{"id":2174,"date":"2021-10-29T10:03:29","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T10:03:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iseepassword.com\/blog\/?p=2174"},"modified":"2023-10-10T10:49:44","modified_gmt":"2023-10-10T10:49:44","slug":"how-to-downgrade-from-macos-big-sur-to-catalina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iseepassword.com\/blog\/how-to-downgrade-from-macos-big-sur-to-catalina\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Downgrade from macOS Big Sur to Catalina"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_69_1 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.iseepassword.com\/blog\/how-to-downgrade-from-macos-big-sur-to-catalina\/#How_to_Downgrade_from_macOS_Big_Sur_to_Catalina\" title=\"How to Downgrade from macOS Big Sur to Catalina\">How to Downgrade from macOS Big Sur to Catalina<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.iseepassword.com\/blog\/how-to-downgrade-from-macos-big-sur-to-catalina\/#Restore_Data_from_Backup\" title=\"Restore Data from Backup\">Restore Data from Backup<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Have you upgraded your macOS recently to Big Sur and started facing issues? Well, downgrading to Catalina from Big Sur can be a solution for you. If this is what you want to do, but not sure how to do it, don\u2019t worry. We have created this step-by-step guide on how to downgrade from macOS Big Sur to Catalina just for these times.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\"><strong><b>Why should You Downgrade from macOS Big Sur to Catalina?<\/b><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">There can be a number of reasons why you would want to downgrade from Big Sur to Catalina. Maybe you installed Big Sur on an unsupported Mac and now facing performance issues, or maybe the genuine upgrade didn\u2019t happen properly. In any case, now that you are sure that you would want to downgrade your Mac from Big Sur to Catalina, just follow the steps below and you would do fine.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\"><strong><b>Backup Your Mac<\/b><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">The first thing before starting with the downgrade process is to backup your Mac. Here\u2019s how you can do it:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2192\" src=\"https:\/\/www.iseepassword.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/how-to-back-up-mac_3.jpg\" alt=\"back up mac\" width=\"607\" height=\"414\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.iseepassword.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/how-to-back-up-mac_3.jpg 1336w, https:\/\/www.iseepassword.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/how-to-back-up-mac_3-300x205.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.iseepassword.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/how-to-back-up-mac_3-1024x699.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.iseepassword.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/how-to-back-up-mac_3-768x524.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.iseepassword.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/how-to-back-up-mac_3-218x150.jpg 218w, https:\/\/www.iseepassword.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/how-to-back-up-mac_3-696x475.jpg 696w, https:\/\/www.iseepassword.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/how-to-back-up-mac_3-1068x729.jpg 1068w, https:\/\/www.iseepassword.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/how-to-back-up-mac_3-615x420.jpg 615w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 607px) 100vw, 607px\" \/><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Insert an external HDD with ample free space in your Mac.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Head over to System Preferences by pressing the Apple logo.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Press the Time Machine logo.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Press Select Backup Disk to choose the external HDD, then press Use Disk.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Select Backup Automatically checkbox and that should start the backup process.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\"><strong><b>Erase Your Mac before Downgrading macOS Big Sur<\/b><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">In order to downgrade from macOSBig Sur to Catalina, you need to erase the internal HDD of your Mac first. This is not directly useful in installing Catalina, however, if you have a faulty installation where Big Sur was not installed properly, this would definitely be a life changer. To do this, simply follow the instructions below:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2194\" src=\"https:\/\/www.iseepassword.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/select_reinstall_system.jpg\" alt=\"reinstall macOS\" width=\"594\" height=\"444\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.iseepassword.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/select_reinstall_system.jpg 594w, https:\/\/www.iseepassword.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/select_reinstall_system-300x224.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.iseepassword.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/select_reinstall_system-80x60.jpg 80w, https:\/\/www.iseepassword.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/select_reinstall_system-265x198.jpg 265w, https:\/\/www.iseepassword.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/select_reinstall_system-562x420.jpg 562w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 594px) 100vw, 594px\" \/><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Shut down your Mac devices and then restart it.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Once it starts to reboot, press and keep pressing the Cmd, and R keys on your keyboard all at once.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Once the Mac restarts (which might take some time now), you\u2019ll see a macOS Utilities windows, from here press Reinstall macOS, then press Continue.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Follow the instructions on the screen, select your startup disk, then press Install.