Summary: If you are unhappy with the latest macOS Mojave 10.14 and wish to downgrade to macOS High Sierra 10.13, then follow this blog religiously. Please note that you need to perform a few essential tasks in the downgrade process. You may even require a USB drive of at least 16 GB.
Before downgrading macOS Mojave, you must back up all the data; every single piece of your important files/folders to an external storage drive. The backup ensures you do not lose critical data due to complete drive erasure and subsequent installation of macOS High Sierra.
1st Way—Use macOS High Sierra That Was Shipped with Your Mac |
- Back up all the data from Mojave to an external SSD or HDD.
- Restart macOS Mojave 10.14 and instantly press and hold Command + R keys. Release the keys when apple logo appears. Your Mac will boot into Recovery Mode.
- On the “macOS Utilities” window, click “Reinstall macOS”. Carry out the on-screen instructions to initiate the reinstallation process.
- Allow the Mac to perform a complete factory reset. Once the reinstallation process is over, your Mac will boot into macOS High Sierra.
2nd Way—Use macOS High Sierra That You Backed Up with Time Machine |
- Boot your macOS into Recovery Mode.
- On the “macOS Utilities” window, choose “Restore from Time Machine Backup”.
- Select Time Machine backup drive or Time Capsule then select “Connect to Remote Disk”.
- Select the date and time from where you want to restore. Click Continue.
- Follow the instructions to complete the restoration process of macOS High Sierra.
Read More: Recover Mac Data without Time Machine Backup
3rd Way—Create macOS High Sierra Bootable Installer then Reinstall macOS
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- Open App Store, then download macOS High Sierra installer (which is around 5 GB).
- Quit the installer once it opens. Go to Application folder to find the Install macOS High Sierra app. Right click on it and select Show Package Contents. Go to Contents > Resources > createinstallmedia.
- Plug in a USB drive (at least 16 GB) to your Mac. Ensure it does not contain any valuable data; copy the data if necessary to an external storage medium to avoid data loss.
- Go to Applications > Utilities. Double-click Terminal to open the app.
- Type sudo <drag and drop the “create install media” icon to add its path> – –volume <drag and drop the USB drive from Desktop to add its path>
- Hit Return. Enter Admin Password. When prompted to erase the drive, type Y then hit Return. Wait till the Terminal displays Done, then quit Terminal.
Reinstall macOS High Sierra by Using the Bootable Installer
- Connect the USB drive with bootable macOS High Sierra installer.
- Restart the Mac and hold the Option Key.
- From the Select boot disk window, choose the macOS High Sierra installer. The process of installing High Sierra will begin. Mac will restart once the installation is over.
Conclusion
Hope, this blog helped you downgrade macOS Mojave to macOS high Sierra easily. Backup is the key to downgrade since it ensures no data is lost while the downgrade is done.
In case you have undergone data loss after macOS High Sierra downgrade, leverage the free trial version of Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac.
