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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

Mar 31, 2015 2:46 PM in response to jamesx86

The only possibility would be to buy a refurbished unit from the Apple online store and it would need to have come with ML installed originally. I recently purchased a refurb iMac exactly for that reason: I needed one that will boot with ML - and I was ready with a full installer tucked away as I thought it may have Mavericks or Yosemite installed and I was ready to erase and reinstall (after having checked to make sure that it originally was ML) - but, I got lucky: this one actually had ML installed. Here is a list of build/OS version numbers you can consult if you're interested:


https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204319

Apr 29, 2015 2:41 PM in response to thump30

thump30 wrote:


If I erase the drive and reinstall Mavericks from a USB Mavericks installer flash drive and then use my time machine backup (which was created on the Yosemite version of my mac) will it just revert to Yosemite?

Yes, it will re-install Yosemite if you restore the entire backup. You can probably restore just your User folder that way, though.


You might be able to use Migration Assistant to restore everything except the system, but it probably will not allow that when migrating from a newer OS X version.

May 3, 2015 7:22 PM in response to Allan Eckert

Wasn't my question but I'm thinking the same thing - My mid 09' has been nothing but screwed since Yosemite. I have a black or cloudy looking screen at log in and the fun goes from there. Then there is this piece of junk known as photos which takes forever to load and half the source list is missing which makes file manipulation a real joy!


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

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