how can i revert my Catalina macOS to the prior macOS

Hi Wiredmom,

If you wish to revert back to MacOS Mojave you will need to make sure you have a backup first. If you have backed

up prior to MacOS Catalina that will make the process easier. The reason to have a back up is during the downgrade process, you might have to completely erase your hard drive.

If you made any changes to files since upgrading, make sure to copy those files to a back up drive manually rather than using Time Machine. (Doing a Time Machine backup in MacOSCatalina won't be useful as it will back up Catalina as well as your data)

There are two ways to downgrade:

1. Using a Time Machine back up prior to upgrading to MacOS Catalina
2. Downloading the MacOS Mojave installer from the App Store and erasing your drive and installing the previous version of MacOS from scratch.

Let's start with the easiest method first, restoring from a Time Machine backup prior to upgrading to MacOS Catalina.

1. Plug in your Time Machine disk to your Mac.
2. Reboot your Mac
3. Hold down Command + R until the Apple logo appears.
4. When the MacOS Utilities window appears on your screen, choose 'Restore From Time Machine Backup' and click continue.
5. The next window will say Restore from Time Machine, click continue again.
6. Select your restore source - this should be your backup drive.
7. The next window will show all of your backups, pick the one you made prior to updating to MacOS Catalina. In the list, it will show which version of MacOS the back up was made in.

After the restore is complete, you can recover the files you created or changed from your separate backup.

If you don't have a prior Time Machine backup follow these steps: (Doing a Time Machine backup in MacOS

Catalina won't be useful as it will back up Catalina as well as your data) This step will require you to erase your drive.

1. Grab the Installer for MacOS Mojave from the Mac App Store and click the "Get" button
2. The Software Update window from System Preferences will open showing the latest version of Mojave. Confirm that you want to download it. You will also see a warning that you are downloading an older version of the operating system, you can ignore this.

3. Once it’s downloaded, don't click open as you don't want to install it yet.

You can't install a previous version of MacOS over a recent version of the operating system without first creating a bootable installer.

Follow the steps to create a bootable installer, in How to create a bootable installer for macOS.

Once this is completed, follow the additional steps below for installation

1. Connect the bootable USB installer to Mac.
2. Open System Preference and click Startup Disk.
3. Choose the USB drive with the installer as your startup disk and click Restart. Your Mac will boot into recovery mode
4. You will need a connection to the internet (either hardwired or Wi-fi)
5. Select the Reinstall MacOS from the MacOS Utilities Window to begin the installation.

I hope this helps and is clear. If you have ANY questions, don't hesitate to write back.

There is and never has been a downgrade available for any OS X or macOS releases.

The available options are to roll in your backup prior to the upgrade, or to start over.