how do I downgrade from macOS Ventura to Monterey?

Question

how do I downgrade from macOS Ventura to Monterey?

Today I installed macOS Ventura on my 2018 Mini. It was running Monterey 12.6.1 prior to the upgrade. Now I find that critical software is not compatible with Ventura and I need to downgrade the Mini back to Monterey. What I find frustrating is that while I have a Time Machine backup to an external drive made just prior to my upgrading to Ventura, when I do a system restore boot and select the restore from a TM backup, it tells me I need to run Migration Assistant instead. Why can't I do a full system restore from my TM backup?!?! If there is no way to do that, how do I reinstall Monterey? I'm assuming that if I can do that I can then run MA once booted and restore from my recent TM backup.

Mac mini, macOS 13.0

Posted on Oct 31, 2022 12:53 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

William Fiveash Author

Level 2

164 points

Nov 3, 2022 2:01 PM in response to PRP_53

Here are the steps that got me from Ventura to Monterey:

• Create a bootable install USB for the macOS level to downgrade to

Apple didn’t make this easy. Here are some important references:

Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support Creating a bootable install drive

How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support How to reinstall macOS

Note that searching for “macOS Monterey” in App Store doesn’t work so use this link to get to the macOS download: How to download macOS - Apple Support

• Make sure there’s a recent TM backup using the macOS version I’m downgrading to.

• Verify that TM backup can be read

Run Migration Assistant and see if it lists the backups on the TM backup drive

• Do an Erase All Content and Settings

On Ventura this is in the sysprefs->General->Transfer or Reset panel. On Monterey it in sysprefs preferences.

Erase your Mac and reset it to factory settings - Apple Support

• Boot off of the bootable install USB drive

See: Mac startup key combinations - Apple Support for boot option key combos.

• Install the downgrade version of macOS

• When that’s done, boot normally, login and run Migration Assistant and restore the more recent TM backup for the level of macOS installed

Note, after I did the Migration Assistant restore from my TM backup I found a number of things were not set up as they were when I did the TM backup. In particular, all of the folders I was sharing, including a folder used by the TM Server, were no longer shared. There were other issues as well.

• Note, all this can take a long time (5+ hours, or longer, like 20 hours if restoring from a TM server)

• When everything looks good running the downgraded macOS, delete the “Install Monterey” app (or whatever the downgrade version of macOS is) in /Applications to save around 13GB of storage.

In general, Apple could/should make rolling back a major macOS update much easier and reliable. Apple should do something similar to what Solaris (Unix OS) provides for installing OS updates. Solaris supports a feature called Boot Environments which allows the system to run normally off of one BE while installing a OS update into a new BE. When the install is done, the system is booted using the new BE and if the update broke something the system can be rebooted using the previous BE which does not contain the OS upgrade. So simple.

Reply

Answer 2

Nov 1, 2022 9:57 AM in response to William Fiveash

According to this which was posted Oct. 26:

https://eshop.macsales.com/blog/84128-softraid-7-in-final-testing-for-macos-ventura/

"I want to make sure that this upgrade cycle does not cause any problems for our users. We anticipate shipping SoftRAID 7 within the next two weeks. "

FWIW, you may want to contact OWC as they my have a beta version available until the final product is released or a current workaround until v7 is actually released. They are very good to deal with.

Reply

Answer 3

Nov 3, 2022 1:58 PM in response to William Fiveash

William Fiveash wrote:

.....

In general, Apple could/should make rolling back a major macOS update much easier and reliable. Apple should do something similar to what Solaris (Unix OS) provides for installing OS updates. Solaris supports a feature called Boot Environments which allows the system to run normally off one one BE while installing a OS update into a new BE. When the install is done, the system is booted using the new BE and if the update broke something the system could be rebooted using the previous BE which does not contain the OS upgrade. So simple.

It's called creating a dual boot system on a Mac. Create a partition or use an external drive, install the new macOS on it, then migrate from the current install. Then select startup disk to be the drive/volume with the new OS. If stuff doesn't work, set startup disk to the old drive/volume until things are sorted out in the new OS.

Reply

Answer 4

Nov 3, 2022 2:05 PM in response to woodmeister50

woodmeister50 wrote:

William Fiveash wrote:

.....

In general, Apple could/should make rolling back a major macOS update much easier and reliable. Apple should do something similar to what Solaris (Unix OS) provides for installing OS updates. Solaris supports a feature called Boot Environments which allows the system to run normally off one one BE while installing a OS update into a new BE. When the install is done, the system is booted using the new BE and if the update broke something the system could be rebooted using the previous BE which does not contain the OS upgrade. So simple.

It's called creating a dual boot system on a Mac. Create a partition or use an external drive, install the new macOS on it, then migrate from the current install. Then select startup disk to be the drive/volume with the new OS. If stuff doesn't work, set startup disk to the old drive/volume until things are sorted out in the new OS.

Unfortunately, that wouldn't work for my situation because I naively did the update to Ventura on the internal drive. With Solaris BE I wouldn't have been wedged as I was.

Reply