Possible to downgrade from Monterey OS to Big Slur OS on M2 MacBook Air?

[DeepSix]

Just curious. From what I see online it's not possible on 2021 and newer mac's?

Friends new 2 week old M2 Air is constantly rebooting and her ext hard drives are being disconnected. Tried everything and I feel it's the OS Monterey causing it after reading a lot of complaints online. From what I remember the Air came with Monterey out of the box.

 

[CoastalOR]

You are correct. The new M2 Air does not support Big Sur, only Monterey and newer.

EDIT: M2 Air supports Monterey 12.4 (21F2081) and newer.

 

[DeepSix]

You are correct. The new M2 Air does not support Big Sur, only Monterey and newer.

Thanks for the confirmation. Thats what I read online too but just needed to confirm.this is really too bad.

 

[russell_314]

It’s not caused by Monterey. There’s something wrong with that MacBook. It could be something corrupt the operating system so maybe try a complete system restore after backing everything up. If that doesn’t work take it to the Apple store because that’s a brand new Mac so it should work perfectly!

 

[DeepSix]

It’s not caused by Monterey. There’s something wrong with that MacBook. It could be something corrupt the operating system so maybe try a complete system restore after backing everything up. If that doesn’t work take it to the Apple store because that’s a brand new Mac so it should work perfectly!

Tried this. Did a complete restore of the OS last night.

 

[russell_314]

Tried this. Did a complete restore of the OS last night.

At that point maybe a hardware fault. Definitely take it to the Apple store. Monterey is running perfectly on mine and I would guess thousands of others. If this was OS wide Apple would be having a field day fixing it 😂

 

[NoBoMac]

constantly rebooting and her ext hard drives are being disconnected

Agreeing with others re: probably hardware issue.

But in the case of external drives disconnecting, can see that being "normal" depending on if multiple HDDs and plugged into unpowered hub for example. Or if using the two-port charger and both ports in use, only delivering 17.5W of power to the Mac. And iirc, the Thunderbolt ports deliver a total of 10W of power, just enough (maybe) for two HDDs (one or both HDDs might be drawing a little more power than spec).

I've run into this with my MBP. 60W USB-C charger with a USB-A port. USB-C from charger to hub, then USB-C from hub to Mac. Plug in two HDDs in hub, all ok. If I plug the iPhone into the charger's USB-A port, that takes (iirc) 15W away from the USB-C route and the HDDs disconnect.

And the hub itself takes 15W away going to the MBP, does not cause a shutdown, but at times means not getting enough power from the wall to keep up without drawing on the battery.

So in the case of the drives, might want to see if unplugging something helps.