My Ipone Backed Up to an Old Version

It's always tempting to install the latest version of macOS, full of new features and updates. Even so, you might find that once you've gone through the upgrade process, your system isn't working right.

Fortunately, if you need to, you can drop back to the previous macOS version you were running. However, the downgrading process isn't as easy as it used to be. We'll walk you through how to downgrade macOS Monterey or earlier to an older version of macOS.

Why You Might Want to Downgrade macOS

Apple tries to make macOS upgrades as backward-compatible as possible, but there are still edge cases. Certain types of hardware and software might not function correctly after upgrading.

This is especially true when it comes to audio-, video-, and graphics-related hardware and software. For that reason, many vendors of this type of software will recommend that you never upgrade your operating system in the middle of a project. Still, you may realize you need to return to a project that won't work on the latest version of macOS.

Before You Downgrade, Back Up Your Data!

No matter which way you downgrade your macOS version, you'll erase everything on your hard drive. To ensure you don't end up losing any valuable data, your best bet is to back up your entire hard drive.

You can back up with the built-in Time Machine service, although you must be careful if you use this option. One of the ways you can downgrade is by restoring an old Time Machine backup (if you have one available). If you do this and then want to restore a recent backup, be sure to only restore your personal data, so you don't undo the downgrade.

If you want to be safe, or if you're just not a fan of Time Machine, fear not. We've covered different Mac backup solutions that are solid options too.

After backing up, here are the different methods you can use to downgrade your Mac.

Option 1. Downgrade Using macOS Recovery: Intel Macs Only

Assuming your Mac originally came with an older version of macOS installed on it, downgrading is fairly easy. You can use the built-in macOS Recovery tool to downgrade. Just make sure you have internet access during the installation, as the software will download a previous version of macOS.

Note: This method only works on Intel-based Macs, and can't be used on M1 Macs. You'll need to use the Time Machine or bootable disk method for M1 Macs.

The process is similar to reinstalling macOS, but will instead download the version of macOS that your computer originally shipped with. If your computer is quite old, this will instead download the oldest version that's still available.

Make sure you're fully backed up first because this will erase your startup disk:

1. Shut down your Mac.
2. Power on your computer and immediately hold Shift + Option + Cmd + R. You'll notice startup takes longer than normal as macOS Recovery loads.
3. Once the macOS Utilities screen loads, choose Reinstall macOS (or Reinstall OS X) and click Continue.
4. Follow the prompts and choose your startup disk. Now click Install.
5. Walk through the onscreen instructions to complete the rest of the installation process.
6. Once the installation is complete, restore your files from the backup you created.

Option 2. Downgrade Using a Time Machine Backup

Using a Time Machine backup is another simple way to install an older version of macOS. This, of course, assumes that you created the backup on an older version of macOS.

To downgrade using a prior Time Machine backup:

1. Plug your Time Machine disk into your Mac and power it down or restart it.
2. Boot your Mac into Recovery mode. To do this on an Intel Mac, hold Cmd + R to enter macOS Recovery. On M1-based Macs, keep holding the Power button on startup till you see the message Loading Startup Options. On the next screen, select Options to launch Recovery mode.
3. When the macOS Utilities screen appears, select Restore From Time Machine Backup and click Continue.
4. On the next screen, click Continue again.
5. Select your Restore Source. In this case, that's the backup drive you plugged in earlier.
6. On the following screen, select the backup you want to restore from. You'll be able to see which version of macOS was used to create that backup.
7. Follow the prompts to complete the reinstallation, then restore your files from the backup you created.

Option 3. Downgrade Using an Older macOS Installer

Before the release of macOS Mojave, it was possible to download older versions of macOS directly through the App Store. With the updated Mac App Store, this is no longer possible; however, they can still be downloaded through Apple's Support website. The installer will download through the System Preferences' Software Update section and should be available in your Applications folder once done.

Once you have the specific macOS installer downloaded on your Mac, you can use it to create a bootable disk, from which you can reinstall macOS. This is helpful for users trying to downgrade from macOS Monterey to macOS Big Sur or older on M1 Macs, as the default Recovery mode only installs the latest version of macOS.

Moving forward, it's worth remembering that older macOS versions are now harder to download. The next time you upgrade, you might want to make a backup of the previous version's installer, just in case.

For this process, you'll need a 16GB or larger USB flash drive or external hard drive.

Preparing the External Drive

Before you can create the installer, you need to format the drive. If your drive is already formatted, you can skip this section. To format the drive:

1. Plug in your external drive.
2. Launch the Disk Utility app. You can find this with Spotlight (Cmd + Space) or by going to the Applications folder in Finder, then opening the Utilities menu and double-clicking on the app.
3. Under External in the list on the left, select your disk and then click the Erase button at the top of the window.
4. Under Format, choose either the HFS+ or APFS file system. The best Mac file system to choose depends on what you plan to use it for.
5. Click Erase, then Done, once the process completes.

Creating the Installer

You'll need to follow these steps on the machine that has the installer for the older macOS version.

Plug in your formatted external hard drive and launch the Terminal app. You'll need to enter a command, which will differ based on what version of macOS you're using. If you are going to create a bootable drive for macOS Big Sur, use the command below as it is. Otherwise, replace Big Sur with the macOS version name (for example Mojave):

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Big\ Sur.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled

This will create the installer (titled Untitled), which you can use as a bootable disk.

Using the Installer

Finally, to run the installer you've created and downgrade macOS:

1. Shut down the Mac that you want to downgrade and plug in the newly created external drive.
2. Boot the Mac into Recovery Mode. For Intel Macs, this can be done by holding Cmd + R on startup. On M1-based Macs, keep holding the Power button on startup till you see the message Loading Startup Options. On the next screen, select Options to launch Recovery mode.
3. When the macOS Utilities screen appears, select Disk Utility
4. Select your Startup Disk and click Erase. Choose either the HFS+ or APFS file system for the format.
5. Restart the Mac again, this time holding down Option (Intel Macs) or keeping the Power button pressed (M1 Macs). The Startup Manager will appear. You should see your USB as a bootable disk. Use the arrow keys to select it and press Return on your keyboard.
6. Once the installer loads, select Install macOS.
7. Once the installation is finished, you can restore your files from the backup you created.

You Might Not Need to Downgrade at All

If you're thinking about downgrading your macOS version because your computer is getting slow, you might want to rethink that decision. While this may solve your speed problem, you could go through all that trouble only to find that your Mac still feels slow. Try cleaning your hard drive and reducing your startup applications to get better performance out of your Mac first.

Is Your Mac Running Slow? 10 Simple Tips to Speed It Up

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About The Author

Kris Wouk (115 Articles Published)

Kris Wouk is a musician, writer, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. A tech enthusiast for as long as he can remember, he definitely has favorite operating systems and devices, but uses as many others as he can anyway, just to stay caught up.

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My Ipone Backed Up to an Old Version

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