Down grade

OK guilty as charged... Yes I installed Mojave on my early 2011 MBP
and in truth everything is running fine except for some vedio clitches and BT
Dont even know if I need BT now, things have changed

But I am considering going to a clean High Sierra install and I have read a few
articles on how to do this, the Mac terminology is a litte unknown to me.

here is what I am going to do
I bought a 1T SD card... I am going to time machine my HD to that.
I have a thumb drive with Os High Sierra 10.13.1 on it dmg file

After I am done with backing up my HD, then I reboot into recovery mode
from there I wipe the HD clean, then I use the untilty to install the .dmg from the usb
drive to install High Sierra...
Or shoulld I partition the SD card into say 2 50gig partitions and one for Os Mojave
and use that instead of a thumb drive?
One concern I have is I read the (installer) file all the time.. is this a seperate file
that is needed to install a Mac Os or is it just a generic word for the OS
the Os High Sierra I have downloaded is 5.2gb...
Best

Not sure I understand the "thumb drive with Os High Sierra 10.13.1 on it dmg file." The correct way to create a bootable USB is by using this guide:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

(.dmg files aren't usually bootable - where did you get that?)

gsahII
that is all well and good, except that when you intall Mojave your burning the bridge. You can not go to the apple store
and download an older version of Mac OS... I am at that point right now, and nothng will happen, I will get the same message
that I have got before, this (meaning older Os) is to old for this machine... It seems we buy the "Hardware" but they own it.
Right now I'm using Time machine to backup my Mojave, but when you go to system preference and open Time machine.
there is no way to "start" a backup.. but if you install the Time machine icon in the menu bar, you can.. Now tell me how that
is good... why is there a difference? Mac as come a long way, but compared to OS\2 it is still not user friendly...
Trying to use Disk Utility is a night mare.. they don't even explain what is happening.. and in the boxes that do , the type is so small
or that you can not partition a drive if it is a certain format!!!!
I have a 49gb partition, (don't know how I got it) but I went into (internet recover) my Mojave is missing recover and
tried to install this MBP original Lion version, and after 51 hours, this morning with 36 min to go, got a message that the install
failed.... go figure...You tell me why Apple wants so much control? We are by and large end users, we do not delv into the hardware
or want to understand the backend of computers. just have them do what we want, not the other way around.
BTW still searching for a Sierra install...
Best

I clicked on this URL and it opened the App Store and allowed me to get High Sierra.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/macos-high-sierra/id1246284741?ls=1&mt=12

sandman said:

BTW still searching for a Sierra install...
Best

Click to expand...

Are you looking for a Sierra install disk or a High Sierra install disk?
These are two different OSs

sandman said:

But I am considering going to a clean High Sierra install and I have read a few
articles on how to do this, the Mac terminology is a litte unknown to me.

here is what I am going to do
I bought a 1T SD card... I am going to time machine my HD to that.
I have a thumb drive with Os High Sierra 10.13.1 on it dmg file

After I am done with backing up my HD, then I reboot into recovery mode
from there I wipe the HD clean, then I use the untilty to install the .dmg from the usb
drive to install High Sierra...
Or shoulld I partition the SD card into say 2 50gig partitions and one for Os Mojave
and use that instead of a thumb drive?
One concern I have is I read the (installer) file all the time.. is this a seperate file
that is needed to install a Mac Os or is it just a generic word for the OS
the Os High Sierra I have downloaded is 5.2gb...
Best

Click to expand...

His first post says High Sierra thus my answer

If he does want Sierra this works here for me.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/macos-sierra/id1127487414?ls=1&mt=12

thanks for your input.
in either of those URL I can not download. in fact 5 min has elaps since I started the search
Apple has this really tied down for some reason... It was my fault for installing Mojave, but really
I know there is someone out there that has figured out how to but I have not found it yet...
I even went to internet recovery and downloaded Snow Leopard last night 51 hrs... to start... at 38min
to me there was an error...
think I'll just wipe my hd and start over, but partition it.. If i can
Best
Thanks again

When I click on the URL's here it asks to open the App Store application. Then when that comes up there is a GET at the top left. I will try it on my Mojave system and see what happens.

I can't download it from that link either -I think it all depends what one has downloaded and/or installed before.

sandman said:

I have a 49gb partition, (don't know how I got it) but I went into (internet recover) my Mojave is missing recover and
tried to install this MBP original Lion version, and after 51 hours, this morning with 36 min to go, got a message that the install
failed.... go figure...

Click to expand...

What kind/speed internet connection do you have?
It shouldn't take anywhere near that long to download any macOS

First I tried the High Sierra URL above in High Sierra and it opened the app store and I clicked on get and it downloaded. So went to the Mojave machine and same thing.

KRS is probably correct. I have downloaded every Mac OS and Mac OSX that has been available for download over the years.

dtravis7 said:

First I tried the High Sierra URL above in High Sierra and it opened the app store and I clicked on get and it downloaded. So went to the Mojave machine and same thing.

