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

Hey I am having trouble with yosemite too. to make matters more complicated my Time Machine feature seems to be not working the way it should be.

I was wondering if you downloaded Mavericks from the "purchased" menu on the App Store and whether or not that way of reinstalling mavericks worked.. I'd really like my old computer back until they fix these problems. let me know ok?

Thanks

In order to return to a previous OS, you would need to invoke the recovery option, erase your drive using that Disk Utility, and then reinstall OS X. That should reinstall the original OS (if Lion or later); if Snow leopard or earlier, you'd need your original install disks to boot from, erase, and reinstall. You cannot go backwards without erasing your drive.

readytorun wrote:

Configuration files: ℹ️

/etc/hosts - Count: 20

This is read because it indicates the file has been modified by adding some entries for some reason. If you are already aware of the reason then you can probably ignore it. At least one variant of the iWorm Trojan does make such changes, but since you have apparently restored everything back to before that happened, it's probably not related to that. In any case you can see what it says by opening Terminal (found in /Applications/Utilities/) then copy and paste the following line into the window after the "$ " prompt:

cat /etc/hosts | open -fe

and hitting return. This will open a TextEdit window with the information. A normal hosts file looks like this:

##

# Host Database

#

# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface

# when the system is booting. Do not change this entry.

##

127.0.0.1 localhost

255.255.255.255 broadcasthost

::1 localhost

fe80::1%lo0 localhost

Kernel Extensions:

/Library/StartupItems/ArcanaStartupSound/Resources

[not loaded] arcana.PRAM (6.1) Support

Startup Items:

ArcanaStartupSound: Path: /Library/StartupItems/ArcanaStartupSound

Startup items are obsolete and will not work in future versions of OS X

These seem to be left over from some very old software called StartupSound.prefPane from Arcana. I don't believe it has worked since Snow Leopard. You don't seem to have the Preference Pane installed any more, so you should remove the rest of it from /Library/StartupItems/.

User Launch Agents:

[not loaded] info.lokiware.attachmenttamer.cleanup.plist Support

[invalid?] info.lokiware.attachmenttamer.setupagent.plist Support

The developer posted the following about ten days ago:

Attachment Tamer does not support OS X 10.10 Yosemite, which was released today, yet. But work on Yosemite compatibility is under way and you can expect a pre-release soon!

3rd Party Preference Panes:

Perian

Perian has not been supported since Snow Leopard and reportedly started causing issues for Mavericks users.

There are a couple more that I don't recognize, so hopefully you know what they all are for, up-to-date and Yosemite compatible.

babowa wrote:

In order to return to a previous OS, you would need to invoke the recovery option, erase your drive using that Disk Utility, and then reinstall OS X. That should reinstall the original OS (if Lion or later)

What you are describing is known as Internet Recovery, which is accessed by rebooting with <Command>-<Option>-R keys or if rebooting is unable to locate any bootable drive.

If you use the Recovery System stored on your startup drive to reinstall OS X, it installs the most recent version of OS X previously installed on this computer.

Details are @ OS X: About OS X Recovery.

readytorun wrote:

I was wondering if you downloaded Mavericks from the "purchased" menu on the App Store and whether or not that way of reinstalling mavericks worked.

You can, but as babowa said, you will have to erase your hard drive to do that. Then you should be able to migrate user files, 3rd party apps and settings from your Time Machine backup. If I were you I would have a bootable clone of your current hard drive available before attempting this in case anything goes wrong. Then you can restore from that drive and be back where you are now. You cannot boot Time Machine.

Heres what happened. you told me about those files. i took care of them and tried to do a time machine restoration. something went wrong and i was stuck on the start up screen for 2 days total with no movement - just a spinning circle. I finally ended up stopping the process on the 3rd try and reinstalled the OS. when the computeer started this time (4th) it apparently restored all my files and brought me back the to the Time Machine date I has asked for regarding my files and applications BUT it left me with Yosemite. So in other words I now have September 3rd computer without iWorm files but now with Yosemite. In other words I'm right back to where I was in the beginning sans Iworm file (javaw or whatever) . so now I'm still stuck with legitimate problems i had before.

my bluetooth does not work - audio delays every five mins

video delay in every facet - vlc, games, youtube, any moving video

safari has massive cache build up since yosemite

constantly thrwoing out trash to avoid system slow down including mouse trails

no mail notifications and the only way to check email is to open the program. if i keep it open it slows the system even more.

my icons are graphically a mess, they do no even look like images, just jumbled pixels.

