Hi, in this episode, I'll go over how to get, direct from Apple,
old versions, of the following macOS:
macOS Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra,
Sierra, OS X El Capitan and Yosemite.
But, getting your hands, on official older versions of macOS, direct from Apple,
can be a bit of a challenge.
There're many reasons, why you might want to get an old version of macOS, for your Mac.
For example, in order to upgrade, downgrade,
or just because, you prefer a particular macOS over another.
And in most cases, it would be required, to create a bootable USB Mac installer,
in order to do a clean install, for your Mac.
Let me explain.
If you were currently running macOS Catalina or earlier, and the latest macOS, Big Sur was released.
Usually, a straight forward upgrade, is performed.
Where, after downloading the macOS Big Sur Installer,
you would automatically, be presented with the following screen,
to upgrade to the latest macOS version.
However, if you're currently running macOS Big Sur,
and wanted to downgrade, to say, macOS Mojave.
After downloading, macOS Mojave, you'll get the following message:
That your copy of macOS is too old, to be opened on this version of macOS.
You would therefore, need to create a bootable USB Mac installer, for macOS Mojave.
Straight to the demo.
Sooooo, Let's Get Started.
Apple offers,
two different formats and procedures,
for downloading certain old macOS installers.
The two formats are as follows:
Firstly; as an App installer and downloaded from the App Store, to your Applications folder.
The following macOS App installers, are available from the App Store, for:
macOS Catalina, macOS Mojave, and macOS High Sierra.
Secondly, as a Disk Image Installer and downloaded, as a dmg file,
to your Downloads folder.
And, the following Disk Image Installers,
named InstallOS.dmg & InstallMacOSX.dmg,
are available for the following:
macOS Sierra, OS X El Capitan, and OS X Yosemite.
As an example,
and,
currently running macOS Big Sur.
I'll go through the process, of downloading macOS Mojave, from the App Store,
and also downloading, the disk image installer for OS X El Capitan.
The process of downloading macOS Mojave, from the App Store, is very easy.
Using Safari,
simply click on or copy and paste the URL, in the Search bar.
You'll then be automatically connected to the App Store, to download macOS Mojave.
After clicking the Get button,
the download will begin and copied to the Applications folder.
Top Tip: If unsure that a particular macOS is compatible with your Mac,
simply click on the Get button, and, if it's not compatible with your Mac, you'll get the following message:
"The requested version of macOS is not available"
It should be noted, after the download is complete.
If the macOS that you're currently using, is greater than the macOS downloaded,
a pop-up window will indicate,
that the macOS is too old to be opened on this version of macOS.
Simply, click on the Quit button.
And not to worry, the macOS app installer, has already been downloaded, to the Applications folder,
as shown.
Now, in order to install macOS Mojave, a bootable USB Mac installer, has to be created.
I've included links, on how to create a bootable USB Mac installer,
for all, old macOS versions,
in the description below.
Moving on...
As for the disk image installer, just like before, click on or copy and paste the URL,
for OS X El Capitan, in Safari search bar.
Then, click on the allow button, and the disk image installer, will be downloaded to the Downloads folder.
Once downloaded, double click on the dmg file, and once again on the package file.
This will install the OS X El Capitan app installer, to the Applications Folder,
as shown.
I've included links, for all the macOS installers, in the description below,
along with links, for Mac hardware requirements,
for all, old macOS versions.
And that’s all there is to it.
Thanks for watching…
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Peace.