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How can I uninstall OS X Yosemite and return to OS X Mavericks?

How can I uninstall OS X Yosemite and return to OS X Mavericks?

Posted on Oct 17, 2014 3:09 PM

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Posted on Oct 17, 2014 3:17 PM

  1. You must have a fully bootable Mavericks system from which to boot the computer. You can then erase the volume with Yosemite, then clone the Mavericks system to the empty volume you just erased.
  2. You can erase the drive and reinstall Mavericks if you have a USB Mavericks installer flash drive.
  3. You can boot the computer via Internet Recovery and reinstall the original version of OS X that came with the computer. This is only feasible on models from 2011 to the present.
600 replies

Nov 23, 2014 2:15 PM in response to Allan Eckert

I agree with the others, I HATE Yosimite. These are the changes I've found that I don't like and don't know how to change.



1. You’re forced to sign on with your Apple I.D. whenever you shut the computer down and reboot. There’s no way to remove that feature?


2. Some people can’t play You Tube videos in Safari. I was one of them so had to download Google Chrome to watch them. BIG PAIN


3. In the Email program I haven’t found where the Address book is visible to open and choose the recipients you want to send to all at one time. If you click on the TO button a little + sign will appear to the right and the address book opens, but each time you click on a name it’ll go to the TO field or the BB CC, whichever you want, but the address book disappears and you have to open it again to see the list of names. Another big pain.

So far, these are the problems I've found. Hopefully, I won't find more.

If someone can help me with these issues I'd be grateful.

Nov 23, 2014 2:46 PM in response to petermac87

Peter,

I installed from the message from Apple I THINK. I think it came through my apple email? I hope that wasn't a fake email? At this point I'm not even sure where the notification came from but my computer is not running like it did before and did read comments on another site people were having some similar problems. I'm pretty new to Apple, have used Windows for years, so this is all confusing to me. Maybe my best bet is to take it to Apple and have them look things over. Afraid now to do anything on this thing.

Nov 23, 2014 3:54 PM in response to agasss

After installing Yosemite, my machine would constantly freeze and/or reload. I worked with Apple Support, but they weren't able to fix it, although we tried everything, including a clean wipe/install of Yosemite. I have since reinstalled Mavericks again, and all problems have gone away. I used a recovery USB method, and wiped my system. Make sure you have your data backed up if you are going to do this:


1. Download Mavericks again from app store: (see purchases tab)

2. Create bootable USB (need 8 gb usb stick)

see http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

3. Restart and hold down the “options” key

Boot from the USB you created.

4. Format regular hard drive with disk utilities (you will lose your data this way, make sure you have everything backed up to another drive)

exit back to menu when done

5. From OSX Utilities Install from USB

“reinstall osx”

Nov 23, 2014 7:28 PM in response to s0f4king

I realize this is an Apple site. So "the other side of the discussion is not likely to be too sympathetic to those of us that are struggling with Yosemite. It has basically turned what was admittedly a 3 year old Macbook into a brick in my case and I have 8 GB of ram...bought it that way.


It is so buggy that I am afraid to try to take it back to Mavericks myself. Will probably take it in and have service get me back to Mavericks even at a cost to me. I am not going to drop kick what was a decently working piece of hardware out the window just because Apple would like me to buy a new Macbook.


I guess I will give it a couple more weeks assuming there is a possibility that Apple is working on some of these compatibility issues. While there is no sense in going into it here I find myself for the first time in maybe ten years disappointed in Apple on several fronts. Suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later.


Don't suppose anybody knows what Apple Support would charge me for taking a Macbook back to Mavericks.

Nov 23, 2014 7:33 PM in response to Shoe16

Yes I Agree to some extent... Yosemite is much Faster on my MacBook Pro than Mavericks or prior OS's but the Main Beef I have is with what you said about the Mail App... I used to command click the addresses I wanted to send important info to like customers I wanted to keep informed..


The only solution I've found so far is to open the Contacts App (Address Book) and select the ones I want and Drag them over to Mail's To: Field.


No Wifi Issues at all thank God.. but the dumbing down of small icons in toolbars like Mail & Preview & Others irritates me because they are so cryptic I can no longer remember from day to day what a little |_| thing like that (just for example)... what in the **** does that do!!!??? And the Worst part is many other App Updates like Evernote are following suit like "We Like This"...


I cannot wrap my head around that having had the First Mac OS Out there for several months as a work in progress for developers & beta testers galore that none of these issues came up or were addressed.

Nov 23, 2014 7:45 PM in response to nugj

nugj wrote:


I realize this is an Apple site. So "the other side of the discussion is not likely to be too sympathetic to those of us that are struggling with Yosemite. It has basically turned what was admittedly a 3 year old Macbook into a brick in my case and I have 8 GB of ram...bought it that way.


It is so buggy that I am afraid to try to take it back to Mavericks myself. Will probably take it in and have service get me back to Mavericks even at a cost to me. I am not going to drop kick what was a decently working piece of hardware out the window just because Apple would like me to buy a new Macbook.


I guess I will give it a couple more weeks assuming there is a possibility that Apple is working on some of these compatibility issues. While there is no sense in going into it here I find myself for the first time in maybe ten years disappointed in Apple on several fronts. Suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later.


Don't suppose anybody knows what Apple Support would charge me for taking a Macbook back to Mavericks.

You have a backup of Mavericks? Or did your Mac come with Mavericks preinstalled? Otherwise you can't return to Mavericks as it has been removed from the App Store.What troubleshooting steps have you taken to try to get Yosemite to run smoothly like it does for many millions of other users?


Pete

Nov 23, 2014 7:51 PM in response to MacAwesome88

Well now you have kinda' hit on it I think. The very first thing I said about Yosemite at first blush was that not only does it look like a mobile OS....it acts like a mobile OS. Yet these are not mobile devices. Maybe that lies at the heart of all the issues we have with Yosemite. Mobile OS often looks and works like a stripped down version of a computer OS with all sorts of cryptic stuff not only visible on the screen but in the background as well. If I can pull anything from my Yosemite experience it would be that stripped down does not necessarily mean more efficient. It might just mean mismatched with machines like mine that are not exactly old but not brand new either balking more at it maybe than newer machines.

How can I uninstall OS X Yosemite and return to OS X Mavericks?

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