Can I downgrade to Monterey on a new 13-inch M2 Air?

[mectojic]

I've ordered an M2 13-inch Air, looking forward to it arriving.
From all I've seen of Ventura, it looks worse than Monterey (System Settings app) and has no features I care about.

I guess mine will be shipped with Ventura. But the M2 13-inch originally launched with Monterey, so is it possible to downgrade to Monterey?

 

[chrfr]

I've ordered an M2 13-inch Air, looking forward to it arriving.
From all I've seen of Ventura, it looks worse than Monterey (System Settings app) and has no features I care about.

I guess mine will be shipped with Ventura. But the M2 13-inch originally launched with Monterey, so is it possible to downgrade to Monterey?

You can, with the special build of 12.4 which first came with the M2 Air, or later versions of Monterey.

 

[Fishrrman]

I'm thinking that if you want to do this, you need to create a bootable USB flash drive with the Monterey installer on it.

Otherwise... if you try to use the new Apple Silicon "recovery"... it's probably going to offer you only Ventura again with no option for Monterey.

I could be wrong.

Something you may need to do NOW, before you start:
- disable system integrity protection
and
- go into "startup security" (you need to boot to recovery to do this) and DISABLE all startup security.

 

[chrfr]

Something you may need to do NOW, before you start:
- disable system integrity protection
and
- go into "startup security" (you need to boot to recovery to do this) and DISABLE all startup security.

There’s no reason to do this in order to downgrade the OS.

 

[mectojic]

You can, with the special build of 12.4 which first came with the M2 Air, or later versions of Monterey.

Thanks! I got a later version of Monterey and it worked off USB. Took a few attempts though, Apple clearly doesn't want you to downgrade.

I wonder whether the 15-inch could be easily downgraded to Monterey?

 

[chrfr]

Thanks! I got a later version of Monterey and it worked off USB. Took a few attempts though, Apple clearly doesn't want you to downgrade.

I wonder whether the 15-inch could be easily downgraded to Monterey?

The 15" requires a special version of 13.4 or later, so no Monterey there.
Downgrading is a trivial process for the 13" and other computers, using Apple Configurator and the appropriate IPSW installer file. Apple's not trying to block anyone from downgrading as all the earlier Apple Silicon Mac-compatible versions of macOS are still being signed by Apple.

 

[Isamilis]

Thanks! I got a later version of Monterey and it worked off USB. Took a few attempts though, Apple clearly doesn't want you to downgrade.

I wonder whether the 15-inch could be easily downgraded to Monterey?

Sorry for replying old thread. Are you finally able to downgrade to Monterey? Kind to share the steps? I just got M2/15" and it came with Ventura. Thanks!

 

[Apple_Robert]

Sorry for replying old thread. Are you finally able to downgrade to Monterey? Kind to share the steps? I just got M2/15" and it came with Ventura. Thanks!

If the Mac arrived with Ventura installed, it is not possible to run Monterey.

 

[Isamilis]

If the Mac arrived with Ventura installed, it is not possible to Monterey.

My 13" MBA M2 came with Monterey. As there is no hardware difference between 13" and 15" (except slightly on GPU), shouldn't 15" be compatible with Monterey as well?

 

[chrfr]

My 13" MBA M2 came with Monterey. As there is no hardware difference between 13" and 15" (except slightly on GPU), shouldn't be 15" is compatible with Monterey as well?

The 15” Air can only run 13.4 Ventura or later. There are hardware differences, but also Apple just doesn’t make Monterey available for the 15”.

 

[mectojic]

Sorry for replying old thread. Are you finally able to downgrade to Monterey? Kind to share the steps? I just got M2/15" and it came with Ventura. Thanks!

No Monterey for the 15". Only the 13". My 13" came with Ventura, but had no troubles downgrading to Monterey (12.6 or something)

 

[Isamilis]

Noted and thanks for the info!