HOW DO I UNDO OS X EL CAPITAN UPDATE

1. Please don't do the all capitals- no punctuation- thing.
2. Before you install a new OS you're supposed to do a backup. Like with Time Machine. If you did that, it's very easy to restore from the Time Machine backup. But you probably didn't. So the real issue is, you should start doing backups.
3. If you didn't do a backup, then it is possible to reinstall the previous OS. but it's no picnic. You can't install an earlier OS "over" a later OS. Can't be done. You'll have to
   1. backup your documents
   2. boot into internet recovery (option ⌘ R at restart).
   3. erase your HD and then use internet recovery to reinstall the original OS that came with your MBP.
   4. Then reinstall your apps and documents from scratch.
4. There are some other ways to do it, but for those you'd need a bootable installer disc of some kind, which you also probably don't have.
5. another option is to tell us what the problems you are having with El Cap are, and we can try to fix those.

Since the update to El Capitan on my MacBookAir the only reliable thing about my laptop is that it has become:

• remarkably slower
• consistently less stable (crashes at least once an hour)
• hopelessly less usable (it does not like PDFs and other apps)

Im tossing up going back, but I am now very chastened. Its the last time I update my OS without reading the reviews, had I done so I would not have proceeded.

Silly me

APPLE A WARNING WOULD HAVE BEEN USEFUL THAT YOU WERE RELEASING SUCH A DOG

Mark

Its the last time I update my OS without reading the reviews, had I done so I would not have proceeded.

Then you'll never update at all. The only people who review anything are the ones who feel a need to vent.

Try uninstalling the third-party crapware you previously installed. If you need help finding it, start your own topic and post the output of this program:

http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck

I agree I have had this, my first, Mac Book Air for quite some time with little to no problems ever. When I read the El Capitan marketing piece I was pretty pumped because my Mac was 4 years old. It was still fast and I am able to multitask like on no other computer. I didn't make a backup prior to updating because all other OX I have downloaded were pretty much seamless. Heck, I started with Mountain Lion. This El Capitan has so many bugs. My emails show up but there is no text in the body of them and I have to open and close them 4-5 times or force quite mail before they populate. Same thing happens with PDF in preview. They open but there is nothing there so I have to close and reopen. Half my work day is spent doing this, it also freezes up all the time now where it never did before. Im stuck with this version and I expect better from Apple. Their seamless integration is why I went with a Mac in the first place, I was tied of this with Windows based PCs. I seriously hope this is not a sign of things to come with Mac.

If its a dog for you, you have a problem. Its much faster for me. Two machines.

Start with wht you did.

G

Can I ask a question based on this thread please?

I have an iMac, its nearly 2 yrs old, installed yosemite about 8 mths ago and didn't really get on with it but being new to iMacs, I backed up my files but not the OS, so was stuck with yosemite, which made everything really slow. I got rid of some programs I never used and it did improve so I was reluctant to do this update but read a lot of reviews which said this improved performance over yosemite, so I took the leap, again, I backed my personal files onto DVDs but my hard drive for some reason won't allow me to write onto it with the iMac, keeps telling me its a read only drive (I have no idea why as it wasn't set up that way on my old crappy PC.) Anyway, If I reset to factory and reinstall from t'internet, will it reinstall as I had it, or will it install with Yosemite/Capitan seeing as I'd "upgraded" for free?

Erusfarley-

First, your two-year old iMac should be much faster than anything i have, and 10.10 and 10.11 run quite quickly on both.

Do you have 8G or more RAM? If not, upgrade. 10.9 and up like RAM, and also like fast hard drives due to how they manage memory.

Next, i see a possible clue in why you cant write to your hard drive. It comes from a PC and is likely NTFS, the Windows format. be happy that Apple reads Windows format drives! But (as i recall) you can;t write to them. So - you need to make sure to save any files you have on that drive, and format it (which destroys all files) and then format either Apple (HFS+ Journaled) or the simpler MSFT format that both windows and Mac can read and write, FAT32 or "exFAT".

At that point, buy "carbon copy cloner" and learn how to make complete, bootable clones of your entire drive and you will never again have the problem of not being able to go back to where you were.

Sounds like your should first learn what hardware you have and how it is configured. As companies make software more and more idiot proof, we *think* we dont need to know anything, until, well, we do. Apple's even more culpable than MSFT in this respect.

Grant

Thanks Grant,

I must confess, Ive always considered myself ok with a PC, but never had an apple before, so Ive rebooted to factory etc on PCs and changed files, programmes etc and installed new drives, but everything is completely different on iMac, … Saying that I do like it,…and am willing to go with the trial and error approach.

