Drag drop apps back from El Capitan backup?

[producerlawson]

So I updated to El Capitan stupidly (I like seeing the new stuff). Some of my daily driver apps are incompatible however, they literally break and bug out.

I have only just started making time machine backups since upgrading to El Capitan, this is my idea though.. Reinstall Yosemite, drag and drop app all my old applications back across and all app data for things such as mail and calendars? The rest such as a Safari data will be brought back across by my iCloud.

Can anyone confirm if this will work? I haven't updated any of my apps to the latest copies in order to try and save myself here.

Thank you.

 

[Weaselboy]

Just dragging apps over with only work with some apps. Apps that you installed by just downloading a DMG files and after opening the DMG, you dragged and dropped the app into /Applications.... those will work if you just drag and drop from the backup. But any app that used a package installer to install will likely have support files in other folders that will cause a drag and drop not to work.

 

[vexorg]

I'd go for a clean install on the apps to avoid any problems. Not really worth the risk as many apps set up stuff in hidden folders. Probably depends on the app, something like dropbox goes very deep into places.