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downgrading MacBook Air from mojave to el capitan

I have a MacBook Air (2015) I just bought second hand. It comes with Mojave. However it doesn't work with my Roland UA-25 EX soundcard. I bought the laptop for music production so this is a problem. Roland have said they won't ever update the soundcard drivers beyond OSX 10.11. I tried downloading El Capitan (10.11) from the App Store, using another older Mac I have but only the 10.11.11 and 10.11.16 updates are available. Mojave refuses to allow this to be installed, saying I need 10.11. This is not available. Can I please get a link to download the original El Capitan? Will it work on my laptop? My laptop runs mojave fine. I really don't want to get a new soundcard.

MacBook Air 13", macOS 10.14

Posted on Jul 12, 2019 4:16 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 12, 2019 4:48 PM

Boot Recovery, erase and format as GPT, and see if that'll let you download and install either Yosemite or El Capitan.


Alternatively and given this leaves you with some options that the previous approach does not, download El Captan on this or on another Mac, then build a bootable installer, erase and format as GPT, and install. I'd probably also create a Mojave installer here, too. As a path back, should the wipe-and-reload sequence fail.


If you can't get El Capitan loaded through one of the above mechanisms, you'll want to call the folks at Apple Support and ask.


Given that Roland UA-25EX has been discontinued, and given that El Capitan is no longer getting patches, this configuration won't remain tenable for particularly long. Not if you want or need this Mac to perform other tasks that involve networking.


2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 12, 2019 4:48 PM in response to worshiptheriff

Boot Recovery, erase and format as GPT, and see if that'll let you download and install either Yosemite or El Capitan.


Alternatively and given this leaves you with some options that the previous approach does not, download El Captan on this or on another Mac, then build a bootable installer, erase and format as GPT, and install. I'd probably also create a Mojave installer here, too. As a path back, should the wipe-and-reload sequence fail.


If you can't get El Capitan loaded through one of the above mechanisms, you'll want to call the folks at Apple Support and ask.


Given that Roland UA-25EX has been discontinued, and given that El Capitan is no longer getting patches, this configuration won't remain tenable for particularly long. Not if you want or need this Mac to perform other tasks that involve networking.


downgrading MacBook Air from mojave to el capitan

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