Downgrading from Snow Leopard to Leopard: Best Practices?

Hey everyone. Snow Leopard isn't working out for me (slowness, crashing, etc.), so I plan on downgrading back to Leopard for the foreseeable future via a clean install.
I utilize Time Machine with an external hard drive, within contains all of my files/documents/music for two user accounts. When I downgrade to Leopard, can I simply restore these accounts/files using migration assistant? Or am I going to have a problem restoring Snow Leopard backups to Leopard?
Finally, is this the best way to go about this process, or is there a better way?

Snow Leopard is simply running like crap. Everything is slower. Crashes occur. Neither of which was the case with Leopard. I think it is safe to say that my problems are manifestations of Snow Leopard, not OS X (or Leopard) in general.
Snow Leopard as a whole should not cause such issues. It is obvious you have some contributing factor that would be much easier to isolate than backtracking to 10.5, unless of course you have a clone or Time Machine backup of your system when it was in 10.5.
How big is your hard drive, and how full is it? If there is less than 15% + 9 GB free, you need to free up space based on past user experience. See my FAQ*:
http://www.macmaps.com/diskfull.html
Sometimes old fonts can cause problems:
http://www.jklstudios.com/misc/osxfonts.html
If you migrated from a PowerPC Mac in the past, you may need to remigrate without the Migration Assistant in the future:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=435350&tstart=0
As it can bring over a lot of old applications and drivers that don't work with Snow Leopard.
Do you have any peripherals that are not known to be 10.6 compatible? See my upgrade FAQ above for references to utilities or applications that are not yet 10.6 compatible. If they aren't listed in those references, chances are they either are not compatible or may be more compatible if they are enabled/disabled to run in 64 bit, or Rosetta mode.
To change the 64 bit or Rosetta mode in your application, click on it once in the Finder, and select Get Info. A checkbox should reveal whether or not it can run in a different mode if it is available.
By default Snow Leopard is in 32 bit mode as an operating system. You may be able to enable 64 bit operating system if all your applications can run with it, following one of these steps:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=4716
This should speed you along if you have that option available.
Three options which for whatever reason appear to help people for unknown reasons:
zapping the PRAM
repairing the directory and permissions*
If none of those help, you may simply have a hardware issue with your machine that simply manifests itself more frequently with Snow Leopard. Sometimes these can be isolated with the hardware test. Other times, it may simply indicate you have a RAM issue. Every new operating system is more sensitive to out of spec RAM or marginal RAM*:
http://www.macmaps.com/badram.html
And while the hardware test may catch some bad RAM, it can't catch all.
- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.
Message was edited by: a brody

Similar Messages

Downgrading from Snow Leopard to Leopard 10.56. Possible?

Will it be possible to return to Leopard? I want to use 10.56. I didn't have any problems with it. Photoshop CS 1 worked fine on it. On Snow Leopard I have problems with "Move a layer" with Snow Leopard (even with Rosetta installed). Also, MS Word doesn't work that well. It takes forever to save and I can't copy and paste word files from MS Word to Pages. Other strange things. It started getting really slow to shut down and slow to boot. It's OK now but that's because of the fresh install, and I haven't updated to 10.63. I am scared to do that now. The only good thing was the extra gigabytes and Safari 4, but I don't use Safari much anyway, Opera is so fast.
And lots of whirling balls of death before I did the clean install.
I don't think the upgrade works very well - from Leopard to Snow Leopard, best to do a clean install.
However, I want to go back to Leopard as I didn't have any problems with it except maybe I couldn't get the latest upgrades of certain programs and I lost about 5GBs of space on my hard drive compared to Snow Leopard.
Also, Bootcamp doesn't work as well. I can't get the network to operate on Windows XP. On Leopard, it transferred seamlessly without having to adjust the control panel or anything. Now, my only choice is unsecured wireless network. I don't want financial data to be unsecured when doing internet banking or purchasing with a credit card.
What is the point of Snow Leopard? Seems like Apple's aware of problems with it but no solutions are coming. Life is too short to worry about Update beta, update combo or whatever. Or whether 6.2 is btter than 6.1 etc.
How do I go about doing the clean install?
Will there be any problems because I will be transferring files like Safari which have a higher version than Leopard can handle? What should I do in that case? Will the lower version of applications install automatically?
I don't know how it will work out. I've never downgraded the operating system before. It's always been up.
Will it be OK or will I have to do a lot of fiddling around afterwards? Because I'm not good at that.
Thanks.
One last question: Should I do a clean install or just stick the disk in and do an install?
Will the second one wipe the data off my machine?

