Reverting from macOS Sonoma back to Ventura

[Len Walther]

If anyone plans to upgrade to macOS Sonoma, and thinks they might have to revert back to macOS Ventura, then, I have some advice for you.

Apple released major security updates on 9/7/23, which included macOS Ventura v13.5.2.  Apple makes it easy to download their CURRENT installer.   However, if you need the installer for a previous macOS version, Apple makes it very difficult.  You would have to know a website that has links to the macOS App store, where they will likely exist.

I just avoided this problem, by going to the Mac App Store, and searching for macOS Ventura.   I then downloaded this very large installer, for v13.5.2 quit it, after it launched, and immediately made a backup copy to an external drive.

I plan to upgrade to iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 right away.   However, I'll wait awhile, before I take the leap to Sonoma.   I want to be able to revert, should I have to.

BTW, Take Control Books has released their new ebooks for the new OS's, and I bought them.

Len W.

[Charles Gousha]

Some things to remember:

1) You cannot DOWNgrade from Sonoma to Ventura. You must install a fresh copy of the MacOS.

This isn’t a problem, as long as you have a copy of the installer. (See Len’s comments!)

On your current Mac, you can add an APFS partition to your existing drive without interfering with your current boot partition.

See Apple’s page on creating new APFS partitions.

2) If you find a source for previous installers, you can save the installer for use later on.

Beware — they’re big!  These days a full installer runs around 10 GB.

These should be OK to use for 5-10 years, until Apple makes newer security validations incompatible with these older installers.

See Apple’s page on downloading the installer. This has links from Ventura, back through High Sierra!

Note that you may need to hunt down exactly WHERE the installer is downloaded, and move it to a different folder, so that it isn’t automatically deleted by the OS later.

3) If you want to be really savvy (or you’re needing to do lots of installations), you can make a Bootable Installer, similar to the old Installer DVDs, on a USB thumb stick:

See Apple’s page on creating a Bootable Installer

Charles Gousha   leader - Silicon Valley Mac User Group

http://www.svmug.org

User group meetings 7pm, third Monday of each month

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[Len Walther]

Charles, thanks for the valuable links.  One describes adding another volume to an APFS Container.   You describe this Volume as a Partition.   However, I thought that am  APFS Container was the Partition..  Could you clarify, please?

Len W.

[Charles Gousha]

Yah, sorry about that.  I should have said “Volume” not “Partition”.  Old habits die hard.

The old (HFS+) world uses static partitions on the drive. APFS uses dynamic volumes within a single partition. The idea is to create a new bootable volume within your main drive, and let APFS handle any data rearrangements, so there’s no manual re-partitioning needed.

Charles Gousha   leader - Silicon Valley Mac User Group
http://www.svmug.org
User group meetings 7pm, third Monday of each month

On Sep 18, 2023, at 4:05 PM, 'Len Walther' via SVMUG <sv...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Charles, thanks for the valuable links.  One describes adding another volume to an APFS Container.   You describe this Volume as a Partition.   However, I thought that an APFS Container was the Partition..  Could you clarify, please?

Len W.

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[Len Walther]

Thanks, Charles!  On 9/21, macOS Ventura 13.6 was released, and I installed it.   Then, I downloaded the full Installer from the Mac App Store.   Your link to the Apple Support Site, on how to use the Terminal to create a bootable install disk was most helpful.  I very rarely use the Terminal, but I successfully got through the procedure.  I put the full macOS installer back into the Applications folder.  I figured out that my 2 years old 64 GB Sandisk flash drive, which came formatted as Master Boot Record, didn't need to be reformatted first, and that it's NO NAME title wouldn't work, due to the space.  In the Terminal, despite the prompt, it didn't like Y, had to use y (lower case).  On my Intel Mac, I held down the Option key on reboot, selected the new bootable flash drive, then selected my network, entered my network password, and it booted into Recovery OS, with one of the four choices being Install macOS Ventura.  Bingo!   I will still wait awhile, before installing macOS Sonoma.   However, I might try adding a second APFS Volume within the same APFS container, and install macOS Sonoma on that, as a test.  Both OS versions will use the same Data volume in the Container.

Len W.