Downgrade Catalina to Mojave
If you’ve installed macOS Catalina and run into problems with some of your apps, or you’ve just decided that you don’t like it as much as Mojave, the good news is that you can downgrade back to the previous version of macOS. The bad news is that it’s a lengthy process with several steps. Read on to find out how to do it.
1. Back up your Mac
Ios Downgrade Software - Free Download Ios Downgrade - Top 4 Download - Top4Download.com offers free. software downloads for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android computers and mobile devices. Visit for free, full and secured software’s. I recently downgraded from Catalina OS - High Sierra. I used an USB Flash Drive to upload the High Sierra software from another Mac that was running High Sierra. Then I used the StartUp Disk option to downgrade my Mac. I thought everything was going to be erased, so I backed up my data, but after the downgrade all my files were still there. To downgrade macOS, do the following: Connect the drive (an external drive or a USB) that contains your Time Machine backup to your Mac. This is where you will be restoring your old version of macOS from. Reboot your Mac and then boot into Recovery Mode by holding down the Cmd + R keys.
You should have backed up your Mac before you upgraded to Catalina, as you should before you perform any major upgrade or make any significant change to your Mac. However, the files you’ve been working on since you upgraded won’t be up to date on that backup. So, you should copy those files to an external disk, or a cloud storage service like Dropbox or iCloud Drive so you can retrieve them easily when you downgrade. We’re going to completely erase your Mac’s startup disk, so it’s important to copy anything you need now.
Before you backup, however, you should take steps to remove the junk and clutter from your Mac. There’s no point in backing up all the clutter along with the files you really need. To do that, I recommend CleanMyMac X. It’s the easiest way to clear out the clutter on your Mac. Here are just a few things it can do:
- Delete years worth of system junk
- Find hidden apps and folders
- Neutralize Mac-specific malware, like key loggers
- Manage hung apps and heavy CPU consumers
- Update all your software to the latest-supported versions
As you can see, CleanMyMac X does a lot more than just clear out junk files before you backup your Mac. It’s well-worth keeping it on your Mac and using regularly to keep your Mac running smoothly.
2. Save your passwords
When you downgrade mac OS Catalina, you’ll delete everything from your hard drive, including licence keys and settings. So, in addition to making sure you copy all the files that have changed since you last backed up, you should make a note of those. If you use a password manager that syncs with other devices and allows you to store licence codes and encrypted notes, you could use that. If not, any app that allows you to sync encrypted notes will do. Or you can use Apple’s Notes app. It’s also a good idea to take screen grabs of settings to make it easier to restore them later. Remember to copy the grabs to a cloud storage service or an external disk. Free word editing software for mac.
3. Create a bootable installer of macOS Mojave
Note, you can skip this step if your Mac shipped with macOS Mojave or if you made a backup with Time Machine before you upgraded to Catalina.
- If you’re reading this before macOS Catalina ships, you can go to the App Store and search for Mojave, then download it. If it tries to install when it’s finished downloading, quite the installer.
- If you’re reading this after Catalina ships, you can download Mojave here, but only on a Mac that’s not already running Mojave. When you click that link, Software Update will launch and start to download Mojave. When it’s finished, quit Software Update.
- Grab a USB stick with 16GB capacity or an external hard drive or SSD and plug it in to your Mac.
- Launch Disk Utilities and Erase the Drive or USB stick, formatting it as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and selecting GUID partition map if a selection is available.
- The easiest way to create a bootable installer is to use DiskMaker X. However, you can also do it in Terminal like this:
- Launch Terminal from Applications - Utilities
- Type:
sudo /Applications/Install macOS Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitledwhere ‘Untitled’ is the name of your USB stick or external hard drive - Press Return and wait for the word Done to appear in Terminal.
Whichever method you used, you should now have a bootable macOS Mojave installer. Keep it safe.
4. Uninstall macOS Catalina
- Make sure your Mac is connected to the internet.
- Click on the Apple menu and choose Restart.
- Hold down Command+R to boot into Recovery mode.
- Choose Disk Utility in the macOS Utilities window
- Select your startup disk
- Choose Erase
- Quit Disk Utility
How to downgrade Catalina to Mojave if your Mac shipped with Mojave
- Once you’ve erased your startup disk and quit Disk Utility as described above, choose Reinstall macOS from macOS Utilities.
