So, you’ve decided to download an older version of Mac OS X. There are many reasons that could point you to this radical decision. To begin with, some of your apps may not be working properly (or simply crash) on newer operating systems. Also, you may have noticed your Mac’s performance went down right after the last update. Finally, if you want to run a parallel copy of Mac OS X on a virtual machine, you too will need a working installation file of an older Mac OS X. Further down we’ll explain where to get one and what problems you may face down the road.

1. Mac Os Encrypt External Drive
2. Install Older Mac Os On External Drive Windows 7
3. Mac Os Catalina
4. Install Older Mac Os On External Drive Windows 10

The final product will be Windows running natively on your mac from an external drive. The older guides diverge. Plugin the drive and head once. From the drive we need to install Windows in. Nov 29, 2017  STEP 3. Install older OS X onto an external drive. The following method allows you to download Mac OS X Lion, Mountain Lion, and Mavericks. Start your Mac holding down Command + R. Prepare a clean external drive (at least 10 GB of storage). Within OS X Utilities, choose Reinstall OS X. Select external drive as a source. Enter your Apple ID.

A list of all Mac OS X versions

We’ll be repeatedly referring to these Apple OS versions below, so it’s good to know the basic macOS timeline.

STEP 1. Prepare your Mac for installation

Given your Mac isn’t new and is filled with data, you will probably need enough free space on your Mac. This includes not just space for the OS itself but also space for other applications and your user data. One more argument is that the free space on your disk translates into virtual memory so your apps have “fuel” to operate on. The chart below tells you how much free space is needed.

Note, that it is recommended that you install OS on a clean drive. Next, you will need enough disk space available, for example, to create Recovery Partition. Here are some ideas to free up space on your drive:

• Uninstall large unused apps
• Empty Trash Bin and Downloads
• Locate the biggest files on your computer:

Go to Finder > All My Files > Arrange by size
Then you can move your space hoggers onto an external drive or a cloud storage.
If you aren’t comfortable with cleaning the Mac manually, there are some nice automatic “room cleaners”. Our favorite is CleanMyMac as it’s most simple to use of all. It deletes system junk, old broken apps, and the rest of hidden junk on your drive.

Download CleanMyMac for OS 10.4 - 10.8 (free version)

Download CleanMyMac for OS 10.9 (free version)

Download CleanMyMac for OS 10.10 - 10.14 (free version)

STEP 2. Get a copy of Mac OS X download

Normally, it is assumed that updating OS is a one-way road. That’s why going back to a past Apple OS version is problematic. The main challenge is to download the OS installation file itself, because your Mac may already be running a newer version. If you succeed in downloading the OS installation, your next step is to create a bootable USB or DVD and then reinstall the OS on your computer.

How to download older Mac OS X versions via the App Store

If you once had purchased an old version of Mac OS X from the App Store, open it and go to the Purchased tab. There you’ll find all the installers you can download. However, it doesn’t always work that way. The purchased section lists only those operating systems that you had downloaded in the past. But here is the path to check it:

1. Click the App Store icon.
2. Click Purchases in the top menu.
3. Scroll down to find the preferred OS X version.
4. Click Download.

This method allows you to download Mavericks and Yosemite by logging with your Apple ID — only if you previously downloaded them from the Mac App Store.

Without App Store: Download Mac OS version as Apple Developer

If you are signed with an Apple Developer account, you can get access to products that are no longer listed on the App Store. If you desperately need a lower OS X version build, consider creating a new Developer account among other options. The membership cost is $99/year and provides a bunch of perks unavailable to ordinary users.

Nevertheless, keep in mind that if you visit developer.apple.com/downloads, you can only find 10.3-10.6 OS X operating systems there. Newer versions are not available because starting Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.7, the App Store has become the only source of updating Apple OS versions.

Purchase an older version of Mac operating system

Mac Os Encrypt External Drive

You can purchase a boxed or email version of past Mac OS X directly from Apple. Both will cost you around $20. For the reason of being rather antiquated, Snow Leopard and earlier Apple versions can only be installed from DVD.

Buy a boxed edition of Snow Leopard 10.6
Get an email copy of Lion 10.7
Get an email copy of Mountain Lion 10.8

The email edition comes with a special download code you can use for the Mac App Store. Note, that to install the Lion or Mountain Lion, your Mac needs to be running Snow Leopard so you can install the newer OS on top of it.

