Macbook Won't Finish Downloading Any Dmg Files

Macbook Won't Finish Downloading Any Dmg Files Rating: 8,5/10 6754 reviews

So, you’ve decided to download an older version of Mac OS X. There are many reasons that could point you to this radical decision. To begin with, some of your apps may not be working properly (or simply crash) on newer operating systems. Also, you may have noticed your Mac’s performance went down right after the last update. Finally, if you want to run a parallel copy of Mac OS X on a virtual machine, you too will need a working installation file of an older Mac OS X. Further down we’ll explain where to get one and what problems you may face down the road.

  1. In Safari on your Mac, if a download seems like it failed, try these suggestions. If you can’t download an item from the web using Safari on Mac. Safari can download most types of files, but if you have trouble with a file, try these suggestions. Open Safari for me. If Safari is still downloading the file, wait for it to finish.
  2. If it won't mount it's possible the file is corrupted, or incomplete. Also I think there is a way to not automatically verify dmg files, which will sometimes let you mount dmg's with 'weird behaviors'. I could be wrong about that one though. Macs 'don't do' executable files. One reason it's harder to make viruses for mac os.

A list of all Mac OS X versions

We’ll be repeatedly referring to these Apple OS versions below, so it’s good to know the basic macOS timeline.

Cheetah 10.0Puma 10.1Jaguar 10.2
Panther 10.3Tiger 10.4Leopard 10.5
Snow Leopard 10.6Lion 10.7Mountain Lion 10.8
Mavericks 10.9Yosemite 10.10El Capitan 10.11
Sierra 10.12High Sierra 10.13Mojave 10.14
Catalina 10.15

STEP 1. Prepare your Mac for installation

Snap i am having the same problem, i have 10 items to be installed and it would not work, then i selected just one and still had the same problem. I have tried it many times and also have resulted in turning my mac off! Id like to find a solution too! Internet Explorer Won't Finish Downloads by fiefer1 February 4, 2009 12:56 AM PST I've probably reached the end of the internet trying to solve this problem, hope you can help.

Given your Mac isn’t new and is filled with data, you will probably need enough free space on your Mac. This includes not just space for the OS itself but also space for other applications and your user data. One more argument is that the free space on your disk translates into virtual memory so your apps have “fuel” to operate on. The chart below tells you how much free space is needed.

Note, that it is recommended that you install OS on a clean drive. Next, you will need enough disk space available, for example, to create Recovery Partition. Here are some ideas to free up space on your drive:

  • Uninstall large unused apps
  • Empty Trash Bin and Downloads
  • Locate the biggest files on your computer:

Go to Finder > All My Files > Arrange by size
Then you can move your space hoggers onto an external drive or a cloud storage.
If you aren’t comfortable with cleaning the Mac manually, there are some nice automatic “room cleaners”. Our favorite is CleanMyMac as it’s most simple to use of all. It deletes system junk, old broken apps, and the rest of hidden junk on your drive.

Download CleanMyMac for OS 10.4 - 10.8 (free version)

Download CleanMyMac for OS 10.9 (free version)

Download CleanMyMac for OS 10.10 - 10.14 (free version)

STEP 2. Get a copy of Mac OS X download

Normally, it is assumed that updating OS is a one-way road. That’s why going back to a past Apple OS version is problematic. The main challenge is to download the OS installation file itself, because your Mac may already be running a newer version. If you succeed in downloading the OS installation, your next step is to create a bootable USB or DVD and then reinstall the OS on your computer.

How to download older Mac OS X versions via the App Store


If you once had purchased an old version of Mac OS X from the App Store, open it and go to the Purchased tab. There you’ll find all the installers you can download. However, it doesn’t always work that way. The purchased section lists only those operating systems that you had downloaded in the past. But here is the path to check it:

  1. Click the App Store icon.
  2. Click Purchases in the top menu.
  3. Scroll down to find the preferred OS X version.
  4. Click Download.

This method allows you to download Mavericks and Yosemite by logging with your Apple ID — only if you previously downloaded them from the Mac App Store.

Without App Store: Download Mac OS version as Apple Developer

If you are signed with an Apple Developer account, you can get access to products that are no longer listed on the App Store. If you desperately need a lower OS X version build, consider creating a new Developer account among other options. The membership cost is $99/year and provides a bunch of perks unavailable to ordinary users.