- Press Continue.
How to rollback from Catalina using a Time Machine backup
If you backed up your Mac with Time Machine before you installed Catalina, you don’t need to create a bootable installer – you can just reinstall Mojave from your Time Machine backup. Make sure it’s plugged in if it’s an external disk. If it’s a network disk, make sure you’re connected to the network.
50% of the troubleshooting is performed here in disk utility and thus it’s a key to resolve such problems. Use the left or right arrow keys to make selection and press the “ Return / Enter” key to boot from it. App icon stuck on screen mac. Use Disk Utility in Recovery ModeDisk utility can turn out to be the most useful tool when a Mac is in no boot situation or it boots to a grey screen and stuck on Apple logo with a loading bar. Here are the Major task that we perform when in disk utility in context of grey screen startup problem.
- Once you’ve erased your start up disk as described above, choose Restore from Time Machine backup in the macOS Utilities window.
- If your backup is on an external disk, select it. If it’s on a network disk, select it and choose Connect to Remote Disk.
- Type in your username and password for the remote disk if necessary.
- Select the data and time of the backup you want to restore from.
- Follow the onscreen instructions.
5. Install Mojave using a bootable installer
If you have a Mac that didn’t ship with Mojave and you don’t use Time Machine to backup, you’ll need to reinstall Mojave from the bootable installer we created earlier.
- Plug in the installer disk.
- Go to the Apple menu and choose restart, then hold down the Option key.
- Mojave will start installing on your Mac.
- When it’s finished, your Mac will restart and the Setup Assistant will appear
- Follow the steps in the SetUp Assistant to set up Mojave
Restore your settings
If you have reinstalled Mojave from a bootable disk, rather than a Time Machine backup, you will need to reinstall applications and copy documents across from your backup. That’s where those notes and screen shots you made earlier come in handy!
Once you’ve restored your settings and reinstalled all the apps you need, your Mac is ready to use again, running Mojave instead of Catalina.
Tip: If you want to roll back to an earlier version of macOS than Mojave, you can. To reinstall the OS your Mac shipped with, use the method in ‘How to downgrade if your Mac shipped with Mojave’. If you want to roll back to a version of macOS newer than the one your Mac shipped with but older than Mojave, you can download Sierra and earlier versions from the Mac App Store. Then follow from Step 3 in ‘Create a bootable installer of Mojave’.
My Mac is still underperforming, what to do?
You thought that reverting to macOS Mojave would get your Mac back to norm. But if it didn’t and you still experiencing sudden freeze-ups and glitches, full disk cleanup is your answer. Probably there are too many conflicting system junk files on your drive that you need to plow through.
You don’t need a regular disk cleanup app — most of them are scam — but this tool, CleanMyMac X, is notarized by Apple, and can really do helpful optimizations on your Mac.
- Download the free edition here
- Go to Maintenance tab
Now you can perform some of the tasks suggested by the app, like running Maintenance Scripts. Also, check the System Junk tab and remove all the useless files it recommends you to delete.
As you can see, it is possible to uninstall Catalina if you decide you don’t want to continue using it. It’s essential, however, that you backup your Mac before you upgrade. And remember, before you backup, clear out the clutter with CleanMyMac X. That way you won’t use precious space on your backup drive copying over junk files.
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Note: While Apple has removed the macOS Sierra installer from the Mac App Store. El Capitan, Yosemite and earlier versions are still available to download in the Purchased tab. If you don’t already have a bootable installer of Sierra, you’ll have to downgrade to El Capitan or earlier.
Apple’s strategy of making macOS upgrades free to download from the App Store means that many of us install a new version as soon as it’s available. Most of the time, that’s not a problem, but occasionally it can cause problems. Many of the bugs in a new OS version only become apparent after release, despite months of public beta testing. And it can take several weeks for them to be fixed.
For the strongest security and latest features, find out whether you can upgrade to macOS Catalina, the latest version of macOS.
Add to that the fact that older versions of many apps simply stop working when the OS is upgraded, and others start having problems, and there are several reasons you might want to downgrade to an earlier version from macOS High Sierra. Here’s how to do it.
Start to downgrade from macOS High Sierra
As with any major change you make to your Mac, you should always back it up before you upgrade the OS. The easiest way to do this is to use Apple’s Time Machine to back up to an external disk, either directly connected to your Mac or on a network – if you’re running macOS Sierra, that network disk can be SMB; earlier versions of macOS only support AFP.