Thanks. What I meant by downgrade is: is it possible to put OS 10.56 on my computer and put all the same files on it (later)? I think the answer is yes but I have to do a clean install.
I will have to use Migration Assistant on my MBA.

Downgrading from Snow Leopard back to leopard?

IVE HAD IT!! lol. This operating system has sooo many flaws so far. Is it possible to downgrade back to leopard from snow leopard?

If you do an erase and install, then, yes, you will have to reinstall everything with two major exceptions. If you make a bootable clone of your Sno install on an external drive, then you can migrate your user, settings, data, and apps from the clone. However, it looks like you have a troubled Sno install. So, I think you would be asking for trouble is you migrate anything but your data. Still, you might take a chance on migrating your apps. I might try if reinstalling them would be a huge undertaking. Essentially the same comments apply if you have a TM backup, although sometimes TM won't restore from a backup made under one system to a different system. I wouldn't take a chance on using TM under the circumstances.

Question about downgrading from Snow Leopard to Leopard

After many problems with Snow Leopard (unable to print, programs crashing, dissatisfaction with the new Preview, etc., etc.), I have decided to go back to plain old Leopard for the time being. I was perfectly happy with version 10.5.8 and had no problems whatsoever with it. I'm a freelancer and need my system to be working right. Maybe someday, I'll upgrade to Snow Leopard, but not for a while.
I plan on using Time Machine to restore my old system. The only problem is that I forgot the day I did the upgrade. I think it was either last Thursday or Friday, but I'm not sure.
Is there a way that I can see exactly when I did the upgrade so that I can be sure to restore from my latest backup?
Thanks for any advice.

You will need to boot from your Leopard installer DVD and do an Erase and Install. You cannot reliably downgrade any other way. As for restoring from TM all you really need do is post installation use Migration Assistant which will then restore your Home folder, third-party applications, support files, network preferences from your TM backup (or any other backup.) Just be sure that during the Setup Assistant you create the initial admin account using a different user (short) name than the one you normally use. Migration Assistant will restore a Home folder, but it will not overwrite nor update an existing Home folder with the same username. After you migrate the account and restart the computer, log into your old account. Verify it has admin status, change auto-login to the account, then restart to be sure all is working correctly. If so then delete the initial account created during setup.

Legality when downgrading from snow leopard to leopard OS

Hello all,
I have been looking through the apple terms and conditions of their software and I am unable to find anything regarding downgrades of operating systems.
If I have purchased a Macbook Pro w/ snow Leopard installed from factory, Am I allowed to downgrade the Operating system to Leopard without purchasing a new copy of leopard. Lets say I borrowed the DVD from a friend.
Can I do this legally? Yes or No?
Whatever the answer is, I need undisputable proof quoted directly from the apple support website. Thank you all

FernandoR wrote:
Hello all,
I have been looking through the apple terms and conditions of their software and I am unable to find anything regarding downgrades of operating systems.
If I have purchased a Macbook Pro w/ snow Leopard installed from factory, Am I allowed to downgrade the Operating system to Leopard without purchasing a new copy of leopard. Lets say I borrowed the DVD from a friend.
Can I do this legally? Yes or No?
Whatever the answer is, I need undisputable proof quoted directly from the apple support website.
geez, do you maybe want a phone call directly from Steve Jobs?
it certainly won't be legal if you use a borrowed disk. a leopard license clearly and indisputably states that you can only install it on one computer.
*2. Permitted License Uses and Restrictions.*
*A. Single Use. This License allows you to install, use and run one (1) copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-labeled computer at a time. You agree not to install, use or run the Apple Software on any non-Apple-*
*labeled computer, or to enable others to do so. This License does not allow the Apple Software to exist on more than one computer at a time, and you may not make the Apple Software available over a network where it could be used by multiple computers at the same time.*
but this is quite irrelevant because you won't be able to install it anyway as it won't run. you can't install an earlier OS than the one the computer came with as it lacks necessary hardware drivers for the newer computers.

