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downgrading from OS Big Sur

Recently bought a new MacBook pro with OS Big Sur already on it which is not compatible with any of my DJ hardware, I'm struggling to find a way to downgrade from Big Sur to Catalina, iv tried most Youtube vids but there has been no previous back ups as this is a brand new MacBook, any help or advice would be grateful, thanks.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Jan 11, 2021 12:32 PM

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Posted on Jan 12, 2021 11:05 AM

Daza79 wrote:

Recently bought a new MacBook pro with OS Big Sur already on it

The hardware on your Mac is made to use Big Sur as a minimum software requirement. This is set at the factory. You cannot go backwards. The correct solution is to tell the DJ software company to update their program (or use a different DJ program or an older Mac).


Apple has a webpage that will tell you specific information about your Mac via the serial number. If I find it I'll post it here so you can look it up. From what you're saying it sounds as if your particular Mac needs Big Sur as a minimum OS.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 12, 2021 11:05 AM in response to Daza79

Daza79 wrote:

Recently bought a new MacBook pro with OS Big Sur already on it

The hardware on your Mac is made to use Big Sur as a minimum software requirement. This is set at the factory. You cannot go backwards. The correct solution is to tell the DJ software company to update their program (or use a different DJ program or an older Mac).


Apple has a webpage that will tell you specific information about your Mac via the serial number. If I find it I'll post it here so you can look it up. From what you're saying it sounds as if your particular Mac needs Big Sur as a minimum OS.

Jan 11, 2021 2:16 PM in response to Daza79

You will probably find you can boot into Internet Recovery Mode (Shift - Option () - Command () - R) on startup, erase the internal drive, and then install macOS from there. It will probably be 10.14 to 10.15 it loads. (And you can then upgrade from 10.14 to 10.15 if you like.


The all depends on which version that Mac model first shipped with.

Jan 12, 2021 10:34 AM in response to Daza79

Odd. Your Mac should have originally run macOS 10.15.4 which means it's should be possible to downgrade (erase and reinstall) to that version.


I suspect you'll need to ask Apple how to force it to return to 10.15.x.


Only one thing - are you sure your DJ software (that would have presumably been provided with the DJ hardware) is compatible with 10.15.x? 10.15 and above cannot run 32-bit software.


You may end up needing to return your Mac for an older one, or see if there's a later version (64-bit) of its software).

Jan 12, 2021 11:19 AM in response to MyApple8MyPC

MyApple8MyPC wrote:

The hardware on your Mac is made to use Big Sur as a minimum software requirement. This is set at the factory. You cannot go backwards. The correct solution is to tell the DJ software company to update their program (or use a different DJ program or an older Mac).


That's interesting; thanks MyApple8MyPC. I didn't know that.


I'd mark this as 'helpful' but the option is greyed. Not sure why!

downgrading from OS Big Sur

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