Nevertheless, keep in mind that if you visit developer.apple.com/downloads, you can only find 10.3-10.6 OS X operating systems there. Newer versions are not available because starting Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.7, the App Store has become the only source of updating Apple OS versions.

Purchase an older version of Mac operating system

You can purchase a boxed or email version of past Mac OS X directly from Apple. Both will cost you around $20. For the reason of being rather antiquated, Snow Leopard and earlier Apple versions can only be installed from DVD.

Buy a boxed edition of Snow Leopard 10.6
Get an email copy of Lion 10.7
Get an email copy of Mountain Lion 10.8

The email edition comes with a special download code you can use for the Mac App Store. Note, that to install the Lion or Mountain Lion, your Mac needs to be running Snow Leopard so you can install the newer OS on top of it.

How to get macOS El Capitan download

If you are wondering if you can run El Capitan on an older Mac, rejoice as it’s possible too. But before your Mac can run El Capitan it has to be updated to OS X 10.6.8. So, here are main steps you should take:

1. Install Snow Leopard from install DVD.
2. Update to 10.6.8 using Software Update.
3. Download El Capitan here.

“I can’t download an old version of Mac OS X”

If you have a newer Mac, there is no physical option to install Mac OS versions older than your current Mac model. For instance, if your MacBook was released in 2014, don’t expect it to run any OS released prior of that time, because older Apple OS versions simply do not include hardware drivers for your Mac.

But as it often happens, workarounds are possible. There is still a chance to download the installation file if you have an access to a Mac (or virtual machine) running that operating system. For example, to get an installer for Lion, you may ask a friend who has Lion-operated Mac or, once again, set up a virtual machine running Lion. Then you will need to prepare an external drive to download the installation file using OS X Utilities.

After you’ve completed the download, the installer should launch automatically, but you can click Cancel and copy the file you need. Below is the detailed instruction how to do it.

STEP 3. Install older OS X onto an external drive

The following method allows you to download Mac OS X Lion, Mountain Lion, and Mavericks.

  1. Start your Mac holding down Command + R.
  2. Prepare a clean external drive (at least 10 GB of storage).
  3. Within OS X Utilities, choose Reinstall OS X.
  4. Select external drive as a source.
  5. Enter your Apple ID.

Now the OS should start downloading automatically onto the external drive. After the download is complete, your Mac will prompt you to do a restart, but at this point, you should completely shut it down. Now that the installation file is “captured” onto your external drive, you can reinstall the OS, this time running the file on your Mac.

  1. Boot your Mac from your standard drive.
  2. Connect the external drive.
  3. Go to external drive > OS X Install Data.

Locate InstallESD.dmg disk image file — this is the file you need to reinstall Lion OS X. The same steps are valid for Mountain Lion and Mavericks.

How to downgrade a Mac running later macOS versions

If your Mac runs macOS Sierra 10.12 or macOS High Sierra 10.13, it is possible to revert it to the previous system if you are not satisfied with the experience. You can do it either with Time Machine or by creating a bootable USB or external drive.
Instruction to downgrade from macOS Sierra

Instruction to downgrade from macOS High Sierra

Instruction to downgrade from macOS Mojave

Instruction to downgrade from macOS Catalina

Before you do it, the best advice is to back your Mac up so your most important files stay intact. In addition to that, it makes sense to clean up your Mac from old system junk files and application leftovers. The easiest way to do it is to run CleanMyMac X on your machine (download it for free here).

Visit your local Apple Store to download older OS X version

If none of the options to get older OS X worked, pay a visit to nearest local Apple Store. They should have image installations going back to OS Leopard and earlier. You can also ask their assistance to create a bootable USB drive with the installation file. So here you are. We hope this article has helped you to download an old version of Mac OS X. Below are a few more links you may find interesting.

These might also interest you:

DMG is a file of Apple Disk Image. The Apple Disk Images are disk image files commonly used by the Mac OS X operating system. When opened, an Apple disk image is 'mounted' as a volume within the Finder. Several Apple proprietary disk image formats can be used to create these images, including the Universal Disk Image Format (UDIF) and the New Disk Image Format (NDIF). Apple disk images usually have the .dmg file extension.

Apple disk images allow secure password protection as well as file compression and hence serves both security and file distribution functions; they are most commonly used to distribute software over the Internet.