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Once the process completes move to the next steps as listed in the below section.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_to_Downgrade_from_macOS_Big_Sur_to_Catalina\"><\/span><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\"><strong><b>How to Downgrade from macOS Big Sur to Catalina<\/b><\/strong><\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Method 1. Downgrade to macOS Catalina via Time Machine Backup<\/span><\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">If you have created a backup before installing Big Sur using Time Machine, you can use that to install Catalina on your Mac. Here\u2019s how you can do it:<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Plug in the external HDD where you had created the backup and restart the Mac3<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">While the Mac is rebooting, press Cmd and R keys together.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">\u00a0The macOS Utilities screen will pop up once again. Press Restore From Time Machine Backup and then press Continue.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Press Continue once again, then choose the backup that you would like to restore.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Keep following the instructions on the screen and you should have a downgraded Mac with Catalina installed in it.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Method 2. Downgrade to macOS Catalina in macOS Recovery mode<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">If you do not have a backup created using Time Machine, this method can help you in that case.<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Connect an external HDD\/USB flash drive with 12GB of free space to create a bootable media<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Go to Finder, then Application, then to Utilities, finally open Disk Utility.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Choose your external drive from the list on the left side below External, then press Erase at top.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">From Format, choose HFS+ or APFS depending on which file system you would like to choose for your external drive.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Press Erase, and then press Done when the process is completed.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Next, you need to create the installer. You can do that by typing the below command at a Terminal and pressing Enter. Ensure that you replace MyVolume at the end of the command with the name of your external HDD .\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\"><strong>sudo \/Applications\/Install macOS Catalina.app\/Contents\/Resources\/createinstallmedia &#8211;volume \/Volumes\/MyVolume<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">You have to enter your Administrator password now, and then press Y, finally press Return. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Once the process is completed, eject the external HDD after pressing Done.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Now, reboot your Mac and press and hold down the Cmd and R keys on your keyboard.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Now press Disk Utility, then Continue, then Startup Disk, finally press Erase to clean format your internal HDD on your Mac.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Choose HFS+ or APFS and confirm.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Once done, connect the external HDD and restart your Mac<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Press down the Option button while it reboots.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Next, select the external HDD, press Continue and keep following the instructions on the screen to install Catalina on your Mac.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Restore_Data_from_Backup\"><\/span><strong><b>Restore Data from Backup<\/b><\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Once you have downgraded to Catalina, you might consider restoring the data that you had backed up earlier. Here\u2019s what you can do:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Go to Finder, then Application, then to Utilities, finally select Migration Assistant. Then press Continue.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Next, choose the option From a Mac, Time machine backup or Startup Disk, then press Continue.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Choose the stuff that you would like to restore and press Continue.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Finally, press Continue to start the restoring process. Wasn\u2019t that simple!<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">This article was written to help you downgrade from macOS Big Sur to Catalina. Hope this helped you resolve the issues you were facing with your copy of Big Sur.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you upgraded your macOS recently to Big Sur and started facing issues? Well, downgrading to Catalina from Big Sur can be a solution for you. If this is what you want to do, but not sure how to do it, don\u2019t worry. We have created this step-by-step guide on how to downgrade from macOS [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":11772,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mac-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iseepassword.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iseepassword.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iseepassword.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iseepassword.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iseepassword.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2174"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.iseepassword.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11779,"href":"https:\/\/www.iseepassword.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2174\/revisions\/11779"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iseepassword.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iseepassword.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iseepassword.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iseepassword.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}