As a bonus, the easiest way to downgrade from a new version of macOS is to restore from a Time Machine backup.
Backup your Mac
If you don’t want to use Time Machine, Get BackUp Pro, available in Setapp, can clone your Mac’s startup drive, protecting you if something goes wrong. Disk Drill, also in Setapp, can make a disk image of your drive – making a byte-by-byte copy. And you can also use ChronoSync Express, again, in Setapp, to back up your data.
In addition to making a backup or a clone of your startup drive before you upgrade, you should backup any files and documents you’ve worked on since you upgraded, before you downgrade. That backup could be via Time Machine, or to an external drive (not the same one you used for the first backup) using Get Backup Pro, or to a cloud storage service, if there are only a few files. Dropshare, also available in Setapp, makes it easy to mount cloud storage services on your Mac’s desktop so you can drag files to them.
macOS downgrading toolkit
Whether because of incompatibility or other reasons, you can get back to an old macOS version with these apps.
If you use Apple’s Photos app and don’t use iCloud Photo Library, make sure you manually export any photos you’ve imported or worked on since you upgraded to a separate drive. Bottom line: you’re about to wipe your Mac’s startup drive, backup anything you want to keep.
Make sure you take a note of licence codes, serial numbers and settings for the applications you use – you’ll have to re-install them later.
Bonus: because Setapp apps are linked to to your subscription, you don’t need to worry about serial numbers, you can just log in to Setapp after you’ve downgraded and re-download your apps.
If you use Dropbox, Google Drive or another cloud service that syncs automatically with a folder on your Mac, make sure it synchronizes just before you start the downgrade.
How to downgrade by restoring from a Time Machine backup
- Make sure you’re connected to your Time Machine backup drive.
- Restart your Mac, holding down the Command and R keys until you see the Apple logo. When the macOS Utilities screen appears, choose Restore from a Time Machine Backup. Click Continue.
- Choose the last backup before you upgraded to macOS High Sierra. Wait for your Mac to restart.
- When your Mac has restarted, to recover files you created or worked on in High Sierra, click on Time Machine in the Finder menu bar and choose Enter the Time Machine.
- Navigate to the most recent backup and to the files and folders you want to restore and use Time Machine to retrieve them.
- If you used GetBackup Pro or another backup tool to backup your High Sierra disk, use its restore facility to retrieve files. Manually copy any other files from cloud storage or an external disk.
- Re-install applications from Mac App Store, the vendor’s website or Setapp. To get apps from Setapp, download the Setapp desktop app and sign into your account. Then install other apps from there.
How to downgrade without a Time Machine backup
How To Downgrade Mac Os
If you have a bootable installer, say on a USB stick, of the version of macOS you want to revert to, you can use that to downgrade from High Sierra.
If you don’t have a bootable installer, you can make one by following the instructions from our guide on how to create a bootable macOS installer.
As mentioned above, Apple no longer hosts macOS Sierra in the Purchased section of the App Store, so if you don’t already have an installer for that, you won’t be able to make one now. The good news is, all macOS'es are still on App Store. To download it, your Mac must be using macOS High Sierra or earlier. So you can make bootable installers for El Capitan and downgrade to that version.
Once you’ve made your bootable install disk, here’s what to do.
To reinstall macOS follow these steps:
- Plug the new bootable installer into your Mac.
- Restart your Mac, holding the Alt key and, when you see the option, choose the bootable install disk.
- Launch Disk Utility, click on the disk with High Sierra on it (the disk, not just the volume) and click the Erase tab.
- Choose Mac OS Extended from the Format menu, then give the disk a name. Click Erase.
- When the disk has been erased, restart by holding down Command-R and wait for the macOS Utilities window to appear.
- Choose Reinstall macOS and select the disk you just erased – your Mac’s regular startup disk. Follow the onscreen instructions and wait for your Mac to restart.
- When it restarts, ignore the option to migrate data from a backup.
- Re-install the backup tool you used to backup your Mac before you upgraded to High Sierra and then use that to restore data from that backup.
Downgrade Mac Os To Test Software Free
If you’d rather start again with a clean install, manually copy the files and documents you need back to your Mac and re-install your apps one by one, starting with Setapp and those apps you downloaded from the Mac App Store.