How to get macOS El Capitan download

Install Older Mac Os On External Drive Windows 7

If you are wondering if you can run El Capitan on an older Mac, rejoice as it’s possible too. But before your Mac can run El Capitan it has to be updated to OS X 10.6.8. So, here are main steps you should take:

1. Install Snow Leopard from install DVD.
2. Update to 10.6.8 using Software Update.
3. Download El Capitan here.

“I can’t download an old version of Mac OS X”

If you have a newer Mac, there is no physical option to install Mac OS versions older than your current Mac model. For instance, if your MacBook was released in 2014, don’t expect it to run any OS released prior of that time, because older Apple OS versions simply do not include hardware drivers for your Mac.

But as it often happens, workarounds are possible. There is still a chance to download the installation file if you have an access to a Mac (or virtual machine) running that operating system. For example, to get an installer for Lion, you may ask a friend who has Lion-operated Mac or, once again, set up a virtual machine running Lion. Then you will need to prepare an external drive to download the installation file using OS X Utilities.

After you’ve completed the download, the installer should launch automatically, but you can click Cancel and copy the file you need. Below is the detailed instruction how to do it.

STEP 3. Install older OS X onto an external drive

Mac Os Catalina

The following method allows you to download Mac OS X Lion, Mountain Lion, and Mavericks.

1. Start your Mac holding down Command + R.
2. Prepare a clean external drive (at least 10 GB of storage).
3. Within OS X Utilities, choose Reinstall OS X.
4. Select external drive as a source.
5. Enter your Apple ID.

Now the OS should start downloading automatically onto the external drive. After the download is complete, your Mac will prompt you to do a restart, but at this point, you should completely shut it down. Now that the installation file is “captured” onto your external drive, you can reinstall the OS, this time running the file on your Mac.

1. Boot your Mac from your standard drive.
2. Connect the external drive.
3. Go to external drive > OS X Install Data.

Locate InstallESD.dmg disk image file — this is the file you need to reinstall Lion OS X. The same steps are valid for Mountain Lion and Mavericks.

How to downgrade a Mac running later macOS versions

If your Mac runs macOS Sierra 10.12 or macOS High Sierra 10.13, it is possible to revert it to the previous system if you are not satisfied with the experience. You can do it either with Time Machine or by creating a bootable USB or external drive.
Instruction to downgrade from macOS Sierra

Instruction to downgrade from macOS High Sierra

Instruction to downgrade from macOS Mojave

Instruction to downgrade from macOS Catalina

Before you do it, the best advice is to back your Mac up so your most important files stay intact. In addition to that, it makes sense to clean up your Mac from old system junk files and application leftovers. The easiest way to do it is to run CleanMyMac X on your machine (download it for free here).

Visit your local Apple Store to download older OS X version

If none of the options to get older OS X worked, pay a visit to nearest local Apple Store. They should have image installations going back to OS Leopard and earlier. You can also ask their assistance to create a bootable USB drive with the installation file. So here you are. We hope this article has helped you to download an old version of Mac OS X. Below are a few more links you may find interesting.

These might also interest you:

Do you find macOS Mojave a bit too much and therefore want to downgrade? Is your Mac a bit slow or are you having problems with your apps? Or are you having some issues with your current macOS? Reinstalling macOS is often the last resort for fixing software issues on Mac.

This article will show the step-by-step process of how to clean install macOS on your Mac. Whether you need to download and clean install High Sierra, Sierra, El Capitan, Yosemite, or an earlier version of OS X, this guide got you covered. We’ll start by showing you how to clean install macOS Mojave, the latest version of macOS, before moving on the more complicated business of installing an earlier version of macOS or OS X.

What You Will Need

To reinstall macOS, you need a removable flash drive with at least 15GB of free storage to make a bootable USB on Mac. This is where you’ll save the installer file for your preferred version of macOS. Make sure that there is no important data on the drive because we’re going to erase it for this purpose.

Another thing you need to take care of before reinstalling your macOS is your backup. In case something goes wrong, at least you saved your important data. When backing up your files, clean out your junk first by using an app such as Tweakbit MacRepair. It deletes all the unnecessary files so you don’t have to carry them over to your freshly installed macOS.

