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Will Downgrading MacBook Delete Photos From My Mac and IPhone?

Ok this might be a weird question but I am planning to downgrade my Macbook Air from Big Sur to High Sierra but I am worried that if you downgrade all my stuff will be deleted including the photos which I am more worried about because since if you delete a photo form your mac it deletes it from your iPhone too. Will downgrading/hard reset your mac delete all photos from iPhone and iCloud. Thanks.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 11.7

Posted on Apr 22, 2023 1:34 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Apr 23, 2023 2:52 AM

Technically, downgrading from macOS 11 Big Sur to macOS 10.13 High Sierra will require Wiping the Entire Drive of everything including the Recovery Volume ( Not a Partition in Big Sur and above )


Then there is the compatibly of photos when using Big Sur.


The newer versions of macOS like Big Sur may have changed the photo file format to HEIC versus the older file format in High Sierra


Would suggest, while still in Big Sur, to Export ALL the photos to an external drive in a known general file format like jpg


This way when High Sierra is installed - the files would still be available to re-import back into the Older Version of the native Photo Application.



2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Apr 23, 2023 2:52 AM in response to YoshiMC45

Technically, downgrading from macOS 11 Big Sur to macOS 10.13 High Sierra will require Wiping the Entire Drive of everything including the Recovery Volume ( Not a Partition in Big Sur and above )


Then there is the compatibly of photos when using Big Sur.


The newer versions of macOS like Big Sur may have changed the photo file format to HEIC versus the older file format in High Sierra


Would suggest, while still in Big Sur, to Export ALL the photos to an external drive in a known general file format like jpg


This way when High Sierra is installed - the files would still be available to re-import back into the Older Version of the native Photo Application.



Will Downgrading MacBook Delete Photos From My Mac and IPhone?

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