I have mid 2011 Mac mini and a USB external HDD. I tried to install the 10.12 beta on it.
However, it complains with this message, "The installer payload failed signature check"
What's that message and why does it fail?
I have mid 2011 Mac mini and a USB external HDD. I tried to install the 10.12 beta on it.
However, it complains with this message, "The installer payload failed signature check"
What's that message and why does it fail?
Same problem here...
Same error:
The installer payload failed signature check"
I had the same issue - trying to install Sierra from a bootable USB drive eventually resulted in a 'The installer payload failed signature check' message.
The Macbook Air I was installing it on was built in 2012. I suspected the date/time to be an issue.
Here's what worked:
...In 5 minutes or so, you will be back in the installation screen.
Trying this now. Hopefully this works.
Confirming setting the date worked for me tonight while installing official Sierra from a USB stick. It was a 2010 Macbook Pro that hasn't been powered on for a while and the date when back to 1970 😠 Thanks. This saved me.
Apple: the installer should do a date check. You didn't exist yet in 1970 😉
Likewise, just adding to the list to say that I had exactly the same error message too whilst trying to install Sierra from a usb key on a mid-2010 MacBook Pro. All I needed to do was to reset the date using the steps set out by notpeter above. I was then able to successfully use exactly the same key and installer (my source was in the Applications folder already). A great tip above. Thanks to Shiky for suggesting it and to all those that have confirmed this works.
I think one of the reasons for the failure is that the InstallESD.dmg file was not copied into the USB drive correctly. To verify run the diff command in the terminal to verify. To rectify this open a terminal and copy the file from the Applications directory to the USB drive.
diff /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg /Volumes/Install\ macOS\ Sierra/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg
--> If this reports that the binary files are different, run the next command
sudo cp /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg /Volumes/Install\ macOS\ Sierra/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg
--> You will need to provide the Administrative Password for the sudo command
(The directories in the above commands contain spaces which need to be escaped. Also there may be differences in the directory paths.)
This solved my problem.
Hope this helps.
The file verification method worked for me. The following is what I have done:
ntpdate -u time.apple.com
date
exit