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

The way I've found out how to go back to the ver that came with your mac is,

Boot system from Internet recovery and go to disc utill. Partition the drive in half. (This deletes the info stored)

Redo it again and make it 1 partition. Then erase the new formed partition. Reboot again using the Internet recovery. There you will find you can Install the OS that came with your machine. You can only install the OS that came with your system or newer.

debbieyhl wrote:

WWhen I click on reinstall OS X, iit will show OS X Yosemite, instead of lion OS.

Are you using Internet Recovery to do this? You may be able to access it by holding <Command><Option>-R, but the most reliable is by completely erasing your hard drive (after backup!) as Yuck9 covered and rebooting with no external drives attached. You don't say what Mac model you have, but if it came with Snow Leopard you may need to update it first: Computers that can be upgraded to use OS X Internet Recovery.

If none of that works you will have to take it to Apple to see if they can do it for you.

Did you read my post on how to do it ? If not, read it. If you did, you did something wrong. Follow it.

Yuck9, I will try it now.

MadMacs0, yes, I was holding option + command + r, but still unable to get Snow Leopard or Lion to install.

my MacBook pro is on mid 2010

Yuck9, I did it, but still showing ios Yosemite. 😟

I would like to downgrade to mavericks too my MacBook Air is So Slow Now with Yosemite it's quite pathetic never thought my Apple Product would be acting like a windows PC POOR Upgrade

All our Macs are working like rockets.

You can easily erase your HardDrive and reinstall the backup you made before you decided to upgrade to Yosemite.

OR

You can try Troubleshooting your current Mac system to see why it is not working as it should. Post an etrecheck report back here or preferably in a new thread and also describe what issues you are having.

Cheers

Pete

Posting a message on here within a few mins after saying you tried it ?

Don't waste mine and others time. 😟

EtreCheck version: 2.1.5 (108)

Report generated January 10, 2015 at 10:01:16 PM GMT+8

Click the [Support] links for help with non-Apple products.

Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.

Click the [Adware] links for help removing adware.

Hardware Information: ℹ️

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2010) (Verified)

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro7,1

1 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2-core

4 GB RAM Upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1067 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1067 MHz ok

Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported

Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n

Video Information: ℹ️

NVIDIA GeForce 320M - VRAM: 256 MB

Color LCD 1280 x 800

System Software: ℹ️

OS X 10.10.1 (14B25) - Uptime: 0:5:39

Disk Information: ℹ️

Hitachi HTS545025B9SA02 disk0 : (250.06 GB)

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

Mac OS (disk0s2) / : 249.20 GB (234.97 GB free)

Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB

MATSHITADVD-R UJ-898

USB Information: ℹ️

Apple Inc. Built-in iSight

Apple Internal Memory Card Reader

Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Gatekeeper: ℹ️

Mac App Store and identified developers

Launch Daemons: ℹ️

[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist [Support]

User Login Items: ℹ️

uTorrent Application (/Applications/uTorrent.app)

Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️

Default Browser: Version: 600 - SDK 10.10

QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.4.1 - SDK 10.6 [Support]

Safari Extensions: ℹ️

Searchme [Installed] Adware! [Remove]

3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️

FUSE for OS X (OSXFUSE) [Support]

MacFUSE [Support]

NTFS-3G [Support]

Time Machine: ℹ️

Time Machine not configured!

Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️

13% WindowServer

0% fontd

0% AppleSpell

0% notifyd

0% opendirectoryd

Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️

125 MB Finder

125 MB mds_stores

90 MB loginwindow

90 MB installd

86 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent

Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️

787 MB Free RAM

1.70 GB Active RAM

1.03 GB Inactive RAM

502 MB Wired RAM

3.17 GB Page-ins

1 MB Page-outs

Diagnostics Information: ℹ️

Jan 10, 2015, 08:56:09 PM Self test - passed

Petermac87, this is mine report.

Robin,

You cannot downgrade that new MacBook Air to a version of OS X older than what (Yosemite) ships on it.

Most of the issues regarding Yosemite posts here are past configuration issues coming to roost as incompatibilities with Yosemite. Out of date applications, drivers, under configured hardware, under-trained users, anti-virus/malware software, and so-called cleaner applications. Then you have the Darwin Award folks that are deleting operating system components, or trying to customize the operating system — and then blame Yosemite.

I am in good company among those that have no issues with Yosemite (even version 10.10) after an upgrade to it from Mavericks. The biggest issue is the annoyance of enabling iCloud Drive with older versions of OS X on the same network.

