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MACOS Downgrade

I need to downgrade my Catalina to Mojave because my Office does not run in Catalina .

I can not upgrade from Catalina (where I could use Microsoft 365 I know that) because the machine does not support anything above Catalina (it is from 2012)

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Feb 2, 2023 3:30 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 2, 2023 5:22 PM

Downgrading your macOS to an earlier version will erase all of the data and will require that you:


1) Back up your Mac with Time Machine (or other backup solution) to an external disk drive.


2) Have available an installer for the previous version. This can be a Time Machine backup made prior to your upgrade to the current version, or it can be a bootable installer for that previous macOS created on a USB flash drive. You can get old versions of macOS here.  Optionally, a previous version may be available on an Intel-based Mac if you use Shift-Option-Command-R startup key combination during startup. You may be offered the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available


3) Boot your computer in macOS recovery mode and wipe the drive in preparation of reinstalling the previous OS. Erase and reformat the drive for Mojave; Mac OS Extended (aka HFS+) with GUID Partition Map.


4) Reinstall macOS on your computer using your prepared USB installer or the Time Machine backup made with the older macOS. You may also reinstall the macOS version that is offered at the macOS Utilities screen after booting in Recovery mode.


7 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 2, 2023 5:22 PM in response to MASD_2023

Downgrading your macOS to an earlier version will erase all of the data and will require that you:


1) Back up your Mac with Time Machine (or other backup solution) to an external disk drive.


2) Have available an installer for the previous version. This can be a Time Machine backup made prior to your upgrade to the current version, or it can be a bootable installer for that previous macOS created on a USB flash drive. You can get old versions of macOS here.  Optionally, a previous version may be available on an Intel-based Mac if you use Shift-Option-Command-R startup key combination during startup. You may be offered the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available


3) Boot your computer in macOS recovery mode and wipe the drive in preparation of reinstalling the previous OS. Erase and reformat the drive for Mojave; Mac OS Extended (aka HFS+) with GUID Partition Map.


4) Reinstall macOS on your computer using your prepared USB installer or the Time Machine backup made with the older macOS. You may also reinstall the macOS version that is offered at the macOS Utilities screen after booting in Recovery mode.


MACOS Downgrade

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