Going back to Yosemite and Time Machine

[navaira]

I've been wondering... would it be possible to:
– backup my data on external disk
– downgrade my iMac to Yosemite clean install
– restore *the most recent TM 10.10 backup*
– restore the external disk backup
– delete all backups made by 10.11
– make a new backup from Yosemite

...thanks to which I would keep old Yosemite backups in case of having deleted something important a year ago (this happens more often than I would like to admit) but also don't have the "your TM is incompatible, get lost" problem?

Thanks for any responses!

 

[nbnbxdnb]

It is possible to restore the data from 10.11 backup image to 10.10. All you need to do is to use migration assistant. You don't have to restore from an older Yosemite backup, if there have been plenty of changes made since then.

 

[navaira]

Oh really? 10.11 backup can be restored to 10.10 install?! I was completely convinced that was not the case! Awesome, if true.

Still, I won't be able to "pick up" the TM backup when I'm back in Yosemite...

 

[Weaselboy]

It is possible to restore the data from 10.11 backup image to 10.10. All you need to do is to use migration assistant.

Have you tested this, because I don't believe it will work? Historically, you could not migrate from newer to older OS X versions. Migrating from older to newer does work though... like from Yosemite to El Capitan.

 

[Riwam]

It is possible to restore the data from 10.11 backup image to 10.10. All you need to do is to use migration assistant. You don't have to restore from an older Yosemite backup, if there have been plenty of changes made since then.

******
As Weaselboy I very much doubt that it might be possible to migrate backwards.
Ed

 

[nbnbxdnb]

Have you tested this, because I don't believe it will work? Historically, you could not migrate from newer to older OS X versions. Migrating from older to newer does work though... like from Yosemite to El Capitan.

Apologize if I was wrong. I have never tried to restore everything using migration manager. But I remember I did migrate some files like iTunes library from 10.10 backup to 10.9 (during the time when I installed some 10.10 beta and decided I didn't like it). There was some minor fix I need to do afterward to solve the compatibility problem.

 

[Weaselboy]

Apologize if I was wrong. I have never tried to restore everything using migration manager. But I remember I did migrate some files like iTunes library from 10.10 backup to 10.9 (during the time when I installed some 10.10 beta and decided I didn't like it). There was some minor fix I need to do afterward to solve the compatibility problem.

Yeah... I think you would be okay if you just moved over something like an iTunes library that had not changed between versions. But I'm pretty sure things like Mail will give you fits because the format changed from one version to the next and there is no way to easily get it back.

 

[nbnbxdnb]

Yeah... I think you would be okay if you just moved over something like an iTunes library that had not changed between versions. But I'm pretty sure things like Mail will give you fits because the format changed from one version to the next and there is no way to easily get it back.

Oh, I see. I didn't move anything between different version of mails, because I didn't archive anything locally. Thanks for the info.