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Exam 4 : Downgrading Mac OS

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Exam 4 Information -- Downgrading Mac OS to 14 (Sonoma)

Apple typically sends out major operating system updates in September. Exam4 typically is not ready for this new Mac OS version until the end of October. Therefore, Fall midterms are a consistent problem for Mac users.

ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR DATA BEFORE MAKING AN OPERATING SYSTEM CHANGE

TigerTech is an authorized Apple service provider. They are currently charging $100 to do this for you. They may be able to provide you with a loaner laptop while they do the work, which might take a couple of days.

WARNING: Downgrading a Mac to a previous OS version is relatively easy; in contrast, setting up dual-boot is a difficult process and is not recommended. Please do not attempt setting up dual boot yourself unless you have substantial relevant experience and are prepared to be without your Mac for a couple of days while an Authorized Apple Service Center fixes it.

The following content was copied from https://macpaw.com/how-to/downgrade-macos-sequoia 

Use Time Machine

Hopefully, you made a backup of your Mac with Time Machine before you upgraded to Sequoia. If so, downgrading is easy. Just follow these steps:

  1. Connect the disk with the Time Machine backup on it to your Mac.
  2. Boot your Mac in recovery mode. To do that on an Intel-based Mac, hold down Command and R when you press the power button. On a Mac with Apple silicon, hold down the power button until you see the Startup Options screen. Click Options, then Continue.
  3. When you see macOS Utilities, choose Restore from Time Machine and click Continue.
  4. Choose your Time Machine backup disk as the Restore Source.
  5. Choose the backup you want to restore from — it should be the last one before you upgraded and should say it was made with Sonoma.
  6. Choose Restore.

Downgrade in recovery mode

If you have an Intel-based Mac, it’s pretty easy to reinstall the version of macOS that shipped with your Mac. You can then upgrade from there to Sonoma if you need to. There is a key combination for booting in recovery mode that, when you use it, instead of reinstalling the version of macOS that was most recently installed on your Mac, will install the version that was installed when it shipped. Here’s how to do it:

  1. Shut down your Mac.
  2. Press and hold Shift + Option + Command + R and then press the power button.
  3. Release the keys when you see the Apple logo.
  4. When you see macOS Utilities, choose Reinstall macOS.
  5. Wait for macOS to reinstall.

Use a bootable installer

If you don’t have a Time Machine backup to restore from and you have a Mac with Apple silicon, you can’t use the recovery mode method above. Nevertheless, downgrading from Sequoia is still possible but more difficult. You will need to create a bootable installer on a USB stick, boot your Mac from that, then erase your startup disk, and install macOS from the USB stick. If that sounds complicated, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered and will take you through it step by step. It does need a Terminal command, but you can just copy and paste it from our instructions.

  1. Find a USB stick with a capacity of at least 16GB. If it has been used previously, connect it to your Mac, open Disk Utility, select the USB stick, and choose Erase. Format it as APFS and call it macOS Sonoma installer.
  2. Click here to download macOS Sonoma from the App Store.