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I am trying to restore my MacBook Air 2013 after experiencing a series of problems with it. I am in Recovery mode, and I need to reinstall OS 10.14 or earlier (because of software requirements). But when I select Reinstall MacOS, it gives me only the Catalina option. I can't use Catalina because some of my software is not compatible. How do I reinstall 10.14 or earlier instead?
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.12
What OS did you manage to get reinstalled on your mac.
When you restored from your back up what files did you restore
you should only restore your personal data, restoring System and Library files
would just put Catalina back on, which you do not want.
Erase your mac again.
Boot to the Recovery HD, open Disk Utility.
Click View in the menubar (if it is available) select Show All Devices.
Highlight the Disk not any of the indented Volumes.
Click Erase
Give the Disk a name
Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Scheme: GUID Partition Map
Click Erase.
When Done quit Disk Utility.
Now reboot while pressing Shift Option Command R
to reinstall the original OS.
If you get the original OS installed do not restore anything from a back up yet.
Make sure the mac is running well with a basic install.
Then you can think about upgrading it to Mojave.
Install Mojave and run it to see if it is working well.
Then when you are happy your mac is okay then you can decide to restore from the back up.
Remember only restore your personal data, do not restore any System or Library folders or files
that will only put Catalina system and library items back on your mac, which will cause trouble again.
Do not restore any apps, these will put the Catalina version of apps back on your mac, they will
not work with an older OS.
Think and plan your strategy, don't rush at things.
In future if you experience problems with your mac, it is better to sort them out.
Erasing and reinstalling is not the best plan, look at the mess you are in,
and the Apple Recovery Servers are unreliable.
If you are going to erase and reinstall make sure you have a bootable
USB installer with the OS you want to reinstall to hand do not
rely on outside agencies.
When you are up and running with the older OS you will need to
download Install macOS Mojave.app, get it here.
Open your Safari browser and click below.
How to get old versions of macOS – Apple Support
Go to Download OS click on macOS Mojave
This will direct you to the AppStore Mojave download page
it should say Get or Download.
This will download Install macOS Mojave.app to your Applications folder
it should be 6.05GBs in size.
Now you can use that to make bootable USB installer using the instructions here,
How to create a bootable installer for macOS – Apple Support
What OS did you manage to get reinstalled on your mac.
When you restored from your back up what files did you restore
you should only restore your personal data, restoring System and Library files
would just put Catalina back on, which you do not want.
Erase your mac again.
Boot to the Recovery HD, open Disk Utility.
Click View in the menubar (if it is available) select Show All Devices.
Highlight the Disk not any of the indented Volumes.
Click Erase
Give the Disk a name
Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Scheme: GUID Partition Map
Click Erase.
When Done quit Disk Utility.
Now reboot while pressing Shift Option Command R
to reinstall the original OS.
If you get the original OS installed do not restore anything from a back up yet.
Make sure the mac is running well with a basic install.
Then you can think about upgrading it to Mojave.
Install Mojave and run it to see if it is working well.
Then when you are happy your mac is okay then you can decide to restore from the back up.
Remember only restore your personal data, do not restore any System or Library folders or files
that will only put Catalina system and library items back on your mac, which will cause trouble again.
Do not restore any apps, these will put the Catalina version of apps back on your mac, they will
not work with an older OS.
Think and plan your strategy, don't rush at things.
In future if you experience problems with your mac, it is better to sort them out.
Erasing and reinstalling is not the best plan, look at the mess you are in,
and the Apple Recovery Servers are unreliable.
If you are going to erase and reinstall make sure you have a bootable
USB installer with the OS you want to reinstall to hand do not
rely on outside agencies.
When you are up and running with the older OS you will need to
download Install macOS Mojave.app, get it here.
Open your Safari browser and click below.
How to get old versions of macOS – Apple Support
Go to Download OS click on macOS Mojave
This will direct you to the AppStore Mojave download page
it should say Get or Download.
This will download Install macOS Mojave.app to your Applications folder
it should be 6.05GBs in size.
Now you can use that to make bootable USB installer using the instructions here,
How to create a bootable installer for macOS – Apple Support
Read this article,
How to reinstall macOS – Apple Support
This is probably your best option,
Having installed the OS that your mac came with you would then upgrade to Mojave using the instructions here,
How to get old versions of macOS – Apple Support
Go to Download OS and click on macOS Mojave
Never erase your mac unless you have a copy of the OS you want to install with you,
Apple Recovery Servers are unreliable.
Thank you. That was very helpful. I managed to reinstall OS, and then proceeded, under prompting by the system, to restore files and apps from backup. I did that, but then the system froze. It doesn't take me to the desktop. When I restart, the start up system freezes, then it loops through an error screen (with no particular error code) and attempted restarts. I have reset PRAM and I have been through Recovering disk first aid. It has no effect. The Disk first aid tells me the start up disk is fine. Also, the machine will not now shut down properly, even when I force the shut down with Command-Control-Option-Power. When I restart after a forced shut down, it opens with a grey screen and again rolls through the loop of error screen and restart.
Thank you for your very clear and precise instructions. The best advice was, Be patient and careful. I've now restored my machine, following your advice, and all is working perfectly. I can't tell you how grateful I am for your help.
One other thing that you might be able to advise on, if you don't mind: When I try to set up my mail accounts on my restored MacBook Air, I have no problem with setting up Gmail accounts and iCloud, but when I try to set up IMAP accounts for mailboxes on my own website, I get all the way through the process but on the final button, when all is verified, the app does not respond. It does not even reject or provide an error message; it simply does not respond. This means I have not been able to set up my main email accounts. Do you have any thoughts on this, please?
User
I'm not sure what you mean by this, but the start up doesn't get to the User login section.
Not sure about that, I only ever use System Preferences> Internet Accounts
then click on Add other account then click on Mail Account.
Reinstall Mojave to MacBook Air 2013
