Downgrading from OSX Mavericks

[yourbuddy697]

I have searched everywhere to my particular question and didn't get a good answer. I had OSX Snow Leopard, saw that the upgrade to OSX Mavericks was free and downloaded it. A ton of my programs don't work now, go figure. I would like to downgrade but not back to OSX Snow Leopard but to OSX Lion or OSX Mountain Lion. Will my files and programs erase when I do this?

I didn't back up anything either.

 

[Bruno09]

You can't downgrade the OS without wiping out the whole disk.
(otherwise you would get a "Mac OS X can't be installed on this computer" warning).

Therefore, you need to save all you apps and data to an external disk, then wipe out the internal disk, then import your apps and data after the install.

A clone would be the best solution imo.

That said, you might have the same problem with some of your programs that worked on Snow Leopard and will not work on Lion or ML...

 

[yourbuddy697]

What do you mean clone? When you say that, I think cloning as cloning mavericks along with it. My brother has OSX Lion on his computer with some of the same and most important programs to me. Im just not trying to wait for him to not be on his mac to use the programs I need.

 

[yjchua95]

I have searched everywhere to my particular question and didn't get a good answer. I had OSX Snow Leopard, saw that the upgrade to OSX Mavericks was free and downloaded it. A ton of my programs don't work now, go figure. I would like to downgrade but not back to OSX Snow Leopard but to OSX Lion or OSX Mountain Lion. Will my files and programs erase when I do this?

I didn't back up anything either.

You're going to have to erase anything, unless you have a Time Machine backup to restore from.

Cloning wouldn't work because that would clone Mavericks with it as well.

 

[m4v3r1ck]

1. Use Carbon Clone Copy for cloning your OS X Mavericks.
2. CLEAN (format HDD/SSD) install OS X 10.8.x and during installation use migration to restore your apps/settings/data from the CCC clone
3. You may have to revert back the apps you perhaps updated for OS X Mavericks.

Good luck

Tip: before upgrading to a new OS always make a bootable clone (CCC)of your old OS. So you can revert easily without the hassle to clean install / migrate.

 

[bbfc]

I have searched everywhere to my particular question and didn't get a good answer. I had OSX Snow Leopard, saw that the upgrade to OSX Mavericks was free and downloaded it. A ton of my programs don't work now, go figure. I would like to downgrade but not back to OSX Snow Leopard but to OSX Lion or OSX Mountain Lion. Will my files and programs erase when I do this?

I didn't back up anything either.

I think you're better off going back to Snow Leopard as it sounds like the apps you have require Rosetta, which was removed in Lion.