I have the 8gb RAM iMac,

Im thinking I might simply buy another hard drive and start from scratch with saving stuff as theres so much on the other one that it will take forever to back it all up especially as would have to use my old crappy laptop because I can't even access the files to save to disc via my iMac...

I thought about rebooting to factory on the iMac when I get the new drive and then use the time machine to regularly back up from the beginning…so I don't look a complete nonce again… If I did reboot, would it install with yosemite or Lion (I think thats what was on it first, but probably wrong)

erusfarley wrote:

Thanks Grant,

I must confess, Ive always considered myself ok with a PC, but never had an apple before, so Ive rebooted to factory etc on PCs and changed files, programmes etc and installed new drives, but everything is completely different on iMac, … Saying that I do like it,…and am willing to go with the trial and error approach.

I have the 8gb RAM iMac,

Im thinking I might simply buy another hard drive and start from scratch with saving stuff as theres so much on the other one that it will take forever to back it all up especially as would have to use my old crappy laptop because I can't even access the files to save to disc via my iMac...

I thought about rebooting to factory on the iMac when I get the new drive and then use the time machine to regularly back up from the beginning…so I don't look a complete nonce again… If I did reboot, would it install with yosemite or Lion (I think thats what was on it first, but probably wrong)

If you wipe your hard drive and return to factory settings, then it'll have the OS that was on the computer when you bought it. You would have to upgrade as far as you wanted from there on your own.

Thanks everyone for quick replies, I think I'll do that… and learn about it as Im doing it 😕

can I just check, I can definitely reboot to factory and install via t'internet as I didn't get any discs and obv can't save a back up to my drive yet? Ive saved my files I need to disc, but would I be wise to wait for the new drive to arrive?

I m a "belt + suspenders" type. I'd want to have a complete backup of a working system, with my files, before i went back to factory.

Therefore, i'd wait until i got that new hard drive (get a big one, they don't cost much more). Use disk utility to format it. Make a complete time machine or other clone ( I vastly prefer carbon copy cloner - much more control and transparency IMNSHO)

I still dont get why your machine is slow. Your's is basically faster than mine and mine is fast. Describe what changed.

One thing no one has discussed, and i simply don;t know, is what happens to all your settings - email settings, view settings - everything - when you go back to factory. I presume they are lost, which is a big PITA. So without a clone of what you have - act slowly. And again, be specific about what's not working well.

Grant

coda8it -

FYI, I had this problem:

My emails show up but there is no text in the body of them and I have to open and close them 4-5 times or force quite mail before they populate. Same thing happens with PDF in preview. They open but there is nothing there so I have to close and reopen.

... when i upgraded to Yosemite. El Cap fixed it. So i presume that there is something that gets corrupted. Its not a matter of "El capitan works this way" - its a corruption. Apparently one that is somewhat common. But you didn't have it in Yosemite, while i did, and I don't have it in El Cap, but you do.

G

Thanks Grant

Ill follow your advice and wait til I get the drive,

Basically with mine, it seems to literally put the brakes on when I upgraded to yosemite, so when opening any app I get the little sinning wheel, I simply don't bother trying to run two programs at the same time as neither will open, Id literally cleared off everything but the basics apps, and deleted half of my iPhotos (I never let it go beyond 2000 pictures and usually copy to disc every 1000) and finally Yosemite was running at just about ok speed wise, but again, with the new update its gone back to the spinning wheel again… e.g. I just opened safari to get to this page and I had the spinning rainbow wheel for 38 seconds before it opened, surely thats not right? or is it? even our crappy Dell work computers aren't this slow? This is a screen shot of my current use, so i figure it shouldn't be this slow?

All you are showing is the utilization of your hard disk, which, unless its *very, very* full, doesn't make a bit of difference on performance.

Open activity monitor and see what applications are using up CPU cycles and how your memory is being managed (just make sure its green for "pressure").

Your computer is not behaving as it should for 10.11. I have a much older, slower, laptop and i don't have those problems. Its very fast.

So you need to find out what is causing that problem, and fix it. It could be:

1. something was corrupted when you went to 10.10. The next upgrade would not necessarily have fixed it either.

2. you have some crapware or incompatible software chewing up processor cycles - use activity monitor to find out what is going on

I suspect #2, actually. Start there.

It should look something like this - note that nothing is using much CPU and all are fairly obvious, legitimate processes.

This is a 6-year old laptop. A relic next to yours.

G