Click to expand...

When I do that, HS opens in the app store as well but I don't have the "get" option, for me the option is "open" - probably because the Apple store knows that I downloaded that OS already.

And Apple doesn't let one go back when it comes to OSs, at least not easily - maybe that is the problem sandman has since he downloaded and installed Mojave already.

Taking them one at a time:

sandman said:

gsahII
that is all well and good, except that when you intall Mojave your burning the bridge. You can not go to the apple store
and download an older version of Mac OS... I am at that point right now, and nothng will happen, I will get the same message
that I have got before, this (meaning older Os) is to old for this machine... It seems we buy the "Hardware" but they own it.

Click to expand...

Nope, you can download older versions, as you have already been told.

Right now I'm using Time machine to backup my Mojave, but when you go to system preference and open Time machine.
there is no way to "start" a backup.. but if you install the Time machine icon in the menu bar, you can.. Now tell me how that
is good... why is there a difference? Mac as come a long way, but compared to OS\2 it is still not user friendly...

Click to expand...

That is how the software works. System preferences is the place to set preferences, not to execute software. You can launch a backup in TM either with the Dock icon or the icon on the top menu bar.

Trying to use Disk Utility is a night mare.. they don't even explain what is happening.. and in the boxes that do , the type is so small
or that you can not partition a drive if it is a certain format!!!!

Click to expand...

I think the only format that macOS cannot work with directly is NTFS from the Windows world. How about telling us what format is giving you trouble and what you are trying to do? As for Disk Utility, here is Apple's documentation for how to partition a disk: https://support.apple.com/kb/PH22240?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

I have a 49gb partition, (don't know how I got it) but I went into (internet recover) my Mojave is missing recover and
tried to install this MBP original Lion version, and after 51 hours, this morning with 36 min to go, got a message that the install
failed.... go figure

Click to expand...

Well if you had Mojave installed the drive was formatted to APFS. Lion doesn't recognize or know how to use APFS, which may have been the cause for the error. Or it could be a drive failure or other hardware issue. Or if you were doing an Internet recovery, it could have been a network interruption with either your LAN or the ISP or even the Internet. If you reformatted the drive, Lion should have installed if it's been on the machine before. But you didn't say it had been. You cannot install a system older than the hardware. It's a hardware compatibility limitation.

...You tell me why Apple wants so much control? We are by and large end users, we do not delv into the hardware
or want to understand the backend of computers. just have them do what we want, not the other way around.
BTW still searching for a Sierra install...
Best

Click to expand...

Here is Sierra: https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1931?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

See, that wasn't so hard, was it?

krs said:

When I do that, HS opens in the app store as well but I don't have the "get" option, for me the option is "open" - probably because the Apple store knows that I downloaded that OS already.

And Apple doesn't let one go back when it comes to OSs, at least not easily - maybe that is the problem sandman has since he downloaded and installed Mojave already.

Click to expand...

Usually when it says Open the OS is on your hard drive somewhere. I have had that also and moved it to an external and then Get appeared.

Also Jake is correct if Mojave was installed the partition would be APFS and Lion would be clueless with that partition type.

Sandman, when you click on the URL I provided for HighSierra exactly what happens?

MacInWin said:

Here is Sierra: https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1931?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

See, that wasn't so hard, was it?

Click to expand...

That link is for a macOS Sierra 10.12.6 Combo Update.

I hardly think a Mac currently running on Mojave can use that to downgrade to Sierra.

OK, there is a link in item #4 of this article from Apple: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208202

And given that Mojave changes the format of the drive, no matter what installer is used, the drive will need to be completely reformatted and repartitioned to go backwards. So create a bootable installer on a USB stick, boot from it and install Sierra after reformatting/repartitioning the drive. Or do an Internet install of the original OS on the hardware and upgrade from there to where you want to be. But you can't reformat/repartition the drive from which you are booted, so you'll definitely need to be booted from something else.

MacInWin said:

OK, there is a link in item #4 of this article from Apple: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208202

Click to expand...

Yeah, but it says:
If you still need macOS Sierra, use this App Store link: Get macOS Sierra. To download it, your Mac must be using macOS High Sierra or earlier.
Sounds to me the OP is already on Mojave which is later than High Sierra

- - - Updated - - -

MacInWin said:

And given that Mojave changes the format of the drive, no matter what installer is used, the drive will need to be completely reformatted and repartitioned to go backwards. So create a bootable installer on a USB stick, boot from it and install Sierra after reformatting/repartitioning the drive. Or do an Internet install of the original OS on the hardware and upgrade from there to where you want to be. But you can't reformat/repartition the drive from which you are booted, so you'll definitely need to be booted from something else.

Click to expand...

Exactly!

The link works on Mojave. I tested it before I posted it.