Leopard. Or you can use Internet Recovery to reinstall the original version of OS X that came with the computer. In any event you will have to repartition and reformat the drive.
    Install Mavericks, Lion/Mountain Lion on a New HDD/SDD
    Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
    Boot to the Internet Recovery HD:
    Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION- R keys until a globe appears on the screen. Wait patiently - 15-20 minutes - until the Recovery main menu appears.
    Partition and Format the hard drive:
    1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
    2. After DU loads select your external hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
    3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
    Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion. Mavericks: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion, Mavericks and click on the Install button. Be sure to select the correct drive to use if you have more than one.
    Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

  • Reinstall Mountain Lion without losing applications etc.

    I am having memory issues with my Mountain Lion.
    I want to remove and reinstall Mountain Lion.  How can i do this without losing all my applications(in app folder and anything of value that should be backed up)?
    I have Time Machine backup but if I did restore, it may restore the problem.
    Your help would be appreciated.
    Thanks and I look forward to your reply.

    Once again thanks for your reply.
    What I am noticing is my complete memory is being used up.  I see this within Activity Manager.
    I installed Free Memory program.  It works in freeing memeory but when it is running it causes the machine to be at a stanstill.
    Is there a Mac program that can diagnose activity manager to see what is causing the issue.
    I run Firefox which I know is a memory hog.  It is consuming about 2GB's.  But what I am noticing is my kernel task is consuming huge amounts of memory and CPU processing time.
    I did boot into safe mode and the mem issue seemed to be better. 
    Is there a quick way to see which program is the culprit rather than enabling one program and rebooting at one time.
    is there a way to get into the Kernel_task process and see what is doing?

  • I REINSTALL Mountain Lion BUT didn't come with iPhoto

    I REINSTALL Mountain Lion BUT didn't come with iPhoto
    How can i get it back please  . i just to Appstore and theres nothing there  and want me to pay
    i just got this imac last april 

    Restoring your Free iLife (iPhoto, iMovie etc)

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