General Question

marmoset's avatar

Mac OS Yosemite: downgrade a new-to-me machine to Mavericks?

Asked by marmoset (1341points) December 28th, 2014

I was offered a nice deal on a used Mac that has a fresh install of Yosemite.

Unfortunately there’s an app I MUST use on this machine that seems to not be Yosemite compatible and is no longer updated by its mfr (it’s known-good under Mavericks).

The instructions for downgrading that I can find online assume that you had a machine with a Mavericks installation and you’re now trying to downgrade back to that Mavericks installation.

Is there a way I can take a new-to-me machine with Yosemite and install Mavericks on it? I haven’t bought this used Mac yet but I would like to if the answer is yes.

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11 Answers

marmoset's avatar

Thanks but that’s an example of what I can’t use—it says ” To downgrade back to OS X Mavericks from Yosemite, you absolutely must have a recent Time Machine backup made from OS X Mavericks – this is not optional using this specific technique.”

jaytkay's avatar

Instead of wiping out the Yosemite install, I would run a separate copy of Mavericks in a virtual machine.

VirtualBox is free software for doing that.

This page has instructions for creating a Maverick virtual machine on a Windows computer, but mostly it would apply to Mac OS, too.

How to install OS X Mavericks in Virtualbox with Niresh

funkdaddy's avatar

If you can find anyone who has a copy of Mavericks in their app store (basically anyone who used it) then you can make a bootable USB stick from that.

http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

I wouldn’t downgrade, even if you could. It never seems to work out quite as advertised and probably better to just start fresh.

Response moderated (Unhelpful)
marmoset's avatar

Wow, thank you, I had not thought about running a VM. The virtualbox site only shows screenshots of the VMs running in small windows—I assume they also could run fullscreen or nearly fullscreen if you want?

jaytkay's avatar

Yes, you can run the VM full-screen.

I forgot to mention – is your application for video? Because Virtualbox emulates a low-end video card. I wouldn’t use it for an audio or video application.

marmoset's avatar

Oof, thank you for letting me know—no special graphics demands, but it is a moderately processor-intensive audio app. :(

jaytkay's avatar

It would be worth some Googling to see if others have tried it. The VM gets real access to the processor. That’s not emulated. The video is.

marmoset's avatar

Cool, thank you.

marmoset's avatar

This is now resolved because I found a better deal on a machine with Mavericks, but I really appreciate the help (and may check out virtualbox for other needs later).

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