FCP7 - how to downgrade from High Sierra

Question

FCP7 - how to downgrade from High Sierra

I am in the middle of editing a project for a client, when someone at the office updated my mac to High Sierra,

so now FCP7 will not open anymore.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014)

I do not have a Time Machine backup.

So my question is, can I downgrade to Sierra, whilst keeping my FCP7 software intact?

(do I need to reinstall FCP7 btw?)

If so, does anyone have a recipe for downgrading to Sierra, that they know works from experience?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, macOS High Sierra (10.13.1)

Posted on Nov 13, 2017 11:15 AM

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Answer 1

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,010 points

Nov 13, 2017 11:18 AM in response to DanielLeCorbusier

You might try asking this question on the Final Cut Studio forum as well. Check if the system drive has been upgrading to APFS. This will complicate the process even if you can find a Sierra installer.

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Answer 2

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,010 points

Nov 13, 2017 12:06 PM in response to DanielLeCorbusier

Yes. You will need a drop be with an HS installation that’s you can use to erase the system drive. Then you’ll need a drive with a Sierra partition you can run to install Sierra on the system, and then you’ll have to reinstall FCS from the installation disk images.

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Answer 3

Nov 13, 2017 1:27 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Alright, that sounds like good times...

So what you are saying pretty much sums up this list?:

0) Make a backup of your Mac - use Time Machine

1) Make a second backup of your Mac - use Carbon Copy Cloner

2) Ensure your backups are working properly, i.e. by accessing files in the drive

3) Once you have downloaded Sierra, you will need to create a bootable USB installer on your Mac: http://diskmakerx.com/

4) Once the installer is created, boot off it using Startup Disk in System Preferences

5) Erase your disk in Disk Utility on the installer, then reinstall Sierra

6) once reinstalled, ATTEMPT to migrate data (or at least applications) from your Carbon Copy backup

7) if this fails due to the newer OS of the backup, you will need to create a new account on the Mac and manually reinstall apps and migrate data.

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Answer 4

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,010 points

Nov 13, 2017 1:39 PM in response to DanielLeCorbusier

Not quite. You can’t erase the APFS drive with the Sierra Disk Utility. You can only erase it when booted in an HS system. The procedure for erasing an APFS is slightly complicated and not as straight forward as an HFS+ drive. You can see in the HS Disk Utility that the APFS drive is made up of a container with different compartments. You’ll have to look up erasing the drive on Apple Support. I can’t remember the procedure off the top of my head. I think I’ve only done it a couple of times and at least once was wrong and required some Terminal code to get it back.

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