How to Downgrade From El Capitan to Yosemite Without Losing Data and Without Using Time Machine?

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Level 1

8 points

How to Downgrade From El Capitan to Yosemite Without Losing Data and Without Using Time Machine?

I have been searching for an answer to this question, but could not find one. If their is one and a missed it, please tell me and I will happily look over it. The reason I want to do this without using Time Machine, is because I didn't use it at the time of Yosemite. And, I have found out that you can use a USB or SD to downgrade, but how do you do this without losing all of my data?

MacBook Pro (15-inch 2.53 GHz), OS X El Capitan (10.11.5), null

Posted on Jul 6, 2016 3:39 PM

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Answer 1

BobHarris

Level 9

56,915 points

Jul 6, 2016 3:51 PM in response to odonckers

You have to backup, erase the disk, install Yosemite, restore your backed up data

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Answer 2

odonckers Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 6, 2016 3:54 PM in response to BobHarris

Thank you, I'm going to try this. Its funny though, because I thought maybe I could do this, but also though that backing up the data would backup only for the certain OS.

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Answer 3

BobHarris

Level 9

56,915 points

Jul 6, 2016 4:18 PM in response to odonckers

It would be best to have 2 backups for safety, but 1 will do it if nothing goes wrong.

Applications -> Utilities -> Migration Assistant can be used to restore your data.

Or you can drag and drop files and folders from the backup to the clean install of Yosemite, if you do a clone style backup. TimeMachine backup would be best to use Migration Assistant.

This link may provide other opinions on downgrading from El Capitan <https://discussions.apple.com/search.jspa?after=year&q=downgrade+el+capitan>

Eric Root frequently has links on how to do this in his replies.

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Answer 4

Eric Root

Level 10

685,251 points

Jul 7, 2016 9:08 AM in response to odonckers

These links?

OS X El Capitan: Revert to a previous OS X version

If you do revert, I'd use Setup Assistant to restore your data. This process takes a while, so do it when you won't need the computer for several hours, based on my experience.

Clone - Carbon Copy Cloner (Often recommended as it has more features than some others)

Clone Software – 6 Applications Tested

Time Machine Versus Clones and Archives

Commonly Used Backup Methods

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