Trying to downgrade from Yosemite back to previous OS X using Time Machine....

Joined
Nov 30, 2014
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Hi all...
I'm not exactly computer savvy, all I know is I'm not too happy with what Yosemite has done to my applications and files. For instance, I'm trying to use Logic Pro 9 and more than half of my previous plug-ins are missing and it lags big time. Here's what I'm trying to do:

I want to downgrade back to what I had before. I have a Macbook Pro from early 2011, which came with the previous OS X already installed. I believe it was OS X 10.6.7 (is this Lion? Can someone correct me?). Now, I have 2 separate backups on Time Machine - one from July (not as recent as I'd like, but it will have to do) with previous OS X, and a recent one with the newly installed Yosemite. I tried restarting computer holding down 'option' key and doing the whole "Reinstall New Copy of OS X"...all this does is reinstall Yosemite.

So, I try restoring from Time Machine Backup thinking I can just go back to the state my computer was in in July. Bu for some reason when I select the Time Machine (from an external hard drive), the only backups that appear are the recent ones I did with Yosemite! However if I just plug in the hard drive and look at its contents via desktop or something, I can see that the July backup is still there. It just doesn't appear when I try Restoring....does this make sense? Is there a trick I can do using Disk Utility or anything?

Does anyone know what I can do to get back to where I was? Any help is much appreciated!
 
M

MacInWin

Guest
You will have to do a clean install of whatever you had before, then use TM to restore your files from that older backup. The reason you can't do what you want to do is that you are booted into Yosemite, so you cannot overwrite the system files with anything older while you are using them as part of the boot. You can try making a bootable usb memory stick and see if TM can then restore that older version to the internal HD, but as long as you are booted from it, you won't be able to overwrite.
 
Joined
Dec 11, 2010
Messages
1,808
Reaction score
40
Points
48
Location
Chicago
Your Mac's Specs
late 2012 mini w/SSD
Jake - I don't know about Time Machine with Snow Leopard, but...

Whan you restart into Recovery (in Yosemite), the first menu option is Restore from Time Machine.

I recently restored from Yosemite to a complete, overwritten, bootable exact duplicate of my previous Mavericks install -- the OS, all apps, extensions, personal files, etc reinstalled from Time Machine.

So I think it's worth a try.
( there's a setting in Time Machine to Not backup the OS - that would certainly prevent success)
 
M

MacInWin

Guest
Yes, in that case you are NOT booted from the Yosemite Partition, but from the Recovery Partition, so you CAN overwrite it. But the OP was booted from his Yosemite Partition and may or may not have a Recovery Partition. IF he does, then he can boot from there and do the restore.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top