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Possibility to downgrade High Sierra 10.13 back to OS X El Capitan 10.11 ??

Unintentionally I hit the upgrade pop-up without checking the contents ;((

The upgrade contained High Sierra which has had a dramatic effect on the performance of iMac 27" Late 2009.


Full iMac specs are shown below and worked absolutely fine with El Capitan.

Now my question is how to go back to El Capitan and to extend the life of my iMac


  • iMac 27inch
  • Late 2009
  • SSD 1Tb (upgraded from HDD)
  • Memory 12Gb


Can somebody advise me or point me to the right links(s)


Kind Regards,

Hans


iPhone 11, 13

Posted on Nov 18, 2020 8:34 AM

Reply
Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Nov 18, 2020 11:06 AM

Do you have a Time Machine backup to Restore to/from?


https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/revert-to-a-previous-macos-version-mh15216/mac


If not…

https://www.imore.com/how-downgrade-macos


Yes siree...


https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206886

https://itunes.apple.com/app/os-x-el-capitan/id1147835434?ls=1&mt=12

http://updates-http.cdn-apple.com/2019/cert/061-41424-20191024-218af9ec-cf50-4516-9011-228c78eda3d2/InstallMacOSX.dmg


Download macOS OS X El Capitan

El Capitan downloads as a disk image. On a Mac that is compatible with El Capitan, open the disk image and run the installer within, named InstallMacOSX.pkg. It installs an app named Install OS X El Capitan into your Applications folder. You will create the bootable installer from this app, not from the disk image or .pkg installer.

Use the 'createinstallmedia' command in Terminal

  1. Connect the USB flash drive or other volume that you're using for the bootable installer. Make sure that it has at least 12GB of available storage and is formatted as Mac OS Extended.
  2. Open Terminal, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
  3. Type or paste one of the following commands in Terminal. These assume that the installer is still in your Applications folder, and MyVolume is the name of the USB flash drive or other volume you're using. If it has a different name, replace MyVolume in these commands with the name of your volume.
  4. El Capitan:

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app

  1. Press Return after typing the command.
  2. When prompted, type your administrator password and press Return again. Terminal doesn't show any characters as you type your password.
  3. When prompted, type Y to confirm that you want to erase the volume, then press Return. Terminal shows the progress as the bootable installer is created. 
  4. When Terminal says that it's done, the volume will have the same name as the installer you downloaded, such as Install macOS Catalina. You can now quit Terminal and eject the volume.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

1 reply
Question marked as Best reply

Nov 18, 2020 11:06 AM in response to Hans001

Do you have a Time Machine backup to Restore to/from?


https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/revert-to-a-previous-macos-version-mh15216/mac


If not…

https://www.imore.com/how-downgrade-macos


Yes siree...


https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206886

https://itunes.apple.com/app/os-x-el-capitan/id1147835434?ls=1&mt=12

http://updates-http.cdn-apple.com/2019/cert/061-41424-20191024-218af9ec-cf50-4516-9011-228c78eda3d2/InstallMacOSX.dmg


Download macOS OS X El Capitan

El Capitan downloads as a disk image. On a Mac that is compatible with El Capitan, open the disk image and run the installer within, named InstallMacOSX.pkg. It installs an app named Install OS X El Capitan into your Applications folder. You will create the bootable installer from this app, not from the disk image or .pkg installer.

Use the 'createinstallmedia' command in Terminal

  1. Connect the USB flash drive or other volume that you're using for the bootable installer. Make sure that it has at least 12GB of available storage and is formatted as Mac OS Extended.
  2. Open Terminal, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
  3. Type or paste one of the following commands in Terminal. These assume that the installer is still in your Applications folder, and MyVolume is the name of the USB flash drive or other volume you're using. If it has a different name, replace MyVolume in these commands with the name of your volume.
  4. El Capitan:

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app

  1. Press Return after typing the command.
  2. When prompted, type your administrator password and press Return again. Terminal doesn't show any characters as you type your password.
  3. When prompted, type Y to confirm that you want to erase the volume, then press Return. Terminal shows the progress as the bootable installer is created. 
  4. When Terminal says that it's done, the volume will have the same name as the installer you downloaded, such as Install macOS Catalina. You can now quit Terminal and eject the volume.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

Possibility to downgrade High Sierra 10.13 back to OS X El Capitan 10.11 ??

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