Downgrade from Snow Leopard Server to SL (non-server)

Is that possible to downgrade from SL Server to SL without making a clean install ?
I've just bought a standard version of Lion and I can't install it...
Thanks

Hi
You can't install Lion Server (which is simply the Server App) without installing Lion anyway. What this means is you can install 'ordinary' Lion on your existing Snow Leopard Server and provided you don't download and launch the Server App your Snow Leopard Server won't really be a Server anymore. Leastways not with any usuable 10.6 Server Administration applications (Server Admin, WorkGroup Manager etc) that you can use as these are all deleted/removed when Lion is installed.
HTH?
Tony

Loading Snow Leopard, Best Practices Advice

Currently w/Leopard on all machines, with Adobe CS5 and (cocoa) 64 bit, I'll soon need to move to SL -- It does make me nervous though as things are going relatively well with the current OS and one of my machines is in a production environment. I do have multiple volumes on each MP and will start with the "less critical" ones of course.
Is erase and install the best method or can I install over Leopard and still have the similar results as if I had loaded it on a cleanly formatted volume? Other caveats?
TIA,
Geoff

If you have various critical applications that are currently working, another option would be to create another partition and install a new copy of Snow Leopard there. Then you can move things over gradually, and if something doesn't work, you can just boot into the Leopard partition - the best of both worlds (I am currently running my MBP this way, although I don't run that many third party apps).

Can you downgrade from Snow Leopard to Leopard if MacBook Pro is shipped with SNL

I have recently purchased a MBP with 10.6.8 already installed but it came with no disks and i wish to fromat to get it truley cleaned up. I have my shop bought Leopard i pruchased for my Imac and my leopard disks that came with a later MB, when i insert the leopard disk when booted it reads ok hit the install button MBP reboots but just sits with white/blue screen and nothing happens. Tried rebooting and holding C still nothing happens apart from the MBP does not boot up but hangs. Tried pressing alt at boot up and the option to choose the disk appears I select it nothing happens yet the mouse no longer moves, it just sits there. The disk is fine as i used it to reformat a friends MB 1 hour before i attempted mine.
So if the MBP came with SNL already installed can you not roll back to leopard, or is there something I'm missing.
model: 15.4 MBP 2.8ghz core duo 500hdd 4gb ram etc...

Hi all
Ok so I went ot the local Apple shop and they have stopped stocking SNL but advised i can download Lion and install and even though it didn't format i could when installed boot to the recovery partion -utilities and erase from there and then do a full install thus allowing a full format.
So erase done click install lion and it connected to the net and then sat for some time so what i'm asking is does this now have to down load the 4gb image again. I assumed it installed from the partition but will it download and install if so this could take some time as the Lion download took approx 8 hours.
Please tell me that is not the case as that is seriously flawed and left me in a dodgy position as i have erased my hdd and will have to wait till i can get a day off to run the next install.
as a foot note i was advised to copy the image and then burn so i would have a hard copy i did this would it be quicker to do it from thi disc.
thanks in advance

Help (please) w/ Full System Restore after downgrading from Snow to Leopard

Yes. I should have created a separate partition, cloned the drive, etc…. But everything was working so well I figured an upgrade to SL would make things amazing. Wrong.
So I downgraded from Snow Leopard to Leopard, using a clean Erase and Install from the OSX DVD that came with my Mac. Told by an AppleCare techie that I could restore my system from a Time Machine BackUp, I was confident that when the install successfully completed I would be able to restore from the TM Backup I made PRIOR TO installing Snow Leopard.
However, the 'restore system from time machine…' option that came up at the end of the Leopard installation told me I only have one TM backup, the latest one made under Snow Leopard (which obviously cannot be used to restore a system now running on Leopard.
When I log into the OS, I can open TM and choose the last 10.5 (Leopard) backup I made, but it seems to only let me restore the 'Macintosh HD' as a folder. So here is where I am stuck:
How can I restore my system - now on a clean install of Leopard - to the last TM backup I made under the selfsame OS. {Sorry if this is a simpleton question - I just really do not want to ** anything up}.

.adamo wrote:
Thanks, Pondini -
Good to know the AppleCare rep. I talked to (apparently) knew nothing about time machine or how to restore a system from it. I was given nothing but wrong and bad advice…
Yeah, unfortunately that seems to happen on occasion. They don't seem to have access to decent info on things they don't understand, or just "wing it" or something.
Anyway, the erase and install happened, so at least my system is 'fresh'. I booted from the OSX DVD, went into the Utilities menu, found the TM Back-up I wanted, et voila. But it seems I could have bypassed the whole erase/install thing and just restored with the BackUp from TM.
So I must say, to Apple's credit, that TM works extremely well, and exactly as described; couldn't have been more painless (not what I'm used to with computers, at all).
That's why you got a Mac! (They're certainly not perfect, but they're pretty good!).
Glad it's sorted out, and thanks for the star!