The iWork '09 suite still works on Yosemite. If yours was originally installed via DVD, you will need to install it again on Yosemite, and then update the DVD versions to the latest '09 versions using the iWork 9.3 updater. If your iWork '09 applications were purchased from the OS X App store, they can be moved via USB stick from the old Macs to Yosemite — but placed in the /Applications/iWork '09 directory location. Don't forget your custom '09 templates in ~/Library/Application Support/iWork location. Pages '09 can read, and write from iCloud Drive on Yosemite.

Pages v5+ (now v5.5.2 on Yosemite) lacks about 100+ features of Pages '09, but does provide backwards compatibility via export to Pages '09 format. By default, Pages v5.5.1 and later create single file format documents (compressed folder). This is not backwards compatible with Mavericks Pages v5.2.2. On the File menu, there is an Advanced menu item that leads you to File Type. When you choose Package, and save, this format is backwards compatible with Pages v5.2.2.

The real pain in the arse with Yosemite is when you enable iCloud Drive. It is incompatible with the Mavericks (and earlier) iCloud. I have two Macs, one with Mavericks, and the other with Yosemite (iCloud Drive enabled). Every time that I launch Pages v5.2.2 on Mavericks, it throws up a dialog (below) that I have to dismiss before I can access the underlying document. Your older Macs will not be able to see iCloud documents produced by Yosemite (with iCloud Drive on).

Note that petermac87 suggested you start a "new thread and also describe what issues you are having", neither of which you have done here.

Safari Extensions: ℹ️

Searchme [Installed] Adware! [Remove]

Start by "Click the [Adware] links for help removing adware." as instructed and follow the directions.

Backup your hard drive as it will fail, usually around the three year point, so your's appears to be overdue.

Get rid of uTorrent and don't ever use it again as it will cause you nothing but problems.

Not sure why you have:

3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️

FUSE for OS X (OSXFUSE) [Support]

MacFUSE [Support]

NTFS-3G [Support]

partially installed as they mostly for Mac Users running Windows, which you don't appear to be doing and would undoubtedly conflict with each other if you were.

My machine can't downgrade to lion, it will always ask to install Yosemite. No matter I erase or re-partition the hard disk, it still showing ISO Yosemite to install.

The 3rd party preference panes: is for me read & write window hard disk. Currently, I installed back Yosemite again.

debbieyhl wrote:

My machine can't downgrade to lion, it will always ask to install Yosemite. No matter I erase or re-partition the hard disk, it still showing ISO Yosemite to install.

That's correct, it's too old for Internet Recovery so the only possibility would be to re-install Snow Leopard from the installation disks that came with your computer (reportedly OS X 10.6.3). It's also one of the reasons Peter ask you to start a new thread as we are currently off-topic.

The 3rd party preference panes: is for me read & write window hard disk.

Understand but again, you don't need all three and I would have to guess they probably conflict with each other.

First, OS X has native support for older Windows hard drives, but if you must use the newer format then you are correct that third party software is required. I should also add that I don't use such software, so everything I will tell you is from reading about it.

MacFUSE has been obsolete for over six years, last updated for OS X 10.4 (Tiger). See Q 2.3. How can I uninstall MacFUSE?.

OSXFUSE is a successor to MacFUSE, which has been used as a software building block by dozens of products, but is no longer being maintained. The latest version is 2.7.4 released last Thursday. Most importantly, it installs different files for each version of OS X, so if you migrated it from an older version then you must re-install it for proper operation.

Tuxera NTFS-3G for Mac would appear to be four years old now and last updated for OS X 10.5 (Leopard) although there is a paid version of NTFS released about a year ago which claims to have Yosemite support. I can't tell whether it needs to be re-installed for Yosemite or not. See How do I uninstall Tuxera NTFS for Mac which may or may not apply to NTFS-3G.

So based on all of that it would appear that OSXFUSE is your cheapest, newest solution and you should get rid of the other two, following the developers instructions to uninstall them.

I am trying to go back to factory osx from Yosemite because some of my very important music softwares are not supported in Yosemite.

I have a late 2011 MBP. I do not have the original disc. I am trying the Internet Recovery method.

So far, I've backed up my needed files and have erased the HD. The option to install osx is Yosemite.

So I tried doing the partition method. I set it to: 1 Partition / Mac OS Extended (Journal) / Option: GUID / left the name as Untitled 1.

I click 'apply', then click 'partition' but I get an error message "Partition failed with the error. Couldn't unmount disk".

What am I doing wrong?

Look for the Short how-to I wrote a few weeks ago; It tells how.