To create a backup of your data using Time Machine, follow these steps:

• Connect an external hard disk to your Mac using a USB cable, FireWire or Thunderbolt cable.
• Click the Apple icon located in the top left corner of your screen.
• Choose System Preferences > Time Machine.
• Turn on Time Machine by moving the slider to On.
• Click Select Backup Disk and choose the external drive you want to use for your backup.
• The external drive will be formatted, and the backup process will start in a few minutes.

Downloading and reinstalling your macOS is a simple process, but take note that every time you make important changes to your Mac, you risk problems that may cause you to lose your data. So before you do anything else, make sure your data is secured. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

Once you have your USB drive and backup taken care of, then you’re ready to clean install your new macOS.

Step 1: Format the USB drive.

You need to re-download the installer file for your chosen macOS and save it on your USB flash drive. So the first thing you need to do is format the drive as a Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume with a GUID Partition Table. Make sure there are no important files or data on the drive because everything will be erased.

To format your drive, follow these steps:

• Head to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.
• Choose your USB drive and click Erase.
• Rename your USB Drive to Untitled.
• Choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as the format type. For Macs running High Sierra or Mojave, choose APFS from the options.
• Select GUID Partition Map under the Scheme options.
• Click Erase. This may take a couple of minutes, depending on how big your flash storage is.
• Click Done.

Step 2: Re-download your chosen macOS installer file.

If you’re re-installing Mojave, all you need to do is search for it at the Mac App Store. Just click Download or Get, depending on the Mac App Store version you are using. If you get a warning message saying that this version of macOS is already installed on your computer and asking whether you want to continue, just hit Continue. Type in your Apple ID and password to proceed. The installer is a big file, so downloading it might take some time. macOS Mojave, for instance, is around 5.7GB.

Once the installer file has finished downloading, it will automatically launch. We don’t want it to run yet, so hit Command + Q to quit the installer.

Getting the installer file for older versions of macOS requires more work because Apple doesn’t offer downloads of old macOS versions on the Mac App Store, even if you search for them.

If you’re running macOS Mojave, you won’t be able to find older versions of macOS on your App Store no matter what you do. You need to find a computer running an older version of macOS and download the installer file from there. You can find the older macOS and OS X versions under the Purchased tab of the Mac App Store. You’ll be able to download these versions of macOS and OS X from here:

• OS X El Capitan
• OS X Yosemite
• OS X Mavericks
• OS X Mountain Lion
• OS X Lion

You’ll notice that Sierra and High Sierra are not included in this list, and that’s because Apple removed Sierra from the Purchased list when it introduced High Sierra in 2017. Fortunately, you can still download Sierra from this link as long as you’re using a non-Mojave Mac.

If you want to download High Sierra, you’ll have to download it from another computer that’s running an older version of macOS and copy it from there.

Step 3: Create a bootable USB on Mac.

The next step is to create a bootable USB disk that you will use to install a fresh copy of your macOS. You need to install macOS from USB, so you need to create a bootable drive, using the Terminal.

To make a bootable macOS install drive, follow these instructions:

Install Older Mac Os On External Drive Windows 10

• Launch Terminal by pressing Command + Space and typing Terminal in Spotlight. Or you can go to Finder > Go > Utilities > Terminal.
• Connect the formatted USB drive to your computer. Make sure the name of the drive is ‘Untitled’ for this to work. Rename the drive if necessary.
• Copy and paste this command into the Terminal:

sudo /Applications/Install macOS Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia –volume /Volumes/Untitled — /Applications/Install macOS Mojave.app

• Hit Return.
• Type in your password.
• This process can take a while, so be patient. When you see the word Done, this means that the bootable drive has been created.

Step 4: Install macOS from USB.

Now that your installer is ready, it’s time to install a fresh copy of your chosen macOS, using your installer drive. Follow these steps to reinstall macOS from your USB drive:

Connect your bootable drive to your Mac, then turn on your Mac or restart while holding down the Alt or Option button. This will open up the Startup Manager.

Choose to install your macOS from the external drive.

Click Disk Utility, choose your Mac’s hard drive, then hit Erase.

Go back to Startup Manager and click Install macOS.

This process will install your chosen macOS on your computer. Take note that all apps and data will be deleted from your Mac, so make sure that you have a backup of your files. The installation might take some time, so just wait.

Once the installation is finished, you can restore your apps, files and settings from your backup. Or if you want everything to be as good as new, download your apps again manually. This is recommended if you were having issues with your apps in your previous macOS.