Yosemite... Sigh...

[Rhonnies]

This is my first post ladies and gentlemen, so please go easy on me please. A Mac lover after many years, finally purchased my own (yay me!) a 13" MBP retina (late 2013). Bought top of the line at the store for what they had. Felt like the Queen!! It came with Mavericks OS X and I loved everything about it. When Yosemite came out, I was excited and maybe jumped the gun a little and hit download a little too quickly to "join the club" so to speak and have a new os. I (regretfully) did not do a full back up of my Mac before hitting that download button! I firmly believe that is why I am having so many issues with my beloved machine. I am heartbroken at what has occurred with my little buddy. I know that apple 'frowns' at wanting to revert to the old os Mavericks, but I feel in my heart of hearts that I was much more comfortable with it and so was my computer. It ran better and wasn't as glitchy -so to speak. I have been reading Mac Forums faithfully and always looking for suggestions, comments and the like and have tried ideas and such. I have found nothing to satisfy myself or my machine. I would like to revert back to Mavericks. Can I do this by doing a factory reset and using my 1TB Passport for Mac even though I have both Time Machine back ups from both Mavericks and Yosemite on there? Please do not chastise me for I know what I did was wrong by not backing up my system before the major install of Yosemite. I also know (after reading many posts) that many will encourage me to hang on to Yosemite. I have tried. My Mac feels sick (ha, ha). A lot of the same issues that others are experiencing... machine is getting quite hot, power seems to drain quickly, wi-fi gets lost, delays with certain programs, yada, yada... Yes, I probably got a bad download, but I still think Mavericks was better in my personal opinion. We are entitled to that right? Thank you for your help and consideration for all who choose to answer.

 

[rubaiyat]

Don't ever apologise for wanting a set-up that works for you.

I always use an external drive for my updates and run that until I am happy with the new OS before switching. I am still running Snow Leopard on my iMac. Lion was a waste of space, Mountain Lion was nice, Mavericks had some benefits and some negatives and Yosemite is pushing the negatives.

Apple makes it extremely difficult to go back, you probably will have to wipe your Hard Drive at some point so I'd make a bootable version of what you have now (Yosemite) using either Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper to a clearly labelled external hard drive, then erase and reinstall.

Getting a copy of Mavericks is the hard part. Apple may help if you go into an Apple Store, otherwise search the 'Net.

 

[Rhonnies]

Thank you so much rubaiyat for your quick response and honest answer. I was quite skeptical about posting on here about this topic. My machine, if I do a reset, would boot automatically to Mavericks wouldn't it? It came factory installed with Mavericks. This is the assumption that I was going on. In my mind I thought it would revert to a factory setting and Yosemite would be gone... or is this just wishful thinking?
I agree Snow Leopard was pretty great as was Mountain Lion (as judging from using my friends machine and how I came to fall in love with Mac).

 

[harryb2448]

Whatever you do avoid pirate torrents.

For what it is worth always backup before an update or upgrade, and with a MBP suggest rather than simply upgrade, do a format of the hard dfive and a clean install. As suggestedtake it to the Apple Store.

 

[Rhonnies]

Thank you once again rubaiyat. I have also been wrong a time or two ha ha. See, this is why I asked. I will indeed ask Apple for instructions to see if this reset is possible, if not I will try the above link and put it on a USB first. I have a 64bit one that I use for such things. I will also take into consideration your above suggestion of Carbon Copy Cloner or the SuperDuper should I be able to do something about this situation. I need to first do some investigation into these programs first like I usually do before I install anything onto my Mac. See, this is what I should have done BEFORE I installed Yosemite as well. Alas, I trusted Apple and installed their upgrade to Yosemite without a backward glance. Woe is me... Thank you for all your help and suggestions. Hopefully my Mac and I will be happy once again...

 

[rubaiyat]

I keep copies of all my major installers, having 30 years of experience of Apple.

How I would get it to you I don't know, and brings you back to the same concern if you have one.

Apple gives their Systems away these days, so as long as you install onto sanctioned hardware there is no problem.

Try Apple first, with luck they may help.

Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper both make perfect bootable copies of your drives and should be a permanent part of your rescue/maintenance set-up. You will need to make a bootable version of your current installation, because there will inevitably be something you missed and need to go back for. Particularly as Apple makes it extraordinarily difficult to transfer even simple data and have it still work.

You will need to completely wipe your hard drive to install an older OS, something Apple also makes extraordinarily difficult. Once your installation is gone, its gone!

I just had another thought. Make this multi-step. Install Mavericks onto an external Hard Drive first then use that for a while before making the next step of getting rid of the internal installed Yosemite and replacing it with what you have on the external hard drive. A sort of reverse procedure for what I normally do for upgrades

 

[Rhonnies]

How about this question???
I have a friend with a MBP (early 2013) with Mavericks factory installed and hasn't upgraded to Yosemite. Would I somehow be able to get a copy cloned from her machine? If so, would I be able to put that onto my 64GB USB and boot my MBP with it? Would that be more safe?
What you are saying is... Download Mavericks on USB and install it on my machine (via this Torrent) and load it on my Mac. Use it for a bit to make sure it is good and then do away with Yosemite? Just to be clear?

 

[rubaiyat]

May I suggest you buy a WD Passport HDD (because they are the best) and install a bootable version of OSX (whatever version suits you) and use that to hold all your Installers of all software and your purchases, serial numbers etc.

That then will serve you in good stead in the future. If you had that it would let you get back without problems, and I see too many cases of users losing serials, installers and most of the large amount of material they have paid for in cash or time along the way.

