Help! I'm trying to Downgrade from Bigsur to high Sierra!?!

[luckygez]

just upgraded computers from 2012 MacBook Pro on high Sierra and I trying to figure out how to time machine my new Mac on big sur to my recovery which is high Sierra but its telling me to merge them the recovery mode and thats not what I'm trying to do, can you help? is that possible to do?

 

[Honza1]

I am sorry, but this request is impossible to comprehend. High Sierra and Big Sur are pretty far apart, so things will be challenging in any case. But I cannot work out what you are trying to do, what you have done and even how many Macs are you talking about here.

 

[luckygez]

I am sorry, but this request is impossible to comprehend. High Sierra and Big Sur are pretty far apart, so things will be challenging in any case. But I cannot work out what you are trying to do, what you have done and even how many Macs are you talking about here.

I have two MacBooks new (2020 MacBook Pro with m1 chip) and old (2012 MacBook Pro on high Sierra)

so what I’m trying so ask I guess or figure out is. How can i restore everything from my “old” Mac to my “new”. Not merge and consolidate the files like just downgrade the macOS all together back to the current older version I have on the 2012 MacBook. Because time machine is only giving me merge options

 

[luckygez]

I am sorry, but this request is impossible to comprehend. High Sierra and Big Sur are pretty far apart, so things will be challenging in any case. But I cannot work out what you are trying to do, what you have done and even how many Macs are you talking about here.

I appreciate you taking the time to reply sorry if I’m coming off rude I’m just trying use the older MacOS because I need 32bit things to work and they don’t after Mojave I believe

 

[ght56]

You cannot run High Sierra on a M1 Mac. An M1 Mac can only run Big Sur, which does not support 32 bit apps. As of right now, there is no way to run those apps on the M1 Macs as you cannot virtualize an older version of macOS like you can on Intel Macs.

 

[chscag]

I have two MacBooks new (2020 MacBook Pro with m1 chip) and old (2012 MacBook Pro on high Sierra)

so what I’m trying so ask I guess or figure out is. How can i restore everything from my “old” Mac to my “new”. Not merge and consolidate the files like just downgrade the macOS all together back to the current older version I have on the 2012 MacBook. Because time machine is only giving me merge options

Simple answer: You can't. First, the hardware is different along with a completely different architecture. Second, even if your new MacBook Pro was an Intel machine, you would not be able to install a version of macOS that's older than the one your new machine ships with.

 

[poppoli]

Simple answer: You can't. First, the hardware is different along with a completely different architecture. Second, even if your new MacBook Pro was an Intel machine, you would not be able to install a version of macOS that's older than the one your new machine ships with.

Hi there, I have the same issue (for my 2020 laptop) - BUT Could I make this switch on a an iMac 2020 10-core Intel Core i9?

Appreciate your help!

 

[VideoFreek]

Hi there, I have the same issue (for my 2020 laptop) - BUT Could I make this switch on a an iMac 2020 10-core Intel Core i9?

Appreciate your help!

2020 iMacs shipped with Catalina, afaik, so that would be the oldest OS you could install. Earlier versions of MacOS would lack the necessary drivers for all the hardware.