Downgrade from Yosemite to Mavericks Guide
Many Mac users have upgraded from OS X 10.9 Mavericks to OS X 10.10 Yosemite when it was released in October 2014. Without doubt, Yosemite is compatible with iMac, MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac Mini, Mac Pro and Xserve. It definitely provides a better user experience for all Mac users. However, things don’t work out so well for some people. Some Mac users experienced an important work program crashes after the upgrade. This is a horrible nightmare if things don’t work out like before or an important feature you often used is missing in your computer. You are now anxious and you go to the App Store wanted to downgrade from Yosemite to Mavericks but Mavericks was removed.
Well, there is nothing to worry because you can learn how to downgrade from OS X Yosemite back to OS X Mavericks with a detail step by step guide here. Before you begin, it is a must to understand that it is not an easy job to downgrade or revert to OS X Mavericks from Yosemite. But if you spend some time, say half an hour for beginner, you can definitely do it without the need of any extra computer knowledge.
How to Downgrade from Yosemite to Mavericks
Ninety percent of Mac users do not have a complete copy of Mavericks Time Machine before they upgrade to Yosemite. Congratulations if you are the ten percent of Mac users who often backup Time Machine of your OS X. You can simply restore it anytime you feel like to downgrade or revert your OS X by using the “Restore From Time Machine Backup” under the OS X Utilities menu. Follow the step by step guide to downgrade from Yosemite OS X to Mavericks OS X if you don’t have any Time Machine backup. This is a free method and you don’t have to spend a single dime.
Step 1: Backup. First, backup all your files in your Yosemite to an external hard disk, Dropbox or Google Drive. This is a must because you will delete everything in your computer in the next few steps. Backup also all the programs installed in your Mac. Write down those programs or apps you can’t backup. You can reinstall it after downgraded to Mavericks.
Step 2: Download OS X 10.9 Mavericks. Sign in to App Store and click Purchases to download Mavericks. The account you sign in must have Mavericks in the download history.
Step 3: Create Mac OS X Mavericks Bootable Drive. You will need to create a bootable Mavericks drive using a USB drive, thumb drive, USB stick, SSD or a clean external hard drive as long as it has at least 6GB of space. This can be done by using a third-party software called Lion DiskMaker. Connect your USB drive to your mac and use Lion DiskMaker to copy Mavericks.app to your USB drive from your main Applications folder (/Applications).
Step 4: Downgrade from Yosemite to Mavericks. Shut down your Mac and plug in the Mavericks USB bootable drive. Hold the Alt key and startup your Mac. Select USB Flast Drive Volume and go to Utilities -> Disk Utility.
Step 5: On the sidebar, select main Volume and click Erase. This is very important because it expunges everything on your Mac and will revert it to Mavericks from Yosemite. Click Disk Utility -> Quit Disk Utility -> Continue to install Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks. Give it a few minutes and you can downgrade from Yosemite to Mavericks successfully.
See also: RageBreak to jailbreak iOS 7 and steps to download Cydia.
Don’t Do While Downgrading from Yosemite to Mavericks
There are a few things you can’t do while reverting to Mavericks from Yosemite.
- Do NOT go to the App Store and install Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks although you have paid for it.
- Do NOT boot into Recovery Mode and reinstall your OS X. This will only reinstall the Mac OS X Yosemite to the latest version which is 10.10.3 (released April 8, 2015).
To get free iOS apps: Kuaiyong and AppCake.
Advice before Upgrading to Yosemite from Mavericks
Lately, we have seen even more people upgraded from Mavericks to OS X 10.10.3 Yosemite when it was released in April 2015. It is highly recommended to backup Mac OS X Mavericks using Time Machine before you upgrade to Mac OS X Yosemite. You can do this on an external hard drive. Make sure the Time Machine backup of Mavericks is complete and working.
With all the advice from Mac users, you should consider properly before upgrading from Mavericks to Yosemite otherwise you will need at least an hour to downgrade from Yosemite to Mavericks with the free guide above.