 

[rubaiyat]

How about this question???
I have a friend with a MBP (early 2013) with Mavericks factory installed and hasn't upgraded to Yosemite. Would I somehow be able to get a copy cloned from her machine? If so, would I be able to put that onto my 64GB USB and boot my MBP with it?

The problem with that is that you would get all her files, Apple I.D. and installation.

It would be a fiddle but at some point when she is doing an upgrade get her to grab the Installer which temporarily sits in the Application folder before being removed at the end of the installation.

It may be possible to grab that Installer by using her Mac to install OSX 10.9.4 onto your external hard drive. I do worry though that Apple will grab her information still in the process and then you will be trying to shake that off your System.

Best will be if Apple lets you have a Mavericks Installer direct from their server. I'd happily give you mine but it is big and don't know how I would get it to you.

If I created a Torrent with my copy would that help? I could mark it so you would know which it was.

 

[Rhonnies]

That is wonderful that you would be so generous! I only wish I wasn't so foolish. I know better than to not back up my system!! This is my own fault. I thank you for all your comments and kind words. You were not critical of me in the least. I have purchased a WD Passport for Mac (as posted in my first post) and I have every box (including the original box my Mac came in), receipts, serial number, boxes for Word for Mac etc. Ha, Ha, trust me... nothing is thrown out when it comes to my software or important stuff. I have passwords, etc stored in an important, secure place when I need them. Which is why I am so disappointed in myself for not backing up my system properly and being in this situation in the first place.

 

[Slydude]

I can't in good conscience recommend using a torrent to get a copy of Mavericks, First off it is a violation of the license agreement to use those versions of the software. Second, pirated/torrented software has been a source of some of the malware floating around these days. Since this site follows US copyright law I suggest we go no farther down the OS torrent roald.

@Rhonnies I don't know if the following will work since Mavericks was initially on the Mac and not purchased but give it a try:

1. Log into the Mac App store (not iTunes store) using your account
2. Go to the Purchases tab and see if Mavericks is there. It is for me. If it is you should be able to download the file.and put it on a USB drive.
3. Let us know if the file is there and we can advise about next steps.

 

[Rhonnies]

Slydude... Yes, it is there when I go to purchases. There is a button that says DOWNLOAD
I read here in these forums that someone had tried to download from there and they weren't able to download it so I never tried afraid to mess up my Mac. They had stated that it failed. My Mac came installed with it so I had been quite surprised to see a download button there.

 

[rubaiyat]

You assume that Rhonnies is in the USA (actually says he is in Canada). He maybe somewhere where the citizens and pixels roam free .

I very much doubt that anyone would spend the time and effort in altering an OSX Installer and correcting its checksums.

Further the licence agreement prohibits the use of the Installer on non-Apple hardware and that clearly is not the case here.

Again I may be wrong, but the App Store installs software and will not downgrade an OS, it is one of those long standing Apple Catch 22s.

Even if it did allow the installation, which I very much doubt, Rhonnies would lose everything. Particularly the hard to transfer libraries which wouldn't open in the older version anyway.

 

[rubaiyat]

Slydude... Yes, it is there when I go to purchases. There is a button that says DOWNLOAD
I read here in these forums that someone had tried to download from there and they weren't able to download it so I never tried afraid to mess up my Mac. They had stated that it failed. My Mac came installed with it so I had been quite surprised to see a download button there.

Do the backups suggested and give the App Store a try, but I'd put big bucks on it simply refusing to install.

But go to Polo Park first and ask. Just be cautious, the Geniuses are not all cut out for Nobel Prizes. I've met a few who knew a lot less than me, and being young sometimes are only up to date with recent Apple systems. Ask them to double check, it is your system.

 

[Slydude]

I think the following will work to get you where you want to go. Other members can verify whether the steps work before you start. Here's an example of how it can be done. The directions look daunting but aren't bad taken step-by-step.

 

[Csmac]

I could be wrong here, but my understanding if you load someone else's clone on your machine it will boot, but their data and more importantly their Apple ID. That will mean that you will not be able to update your machine with your own Apple ID. If you find a Mavericks installer that is not the latest one then after you install it on a clean harddrive as suggested, just download the 10.9.5 Combo Update from Apple support downloads to get all the essentials up to date and then any other updates the Apple updater suggests. Be sure to do all the backups etc. that have already been suggested on this forum before you do any installs.

 

[Rhonnies]

Ha, ha rubaiyat... thanks for being so observant. Just so you know, he is a she by the way. I think I may just go to Polo Park for it is the only Apple Store here (unfortunately). Do you live here also? How do you know of Polo Park? I purchased my Mac at an authorized dealer which I am not so sure I am allowed to mention the name here but I purchased 3 years of warranty and specialized extended Apple care (Geek Squad). I read Slydudes post and it does sound rather daunting although it is something I totally would love to do, but not with MY Mac.

 

[Rhonnies]

Thank you Slydude for your suggestion. I read the example and I think I may take it to the Apple store for them to help me in case I ruin my machine. It was way to costly for me to make any mistakes. I think I am capable, but not completely confident. I would love to be able to practice on something first before but since that isn't an option, I will put my faith in the trusty hands of the Apple Genius Bar people. They are slightly more knowledgeable than I.

 

[Slydude]

The process looks worse than it is. It covers situations where someone has a backup and situations where one doesn't have a backup. If you make a full backup of the Yosemite install first you can always revert to it if Mavericks doesn't install properly.

 

[Rhonnies]

Yes, I read through it fully, and do understand it. I am just a little nervous. I think that is normal.