Just click on ‘Free memory‘ option to clean Mac’s memory and see the magic in the terms of performance.Avoid the degradation in performance with the memory eating applications such as Photoshop, Office and iWork. An easy to use memory clearing app accessible by both novices and experts. /best-memory-cleaner-mac.html. It is a great tool to make sure apps are not eating away the memory compromising the performance.Want a simple user interface in a tool to speed your Mac and stop the memory leakage, then choose Memory Purge.

Universal Disk Image Format (UDIF) is the native disk image format for Mac OS X. Disk images in this format typically have a .dmg extension. New Disk Image Format (NDIF) was the previous default disk image format in Mac OS 9, and disk images with this format generally have a .img (not to be confused with raw .img disk image files) or .smi file extension. Files with the .smi extension are actually applications that mount an embedded disk image, thus a 'Self Mounting Image', and are intended only for Mac OS 9 and earlier. A previous version of the format, intended only for floppy disk images, is usually referred to as 'Disk Copy 4.2' format, after the version of the Disk Copy utility that was used to handle these images. A similar format that supported compression of floppy disk images is called DART. Apple disk image files are published with a MIME type of application/x-apple-diskimage.

Different file systems can be contained inside these disk images, and there is also support for creating hybrid optical media images that contain multiple file systems. Some of the file systems supported include Hierarchical File System (HFS), HFS Plus, File Allocation Table (FAT), ISO9660 and Universal Disk Format (UDF).

Open/Extract DMG File on Windows

Easy 7-Zip opens/extracts DMG file easily on Windows. The Easy 7-Zip was developed based on 7-Zip. 7-Zip is a famous open source file archiver. The Easy 7-Zip is an easy-to-use version of 7-Zip. The open source freeware keeps all features of 7-Zip and adds a few useful features that makes the software more user-friendly.

Easy 7-Zip works on Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/2008/2003/XP/2000 (both 32-bit and 64-bit compatible).

  1. Free Download Easy 7-Zip
  2. Install Easy 7-Zip by step-by-step instructions
  3. The installation will associate DMG with Easy 7-Zip automatically
  4. Double-click on DMG file to open DMG file with Easy 7-Zip

  5. You will see files or folders within the DMG file then, click button Extract to extract the DMG file.
  6. Alternatively, Right-click on DMG file on Windows Explorer

  7. And then, choose Extract files.., Extract Here, or Extract to 'folder' to extract the DMG file.
  8. Done

Easy 7-Zip Download Links:

You can install and use other alternative freeware that opens/extracts DMG file without burning the DMG file to disc. For example:

  • Free DMG Extractor
  • HFSExplorer
  • PeaZip

Open/Extract DMG File on Mac

B1 Free Archiver opens/extracts DMG file on Mac. B1 Free Archiver is a free software for creating archive folder and extracting archive file. B1 Archiver works on all platforms - Windows, Linux, Mac and Android. The freeware supports most popular formats including DMG.

B1 Free Archiver is compatible with:

  • Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks
  • Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion
  • Mac OS X 10.7 Lion
  • Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard

Alternative freeware that opens/extracts DMG file on Mac.

  • Apple Disk Utility
  • Keka
  • GUI Tar

Open/Extract DMG File on Linux

You can use command mount to mount DMG file as a virtual drive.

First, you must login as a root user, and then create a directory for DMG image

# mkdir -p /mnt/macimage

Use mount command as follows to mount DMG file called image.dmg:

# mount -o loop -t hfsplus image.dmg /mnt/macimage

If the DMG is HFS file system, use:

# mount -o loop -t hfs image.dmg /mnt/macimage

Change directory to list files stored inside an DMG image:

# cd /mnt/macimage
# ls -l

Unmount the DMG image, type:

# umount /mnt/macimage

Alternatively, you can use p7zip to extract the DMG file. p7zip is the Unix command-line port of 7-Zip, a file archiver that archives with high compression ratios.

Install p7zip-full on CentOS and Fedora

# yum install p7zip-full

Macbook Won't Finish Downloading Any Dmg Files Download

Install p7zip-full on Debian and Ubuntu

$ sudo apt-get install p7zip-full

List directories and files in DMG file

$ 7z l image.dmg

Macbook Won't Finish Downloading Any Dmg Files Windows 10

Extract DMG file on Linux

Macbook Won't Finish Downloading Any Dmg Files Windows 7

$ 7z x image.dmg
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