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Last week i upgraded to the latest macOS Sonoma beta, and i found it hard to use, so I plan to downgrade my MacBook Pro back to macOS Monterey.
I know that reinstalling macOS does not delete any of my data, so is it possible that I create a bootable usb with macOS Monterey and reinstall macOS monterey with that usb stick and successfully complete the downgrade?
MacBook Pro 13″
Posted on Sep 15, 2023 1:50 AM
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User profile for user: Community User
Community User Author
Posted on Sep 15, 2023 2:21 AM
So will rebooting into the macOS Monterey bootable USB work? because i only intend on going into reovery mode and using the reinstall macos monterey function, and not erasing the disk.
(just trying to make sure because i have a lot of important stuff on my Macbook)
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User profile for user: Community User
Community User Author
Sep 15, 2023 2:21 AM in response to ku4hx
So will rebooting into the macOS Monterey bootable USB work? because i only intend on going into reovery mode and using the reinstall macos monterey function, and not erasing the disk.
(just trying to make sure because i have a lot of important stuff on my Macbook)
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User profile for user: Servant of Cats 
User level: Level5 6,662 points
Sep 15, 2023 3:05 AM in response to Community User
You can't downgrade macOS in place. The only way to do a downgrade is with a clean install. That is, installing onto an erased disk.
Obviously if you erase your current Sonoma startup drive, you'll erase any data on it as well. You would need to make backups of your data BEFORE doing the downgrade, and restore data from backups AFTERWARDS. Even then, you might find that Sonoma had made changes to things like Photos / Music / TV libraries – changes which Monterey did not understand. (I don't know that there will have been such changes in this case, but Apple does change the formats of photo and media libraries from time to time.)
Another possibility might be to install Monterey on a different drive from the Sonoma beta.
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User level: Level7 23,410 points
Sep 15, 2023 2:11 AM in response to Community User
Here's the process: Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support
The bootable flash drive is used to install a fresh OS after erasing the drive. Erasing removes everything.
The first release of Sonoma is scheduled to be in 11 days. I suggest you just wait and get the release version.
Of course if you're confident you can perform the evolution and have good backups, you can remove Somoma now and replace it with whatever OS is appropriate.
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User level: Level7 23,410 points
Sep 15, 2023 3:35 AM in response to Community User
It will allow you to open Utilities, erase the drive and install a fresh OS. Notice again, the erase part.
You have your answer. What remains is for you to take the bold step to erase and install like you took the bold step to install a Beta OS version.
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User profile for user: Shay_Marc 
User level: Level1 0 points
Jan 17, 2024 1:37 PM in response to Community User
Backup data restart your mac and click Shift Option Command R on bootup and you will se macOS Monteray Ventura or older (NOTE this does not work on 2023 macbooks
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Downgrading macOS
