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Change Date in macOS Catalina via Terminal 2020

By: FilioTech Updated on: May 13, 2020

Change Date in macOS Catalina via Terminal 2020

If you ever wondered, how to change the date in macOS Catalina, or if you have following error message:

Installation Failed  An error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running again.

during macOS install/upgrade to macOS Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra, or technically any other macOS Software this blog post is for you.

In this Post you can find
How to change Date via Terminal
Summary

Change Date via Terminal in macOS

The above error indicates that most likely your Mac System Date is incorrect.

Boot into macOS Recovery again by restarting your Mac and holding CMD + R keys together.

While in the Recovery mode, cancel the installation process, and navigate to Utilities and open the Terminal app.

Once in the Terminal, enter the following command and hit return/enter: 

date

You should see something like this:

Image Terminal Date
If your time and date are incorrect, use the following command to set up a correct date to continue with the installation or upgrade.

 example: date {month}{day}{hour}{minute}{year}

Every bracket should be replaced with a two-digit number. For example.
November 16th 2018 21:16 would become the following command:

date 1116211618

Image Terminal Date Command
Enter the command and hit return. You can then check if it was set correctly by running the first command again.
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Summary

If the date was wrong, it was likely that which caused the error, and after you quit the terminal it should be able to install your macOS. If you need any help, comment below and let us know or check our other IT Support Solutions.