How to Downgrade to Snow Leopard from Retail disk

Hi there
We have a new iMac at work bought through Apple's refurb site. It is running the latest version of Lion with all firmware updates, etc. It is replacing a G5 running Tiger.
The problem is this – it is supposed to be running Adobe CS5, but also CS4 (and Office would be handly also)
We have other macs here, some running Leopard, some Snow Leopard, but the Adobe apps are not happy at all in Lion, and InDesign CS4 crashes all the time and won't even print without jumping through a million hoops (obviously the Office 2004 app won't run at all).
Due to the level of issues we are having with Lion (and the reliability of the all the software under Snow Leopard) I am looking to downgrade to Snow Leopard.
I have a full retail version of Snow Leopard (10.6.3), but the Lion system won't boot from the disk, it just gets to the grey screen, and beeps three times. I presume this means that there isn't the required drivers on the disk to run the hardware, or there's a firmware update that doesn't allow installation.
Am i totally stuck with this OS? I was looking to install Snow Leopard on a partiton, but when i run the install disk from the Lion desktop, it reports that I can't run it because 'I have Install Mac OS X 23.1.1.'
I would really like to just have Snow Leopard on my iMac, or failing that, Lion on a small partition, and Snow Leopard and all the programs on the larger partition that I would boot from.
Any ideas how I can get this done? Adobe CS suite is just rubbish on Lion macs, and runs worse than on my old Tiger mac.
Thanks in advance,
M.

Mac_fool wrote:
oh right - so clone Mac B onto Mac A HD in taget disk mode using SuperDuper (or Carbon Copy Cloner), then i'll be able to boot Mac A in SL.
I understand that Mac A wouldn't boot, I was going to make Mac A's SL partition the start-up partition for Mac B, and then try and install OS updates to 10.6.8 from Mac B. Once updates are installed - change Mac B's startup disk back, and then surely Mac A would be able to boot all on it's own...
I'm not sure if this would work in Target Disk Mode, but if you succeed in cloning Mac B to Mac A, you may be able to apply the Combo 10.6.8 update to Mac A while booting from Mac B. The key is that the Combo updater may be able to customize the Snow Leopard installation for the hardware it's actually being applied to. Unless I missed it, we don't really know which iMac you have since it's a refurb. According to Mactracker, only the Late 2011 21.5" comes only with Lion and might not accept Snow Leopard at all. At the same time, it has the same Model Identifier as the Mid 2011, which came with 10.6.6 or 10.6.7 so it might work.
If at that point Mac A does boot in Snow Leopard, I'd advise running the 10.6.8 Combo updater again while booting from Mac A just to be safe.

I just upgraded my 2008 macbook pro to OS X Maverick from Snow Leopard but my computer is running a bit buggy and slow. How do I downgrade back down to snow leopard?

I just upgraded my 2008 macbook pro to OS X Maverick from Snow Leopard but my computer is running a bit buggy and slow. How do I downgrade back down to snow leopard?

You would reinstall 10.6 using your installation DVD.
Out of curiosity, how much RAM do you have? Recent versions of OS X really shine with 4GB or more.
Matt

Where is the best place to get/read information of the pros and cons on updating my OS from Snow Leopard to the current OS?

Where is the best place to get/read information on the pros and cons of updating my OS from Snow Leopard to the current OS?
I have an iMac 27" intel, purchased Nov 2009. I am currently using 10.6.8

Apple OS 10.9 Mavericks:
Quick overview:
https://help.apple.com/osx-mavericks/whats-new-from-mountain-lion
OS X Mavericks supports the following Macs that are already running a minimum of Snow Leopard:
iMac (Mid-2007 or later)
MacBook (13-inch Aluminum, Late 2008), (13-inch, Early 2009 or later)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid-2009 or later), (15-inch, Mid/Late 2007 or later), (17-inch, Late 2007 or later)
MacBook Air (Late 2008 or later)
Mac Mini (Early 2009 or later)
Mac Pro (Early 2008 or later)
Xserve (Early 2009)
Transitioning your Mac from Mountain Lion to Apple's new OS X 10.9 Mavericks
http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/10/23/transitioning-your-mac-from-mountain-l ion-to-apples-new-os-x-109-mavericks

I want to downgrade to Snow Leopard from Lion

Hi
Can someone please tell me how I can downgrade from OSX Lion to Snow Leopard on my brand new 27" iMac.
I spoke to Apple over a week ago on the phone and explained that I wanted to downgrade to Snow Leopard and the chap I spoke to sold me the Snow Leopard upgrade disk and not the full installion DVD, I already own the Snow Leopard upgrade disk so now I have two copies and I can't use them to downgrade.
All I get when I insert the DVD is a message saying "you can't use this version of the application Install Mac Os X with this version of Mac OS X"...
Could someone please tell me exactly what Snow Leopard disks/ DVD I need to purchase (and where) for me to install Snow Leopard on my iMac. I have seen lots of different "versions" on eBay & Amazon with vastly differing prices but how do I know which disks I need to buy as I don't want to end up purchasing a third "Upgrade only" versionof Snow Leopard.
Thank you for any help you can give me with this...

