This could be an external hard drive or a thumb drive. The best and easiest option is to create a bootable USB drive. Creating a bootable USB drive for macOSĪfter downloading the installer for your old version of macOS, you need to get it into a format your Mac can boot from. This will add the relevant macOS installer to your Applications folder. To use those, you need to double-click them so they’re mounted. You might, for example, find people selling old installation discs on eBay.Īlso, be aware that some of these older downloads will come as a. If you want to go back any further than that, you’ll need to look elsewhere. Use these links to download these macOS versions: Currently, Apple offers direct links going as far back as OS X Yosemite (10.10). To get versions before these, you need to download them without the App Store. Use these links to head straight to them: Some of the newer macOS installers are available in the App store. Once you’ve established your Mac is compatible with a particular version of OS X, you need to download the installer for that version. Finding and downloading an old version of macOS If your Mac appears in the list of supported models, then you should be able to downgrade macOS that version. Now check Apple’s technical specification pages for the version of macOS you want to install In the Overview section, you’ll see your Mac’s model name and year of releaseĤ. Click the I logo in the top left of macOSģ. How to check if your Mac can run a particular OS X version:ġ. There are ways to get around that, but it’s not usually a good idea, because your Mac will usually be slower as a result. That’s because Apple periodically drops support for older Macs that can’t run later OS X releases effectively. You’re more likely to run into problems when you try to run a new version on an older Mac. In general, if you want to run an older version of macOS, it should work.

Follow the on-screen prompts to install macOSĬheck you can run the older version of macOS.

Prepare your Mac for the installation, if necessary.

Use your installation disc or drive to boot up your Mac.

Find and download a macOS installer file for the version you want to install (sometimes this is a.

Check your Mac meets the system requirements to run older OS X versions.To install an older version of OS X on Mac, you need to:

In situations like these, installing an old version of the operating system may be your best choice. Or you might have old software that can’t be run on newer OS X versions like Catalina or Big Sur. Older Macs often run better with earlier versions of macOS, for example. And eventually, Apple stops supporting older editions of macOS - and that means no more security patches.īut there are some good reasons to do it anyway. After all, newer versions of the operating system have more features. On the face of it, running old versions of macOS on your Mac seems counterproductive.

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