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Downgrade to Yosemite?

I

immobilus

macrumors member
Original poster
May 5, 2012
62
4
Hello All:

I installed El Capitan because I'm nosy and love upgrades. I'm a member of public beta, but not developer beta, so I installed from an ISO torrent. For those interested in doing the same, don't. Wait for the public beta. El Capitan, even under Beta 2, is unstable, most applications either don't work or won't install, etc. No anti-Malware software works for it yet besides Clamxav, and I am debating whether it knows which folders yet to scan or whether its missing folders in its scan.

I am trying to downgrade to Yosemite. I've downloaded the Yosemite Install App, and when I run it from El Capitan, it says it can't install a previous version. So I made an install USB. I rebooted to the USB, and it tells me the same after it unpackages the install application. It appears the only way to downgrade is to reboot into recovery mode, reformat the hard drive, and then install from the USB. But everyone has told me El Capitan is downgradable. Downgradable implies you can downgrade without wiping your hard drive.

Anyone have any ideas? I can wipe my hard drive, but I'd rather it just downgrade while keeping my files.
 
I am not sure who said that you can downgrade the system, but to my knowledge that is not possible. A system restore or reinstall are the only options. Unlike iOS, you can revert to a previous system at all times though.
 
Im afraid you need to use a Yosemite boot disk and format and reinstall. You should have made a bootable backup before installing a new OS if the files are important to you.
 
I also torrented the first beta a week or so ago and upgraded from Yosemite; the app store then decided it might as well offer me the second beta so did that the official way. I've not had any major issues, although I don't (and never have) use anti-virus/malware software of any form.

The only things I've lost are tweaks -xtrafinder for Finder and stand & cookes for Safari. I can live with that.

You can't downgrade to Yosemite; you need to restore from a complete backup or perform a clean install. Do bear in mind that if you plan to do that and "roll forward" your data files, that Yosemite Photos can't open the library once it's been touched by the Captain's version.
 
Actually, it was MacRumors who said it was downgradable. In their videos, advising people not to install Watch OS 2 because it is not downgradable.
 
Regarding the photos issue, my photos are all stored on iCloud so that shouldn't be a problem.
 
immobilus said:
Regarding the photos issue, my photos are all stored on iCloud so that shouldn't be a problem.
Click to expand...
Ah, then either it is downgradable and I'm wrong, or their wording was bad in that you can "downgrade" by restoring everything back. As for photos - yeah, if they're all in the cloud then you're fine I believe!
 
Adrian, have you done much installing of new software or reinstalling of software? It's pretty impressive how many apps won't install, which I suppose makes sense because it is, after all, a developer's beta. Lessons learned. ;)
 
I think you've hit on the reason why I'm not having any major issues, and also why I would upgrade my only laptop with something I torrented .... I don't do anything complex/fancy with my laptop. Office 2011 & 2016 work (I don't use Outlook), my Mail hasn't crashed once (I don't use google for mail and all my accounts are IMAP), Plex is working and some basic accounting software is working. The only thing causing some annoyance (apart from the tweaks I mentioned) is Facetime video, as it's doing strange things to the size of the video and putting grey bars down the sides.
 
immobilus said:
Hello All:
El Capitan, even under Beta 2, is unstable, most applications either don't work or won't install, etc. No anti-Malware software works for it
Click to expand...

The only way to downgrade is to do a wipe of your system. I'm sure you already know how to do this, but just in case, here are the steps to take:

1. Copy the contents of your drive that you need or backup to a secondary/external drive or backup in the cloud
2. Open App Store, go to the purchased app, find Yosemite and click download. It will say that you're running a newer OS, but choose to download anyway
3. Format a 8Gb or more USB drive to OS X Extended and name it "Untitled" (you can name it what you like, but use that name in the command below)
4. Open Terminal and type
sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app
5. Reboot your mac holding Alt/Option and choose Yosemine install USB
6. Erase the contents of your boot drive from the Disk Utility and reinstall Yosemite

BTW, I have to ask - anti-Malware software? Why? I didn't get any malware on my Macs in 4 years since I've been using them. Just asking, no judgement :)
 
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aevan said:
The only way to downgrade is to do a wipe of your system. :)
Click to expand...

Wipe the drive & then do a complete"Restore" from a Time Machine backup or clone from CCC ( providing of course one did a backup before upgrading )
 
immobilus said:
Adrian, have you done much installing of new software or reinstalling of software? It's pretty impressive how many apps won't install, which I suppose makes sense because it is, after all, a developer's beta. Lessons learned. ;)
Click to expand...
Everyone has their own app collection, and result may vary.
I guess, if your software is platform specific, you would better not trying using beta.
 
aevan said:
4. Open Terminal and type
sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app
Click to expand...
Great tip! Does this command function with other versions of Mac OS X? If so, I won't need Diskmaker X, anymore.

Thanks for sharing
 
aevan said:
The only way to downgrade is to do a wipe of your system. I'm sure you already know how to do this, but just in case, here are the steps to take:

1. Copy the contents of your drive that you need or backup to a secondary/external drive or backup in the cloud
2. Open App Store, go to the purchased app, find Yosemite and click download. It will say that you're running a newer OS, but choose to download anyway
3. Format a 8Gb or more USB drive to OS X Extended and name it "Untitled" (you can name it what you like, but use that name in the command below)
4. Open Terminal and type
sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app
5. Reboot your mac holding Alt/Option and choose Yosemine install USB
6. Erase the contents of your boot drive from the Disk Utility and reinstall Yosemite

BTW, I have to ask - anti-Malware software? Why? I didn't get any malware on my Macs in 4 years since I've been using them. Just asking, no judgement :)
Click to expand...
I use Adware Medic. It found adware once on one of my Macs. I have no idea how it got here because I am super paranoid and careful. You may have something and not even know that you do. I didn't, despite the fact that I consider myself fairly computer savvy.
 
Miguel Cunha said:
Great tip! Does this command function with other versions of Mac OS X? If so, I won't need Diskmaker X, anymore.

Thanks for sharing
Click to expand...

Apple notes these for Yosemite and for Mavericks, however, I am pretty certain this works on Mountain Lion as well (I have done something like this long ago, I can't remember the exact command but I believe it to be the Mavericks one). Not sure about the previous versions, but creating a bootable USB drive is, I believe, a native OS X ability.


OS X Yosemite

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app

OS X Mavericks

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app
 
One other option, also covered in another thread, is to use Internet Recovery. This will install the version of OS X that came with your machine when you purchased it. Much less hassle than messing around with making a USB boot disk, of course you need a decent internet connection.

zaxven said:
wiping is only option and easiest way to do is..

1. on start up hold Command + Option + R - Go to disk utility, wipe off the existing disk and reinstall.
it will restore mac to the OS it originally came with.
Click to expand...
 
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