Going Back To Ventura After Updating To Sonoma ? Doable ?

[Robert4]

Hello,

Have updated to Sonoma, and having all sorts of problems.
Particularly with using WORD, which is a quite old 2018 version.

Is it prctical, and safe, to get back to Ventura ?

How would I do it, please ?
Link to the download ?

Any dangers or caveats in reverting, assuming it is doable ?

Thanks,
Bob

 

[JonaM]

Yes - you can revert, but big question. Did you take a backup before the upgrade as you'll want to revert to that?

 

[Mike Boreham]

Yes - you can revert, but big question. Did you take a backup before the upgrade as you'll want to revert to that?

This is the long standing oft quoted standard advice, but based on my experience it is incorrect. I tested rolling back Ventura to Monterey and migrating from a TM back of Ventura after installing Monterey and it worked. See this thread.

I haven't tried rolling back Sonoma to Ventura so it might be different, but I suspect not.

 

[JonaM]

Agreed - you take the OS backwards. A backup from before the upgrade would always be my preferred option as although you can restore from a later TM backup you can run into quirks where a configuration file has been upgraded to a newer version and then during the rollback the older OS doesn't like the new version and transparently replaces it with a blank version so you get your settings reset to default.
I have had more major problems in the past where things like there's been a major version change on Photos between OS versions and the previous version of Photos then can't open your photo library afterwards

 

[vkd]

If you back up your data you'll be ok, independent of versions. That's cos since they went to APFS backups and restores only affect personal data, the OS itself is held off in safe storage mode or whatever they call it. Anyway, its separated out so you only restore personal guff and don't break the system. That's in layman's terms by the way. If you want the official lingo try Google LOL.

 

[Ben J.]

Yes. You can roll back to Ventura if our mac is compatible. If it has run on Ventura before, it is. You'll have to download a Ventura installer, and create a so-called 'USB bootable installer' (google it). I tried Sonoma for two weeks when I got my M2 Pro Mini in december. Had a few issues, and felt none of the sonoma new features was important to me, so I'm back on Ventura.