Downgrading macOS, need your help.

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

I want to downgrade my m1 pro to Monterey and keep it there as long as possible, i don’t need the new stuff that is bloating the OS, i just need my daw and plugins to work reliably. What is the best way to do this (currently on ventura)

Okay so I literally just did this myself last night (only I was on the Sonoma beta and a lot of my programs no longer worked so I had to wipe my Mac to reinstall Monterey to get me back on release builds. Lesson learned always make backups before going into beta lmao) so here's what you do

1. Plug an external storage device and save anything you want to save. Photos, music, videos, important files, all onto that storage device, because what you're about to do is gonna wipe everything. You're wiping that Mac to zero so it has a clean install of macOS Monterey
2. Go into System Settings and General, then Transfer or Reset, then Erase All Content and Settings
   
3. After this, you will have wiped your Mac completely. Now it'll be time to reinstall the OS. But first, you will need to activate it. Connect your Mac to your wifi network or connect it with an ethernet cable. (If you cannot see a wifi symbol on the menu bar of the activation screen, erase your Mac again until you do.)
   
4. Now, restart, and while restarting hold the Power Button (which is the Touch ID key) down until you see "Loading Startup Options." From the Recovery app window, select Reinstall macOS Monterey, click Continue, then follow the onscreen instructions.

Annnnd that's pretty much it. Your Mac will have been completely wiped and you will have a fresh Monterey install with nothing on it.

 

[BrianBaughn]

So rephrasing the question, does the same happen with DAWs and plugins? Do things stop working so it’s common that producers stay three versions behind the latest macOS? Will your favorite compressor plug-in not launch? Will your audio interface bug out?

When a studio, home or otherwise, has a old working setup with multiple audio interfaces and everything wired to the back of a patchbay and/or console it is not uncommon for the computer to be for recording only. It may have morphed into that at one point but that's what it becomes.

Three versions behind? Ten year-old, or older, versions of macOS are probably being used in many places today. The expensive and still-working interfaces often become useless on newer Macs.

Just in the last couple of months a friend of mine, doing work for a musician/producer in Nashville, had to scramble to find him a used replacement Mac Pro from years back. Much easier and cheaper than spending three months rebuilding an entire physical setup. No learning curve for new software and previous sessions…from years back…load without issues once any authorizations of the software on the replacement computer are worked out.

 

[Fishrrman]

Brian wrote in #3 above:
"Pretty sure he can't recover a Ventura backup to a new Monterey installation."

There's a way around this.

Th OP could create a CLONED backup of his Ventura drive using SuperDuper (or CarbonCopyCloner). Both apps are FREE to use for 30 days, this will cost him nothing.

Then, erase and reinstall the OS on the internal SSD.

Then, try using setup assistant to restore. It MIGHT work from a cloned backup (even though it doesn't work for time machine).

BUT... even if the OP can't migrate from the cloned backup, there's "another way".

Because the backup IS "a clone" -- which is mountable right in the finder -- it's now possible to do a "manual migration".

NO... it's not going to be easy, and it's going to take time.
But... it CAN be done that way.

This depends on how badly the OP wants to "go back".

And of course, a Fishrrman comment:
This is why it ain't such a good idea to jump blindly into new OS upgrades on your main drive.

It's better to buy a cheap external 2.5" SSD (less than $20) and a USB3 enclosure.
Then, install the new OS onto the EXTERNAL drive.
Now you can experiment with your apps, etc., -- WITHOUT DISTURBING the internal SSD and it's [earlier] OS.

That way, if one's experience with the new OS doesn't work out, all you do is go back to the internal SSD and erase the external drive!

 

[Yebubbleman]

Sorry i didn’t clarify, i don’t need a time machine backup, all the files i use are on external drives (plugin installers too) i just need to know is it possible to do a downgrade and keep the system at that version for the longest time possible (probably just need to instal security updates)

You can, but, at best, you're only getting one more year of security updates, and unless you want to redo your OS to Ventura or Sonoma, or whatever macOS 15 is next year, I'd say it's probably not worth it.

As an alternative to creating a bootable installer; grab another Mac, install Apple Configurator 2 on it, put the Mac you want to downgrade into DFU mode, grab the IPSW file for 12.6.1 from MrMacintosh's site, and use it to restore your Mac to Monterey (and presumably update it to the latest version of Monterey).