I'd try another restoration but it caused such a hassle for 48 hours at the worst time , I dont rely on that process any more no matter how "easy" it should have been. Id like to go back to mavericks but again I have no idea what will happen if I try another restoration and I've already deleted and updated al the programs I need which took another 2 days of straight throwing out trash (one process) just to clear up this system. and I'm only working with 300 gb of programs.

this is the lowest I've ever seen apple in their roll out of anything. they wanted to be microsoft, well now theyre microsoft.

Yes, thank you, I'm aware of that (and that was what I was really referring to and should have been more precise); however, I read a kb article which stated that newer Macs automatically boot into internet recovery.

thank you for all your time going over my new computer headaches. its great to hear others are going through the same thing regarding bluetooth. here is my system now after reading your last re: startup files

EtreCheck version: 2.0.6 (91)

Report generated October 26, 2014 at 2:45:13 PM EDT

Hardware Information: ℹ️

iMac (27-inch, Late 2012) (Verified)

iMac - model: iMac13,2

1 3.2 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 4-core

8 GB RAM Upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0

4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

BANK 0/DIMM1

empty empty empty empty

BANK 1/DIMM1

empty empty empty empty

Bluetooth: Good - Handoff/Airdrop2 supported

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

Video Information: ℹ️

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX - VRAM: 1024 MB

iMac 2560 x 1440

System Software: ℹ️

OS X 10.10 (14A389) - Uptime: 0:3:7

Disk Information: ℹ️

APPLE HDD WDC WD10EALX-408EA0 disk0 : (1 TB)

S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 999.35 GB (797.07 GB free)

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

USB Information: ℹ️

Apple Inc. iPhone

Western Digital My Book 1140 3 TB

S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified

disk1s1 (disk1s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

My Book (disk1s2) /Volumes/My Book : 3 TB (42.44 GB free)

Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Configuration files: ℹ️

/etc/hosts - Count: 20

Gatekeeper: ℹ️

Mac App Store and identified developers

Kernel Extensions: ℹ️

/Users/[redacted]/Library/Services/ToastIt.service/Contents/MacOS

[not loaded] com.roxio.TDIXController (2.0) Support

Launch Agents: ℹ️

[not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist Support

[running] com.epson.ecrp.launcher.plist Support

[running] com.epson.Epson_Low_Ink_Reminder.launcher.plist Support

[loaded] com.epson.esua.launcher.plist Support

[running] com.epson.eventmanager.agent.plist Support

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist Support

Launch Daemons: ℹ️

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support

[loaded] com.charlessoft.pacifist.helper.plist Support

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist Support

[loaded] com.oracle.java.JavaUpdateHelper.plist Support

[loaded] com.rogueamoeba.instanton-agent.plist Support

[running] com.syniumsoftware.CleanAppDaemon.plist Support

User Launch Agents: ℹ️

[loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist Support

[loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist Support

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist Support

[running] com.spotify.webhelper.plist Support

[not loaded] info.lokiware.attachmenttamer.cleanup.plist Support

[invalid?] info.lokiware.attachmenttamer.setupagent.plist Support

[loaded] ltcm.plist Support

User Login Items: ℹ️

iTunesHelper Application (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)

Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️

Flip4Mac WMV Plugin: Version: 3.2.0.16 - SDK 10.8 Support

FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 15.0.0.189 - SDK 10.6 Support

QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

Flash Player: Version: 15.0.0.189 - SDK 10.6 Support

Default Browser: Version: 600 - SDK 10.10

SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: Unknown

Silverlight: Version: 5.1.30317.0 - SDK 10.6 Support

JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 7 Update 71 Check version

User Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️

Google Earth Web Plug-in: Version: 7.1 Support

3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️

CleanApp Logging Service Support

Flash Player Support

Flip4Mac WMV Support

Growl Support

Java Support

Time Machine: ℹ️

Auto backup: YES

Destinations:

My Book [Local]

Total size: 3 TB

Total number of backups: 97

Oldest backup: 2013-08-10 04:35:37 +0000

Last backup: 2014-10-26 18:11:47 +0000

Size of backup disk: Excellent

Backup size 3 TB > (Disk size 0 B X 3)

Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️

16% Finder

5% kextd

2% coreservicesd

1% mds

1% automountd

Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️

223 MB com.apple.MediaLibraryService

180 MB mds_stores

163 MB iTunes

137 MB Mail

101 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent

Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️

4.64 GB Free RAM

2.43 GB Active RAM

509 MB Inactive RAM

1.00 GB Wired RAM

1.21 GB Page-ins

0 B Page-outs

I had a problem updating to Yosemite as the installer froze on the load up screen. To get rid of the Yosemite update I took my macbook into an apple store and they had to revert it back to the factory settings and install mavericks from there. There are probably other ways to do this, but I'm not amazing with computers so taking it in to see an apple technician is probably your safest bet. Just back everything up before you do this though as everything gets lost when you wipe the mac.

babowa wrote:

I read a kb article which stated that newer Macs automatically boot into internet recovery.

True, but that only happens when...

"Newer Macs include the ability to start up directly from an Internet-based version OS X Recovery. Your Mac automatically uses this feature when the Recovery System on the startup drive isn't available."

readytorun wrote:

its great to hear others are going through the same thing regarding bluetooth.

I must have missed that. This discussion has become over-subscribed and off topic in many cases. Apple did make adjustments to BlueTooth during development. Part of the problem is that it operates in the same frequency band as WiFi, USB 3.0 and many other household items, so the signal strength and sensitivity are very important. In addition, BlueTooth is now used for the new Continuity document Handoff capability so software had to be added to support that.

I converse with over a hundred users daily who's job it is to report problems with Yosemite and I can honestly say none of them are reporting nearly as many issues as you are seeing and most of the ones you have mentioned have not come up. I spent most of the day updating many applications and utilities, almost all of which had made adjustments for Yosemite. I've really only had one mysterious problem with the computer spontaneously rebooting, even when I'm not using it or I put it to sleep. I established a second user account and when it doesn't happen when I'm logged into it, so I know it's some piece of software that is causing it, but the logs won't tell me which. Hopefully it was one of the ones that came out with an update this week.

Based on my experience with Mavericks, I found that re-installing from the Recovery HD solved at least one major slowdown issue for me and many others that I talked to. I know you had a bad experience with it, but my guess was that had something to do with your Time Machine backup and not the recovery software. It only takes a few minutes (depending on download speed) to do a re-install which will not touch your user files or third party apps, but gives you a completely fresh system.

Your EtreCheck report looks pretty clean now. Just need to wait for the Attachment Tamer update.

If you use the internet recovery mode then you will be back with Yosemite because you have already installed it, Apple use the last OS installation as the recovery. like a lot of users I am not happy with Yosemite and reverted back to Mavericks and the way I achieved this was to use time machine and restored to a earlier working Mavericks, but it does not stop there! Yosemite will still be your internet recovery mode so you need to then install Mavericks from a disk or usb or download it from the the App store once installed you will finally removed Yosemite from your system.

N.B

This does not have to be a back-up from your machine, any will do as you we complete a clean install once you follow the last steps that i have put forward.

this new os is the worst bit of softwear i have ever seen and i seen some rubbish, apple is ment to be easy and to be able to help people, so far its like windows used to be APPLE HAS LOST ITS HEART AND ONLY CARES FOR THE MONEY STEVE JOBS WOULD TURN IN HIS GRAVE if he knew how things have gone if this carries on i going back to windows after 17 years on macs its taking the pee out of the paying public SORT IT OUT NOW i want to go back to the older os whats the easy way that a human can understand plesae

well thanks for your help good to hear things seem to be alright regarding the etrecheck report again thank you for your time.

unfortunately none of what you said applies to me at all. i still cant watch a movie without having to quit vlc every 15 mins to sync the sound back up.

safari is adding massive amounts of cache which i have to continuously throw out otherwise the whole system becomes even slower.

my icons dont even look like icons they look like jumbled squares of color , my mail notifications dont appear at all and i see mouse trails daily.

I'm following 4 other threads and i read people complaining about bluetooth issues all day. there is obviously some problem.

for me it was a double punch. ios8 completely wrecked my phone and then to make matters worse they dont allow a downgrade..

and now this. i never want to hear the name yosemite again.