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butterwm

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 25, 2012
64
4
I bought a MacBook Air this summer and it came with OS Lion Installed. I upgraded the machine to Mountain Lion and have had many problems. We did the same with our iMac and are having the same issues/problems. I decided to wipe out the OS and reinstall Lion since I don't recall having any problems with that OS.

Since the MacBook Air doesn't come with OS discs, you have to do the Command-R on reboot. The problem I am having is when I did this it only gives me the option to reinstall Mountain Lion even though Lion came with the machine. I am assuming that when I upgraded to Mountain Lion it overwrote the Lion restore software with the Mountain Lion. Is there any way of going back to Lion or am I stuck with Mountain Lion?

Thanks!
 

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,035
15,412
California
Make yourself a 1GB USB recovery key using this Apple Utility.

Then plug it in and hold the option key as you boot. Select the USB drive to boot to. Once the screen comes up select Disk Utility and click on the drive name (like 1TB Seagate or whatever) and NOT Macintosh HD... then erase the drive. This will wipe the OS on Macintosh HD and also the Mountain Lion Recovery HD partition. Then go ahead with the reinstall and it will give you Lion. With the Mountain Lion Recovery HD, Apple's servers will give you the OS linked to your original serial number, Lion in your case.
 

halledise

macrumors 68000
I may be wrong, but unless there was a firmware update somewhere along the process of installing ML, you should be able to make a bootable recovery disk on a usb stick (download Recovery Disk Assistant from Apple)
and make a bootable Lion disk on another stick
and reinstall it.

either this way:
http://holgr.net/fm

or by this method (easier):
http://blog.gete.net/lion-diskmaker-us/

I'm pretty sure Lion is still available from the App Store though you may need to purchase it.

all that said, ML is a better OS than Lion was.
if you persevere with ML you'll be fine

* edit * - Weaselboy beat me to it saying essentially the same thing
 

butterwm

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 25, 2012
64
4
I hear what you are saying with ML being a better OS but I can't seem to shake any of the issues I am having. Are any of you having the same issues or have any suggestions? (BTW--we have two MacBook Air's and an iMac and they are all having the same issues)

1. The computer will lock up randomly using Safari. The whole computer freezes and you have to reboot using the power button.
2. MAC mail works sometimes and not others. When you open mail, it will say it can't connect to the servers (both Yahoo and COX account). Try again later and it works--very frustrating.
3. Time machine works for a few days and then says it can't connect to the time capsule anymore. I reboot the computer and time capsule and it works again for a few more days.

Any thoughts or suggestions?
 

Gav2k

macrumors G3
Jul 24, 2009
9,216
1,608
I hear what you are saying with ML being a better OS but I can't seem to shake any of the issues I am having. Are any of you having the same issues or have any suggestions? (BTW--we have two MacBook Air's and an iMac and they are all having the same issues)

1. The computer will lock up randomly using Safari. The whole computer freezes and you have to reboot using the power button.
2. MAC mail works sometimes and not others. When you open mail, it will say it can't connect to the servers (both Yahoo and COX account). Try again later and it works--very frustrating.
3. Time machine works for a few days and then says it can't connect to the time capsule anymore. I reboot the computer and time capsule and it works again for a few more days.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Your issues are prob due to a bad upgrade. Try a clean install and see how it goes
 

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,035
15,412
California
I hear what you are saying with ML being a better OS but I can't seem to shake any of the issues I am having. Are any of you having the same issues or have any suggestions? (BTW--we have two MacBook Air's and an iMac and they are all having the same issues)

I have ML on my 2012 MBA and have none of those issues. It is VERY odd you are having these same issues on three machines. :confused:
 

orangezorki

macrumors 6502a
Aug 30, 2006
633
30
Really weird that you're having the same issue on three different machines. I suspect that it is either due to something corrupted on a system file that you might have cloned for all machines, or an incompatible program that you are running on all three as well.

David
 

TheRichboy247

macrumors member
Oct 7, 2012
61
0
Your issues are prob due to a bad upgrade. Try a clean install and see how it goes

I have ML and its running perfect; except for battery life issues. No problem, I keep my Air plugged in. I also suggest a clean install. Your problems seem software related. If the clean reinstall doesn't work, I would go back to Lion.
 

butterwm

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 25, 2012
64
4
I did a clean install on one of the MacBook Air's and I am running that as a trial for a bit to see how it works. The only non-apple software I had installed on all three computers was MS Office. (However, we didn't use Outlook for e-mail, just MAC mail). Are there any known issues with Office?
 

ilkevinli

macrumors 6502
Apr 8, 2006
302
28
NYC
You CAN return to Lion on the Air. You have to run the Internet recovery and it will re-install he Lion Recovery and re-download Lion for install. This will only work if your Air came with Lion installed.
 
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