I've already tried all of those methods using the 10.6.3 disks I bought, they simply don't work as I posted earlier.
All that happens is the machine constantly bleeps 3 times in a row and the DVD drive stops spinning. I know booting from a DVD install disk is a slow process but no matter how long I leave it nothing happens except for the 3 bleeping sounds.
Having scoured the net and spoken to Apple themselves all information tells me these 10.6.3 disks are actually for someone upgrading from Leopard to Snow Leopard.
I have no idea why Apple sold me this version as before I ordered it I explained fully to the sales person what I was wanting to do and they had all the details of this mid 2011 iMac I have bought. So unless the sales person didn't have a clue what they were talking about then I should be able to "downgrade" to Snow Leopard on this iMac as even the specs for this model clearly state on everymac.com that it originaly shipped with OS 10.6.6 (Snow Leapard)
http://www.everymac.com/ultimate-mac-comparison-chart/?compare=all-intel-macs&hi ghlight=0&prod1=iMacIntel041
So there must be somewhere I can purchase these 10.6.6 install disks to "downgrade". Trouble is on Ebay or Amazon where you can buy Snow Leopard most of them are 10.6.3 or "retail" versions with no actual version numbers to let me know I'm buying the correct disk.
Who would have thought setting up your computer could be a mission impossible task and why Apple don't help is simply a disgrace to be honest.

Can't find iPhoto photos after downgrading to Snow Leopard from Lion

I had my photos on my External Hard Drive being used as a backup for TIme Machine.
After downgrading to Snow Leopard from Lion (my computer was running rediculusly slow likely due to being so close to the minimum requirements), I can not access any of my Time Machine dates prior to the date I downgraded. I have reinstalled Lion to try to access the files that way, but am having issues finding my old photos.
Any help would be appreciated as I've got about 15000 photos of my kids on there.

There are issues with iphoto which changes versions..
I would strongly recommend you do an archive of the TC before you do any more playing.
I presume the TC is the only place you have these photos stored??? So your entire library is hard disk erase from total annilahation.. not good!!
Load a real utility into Lion.. archive is not present on the new version.. why apple why??
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1482
You can then do a full restore to an external drive.. or something fancy..
Pondini is the saviour here.
http://pondini.org/TM/15.html
There is a specific section on iphoto and its pain.
I strongly suggest you read the entire section from Q14-18 so you actually understand what TM does.

Need Icloud so what is best upgrade from snow leopard

I don't have icloud with Snow Leopard so what is best upgrade from snow leopard. Is there a better way to get Icloud?

Upgrading from Snow Leopard to Lion or Mountain Lion to Mavericks
To upgrade to Mavericks you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.8, Lion, or Mountain Lion installed. Purchase and download Mavericks (Free) from the App Store. Sign in using your Apple ID. The file is quite large, over 5 GBs, so allow some time to download. It would be preferable to use Ethernet because it is nearly four times faster than wireless.
     OS X Mavericks- System Requirements
       Macs that can be upgraded to OS X Mavericks
         1. iMac (Mid 2007 or newer) — Model Identifier 7,1 or later
         2. MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer) —
             Model Identifier 5,1 or later
         3. MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) — Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         4. MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer) — Model Identifier 2,1 or later
         5. Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer) — Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         6. Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer) — Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         7. Xserve (Early 2009) — Model Identifier 3,1 or later
To find the model identifier open System Profiler in the Utilities folder. It's displayed in the panel on the right.
Are my applications compatible?
         See App Compatibility Table — RoaringApps.
Upgrading to Lion
If your computer does not meet the requirements to install Mavericks, it may still meet the requirements to install Lion.
You can purchase Lion by contacting Customer Service: Contacting Apple for support and service - this includes international calling numbers. The cost is $19.99 (as it was before) plus tax. It's a download. You will get an email containing a redemption code that you then use at the Mac App Store to download Lion. Save a copy of that installer to your Downloads folder because the installer deletes itself at the end of the installation.
     Lion System Requirements
       1. Mac computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7,
           or Xeon processor
       2. 2GB of memory
       3. OS X v10.6.6 or later (v10.6.8 recommended)
       4. 7GB of available space
       5. Some features require an Apple ID; terms apply.

Downgrading from Snow Leopard to Leopard: Best Practices?

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