How do I go back to Snow Leopard from Mavericks (10.6.3 from 10.9.4)

No easy way.
If you have no backup of your previous system and data, you basically have to erase your Mac's internal hard drive and install OS X Snow Leopard from scratch as a clean install and run all software updates as well as reinstall all of your applications and any updates.
You will now need some way of backing up all of your important data. Backup data to CD/DVD, large capacity USB flash drive OR an external hard drive.
If you have/had an external hard drive with a complete, copy (cloned ) backup of your previous system, then the doing is/was a lot quicker and simpler.

Similar Messages

How do i downgrade back to snow leopard from Lion?

Having installed Lion on my MBP I have realised there are too many incompatibilities for me to work effectively at present.
How do I downgrade back to Snow Leopard without losing data?
I have a full TimeMachine backup and OS X disc that came with the machine. I am concerned that email data has been converted.
When will we see Lion work with all MS Office Apps, AutoCAD and SL Server?
h

https://discussions.apple.com/message/15706096#15706096

How do I revert back to Snow Leopard from OS Lion without losing files etc

I need to revert back as my work VPN cannot operate with the java cocoa version that is part of safari due to the OS Lion upgrade I performed. I have done a ton of work on my system in the last week and don't want to lose any of it - and no I didn't use time machine. HOw much am I going to lose when I uninstall Lion and then reinstall Leopard?
Thank so much for your help,
cmw

First, do a full backup of your current system.
Reformat your hard drive's main partition that you want to revert to Snow Leopard from Lion. This will delete EVERYTHING on the partition, which is why you need to do the backup first.
Reinstall Snow Leopard from the installer media you own.
Download then install the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Combo Updater.
Run Software Update repeatedly until there are no updates left to install.
Reinstall all your third-party applications.
Connect the backup you made of the Lion system and copy over your data. You should only have to copy over the files you know about within your own user account folder.
If you do this right, you'll have everything back in Snow Leopard with no loss. If you do it wrong, well, that's another reason we made a backup all the way back in the beginning of this process - you can always start over.

How do I move back to Snow Leopard from Lion if Lion came on the computer?

I have a 27" iMac that came with Lion on it. I want to go back to Snow Leopard so that some of the old software that I liked can be used again. I do not use apps, do not have an iphone or ipad, would never put information in to a Cloud, so Lion aor Mountain Lion are not for me. Is there a way to go back to Snow Leopard and still have the ability to upgrade should I change my mind?

Install Snow Leopard into Parallels in Lion:
[click on image to enlarge]
Full installation instructions are here:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1365439

How can I go back to Snow Leopard from lion without loosing files, etc.?

I recently downloaded Mac OS X Lion, but I can't stand it. I've heard you can't get a refund from the app store but I'm not sure how that works and I'd realy like my money back. Also, if I do downgrade, I'm not sure how to back up my files. I have music, documents, and pictures I don't want to lose. I don't have time machine. I have a usb but I'm not sure if it is capable of holding music from itunes? Other than that I'm not sure how else to back up things. I realize I have a lot of questions and I'm not exactly well informed with this stuff so any help would be greatly appreciated (:

See Kappy's going back to SL from Lion guide and Bombich's Get Ready for Lion tutorial.

How can I go back to snow leopard my epson stylus Photo TX810FW does not work with Lion

My Epson Stylus Photo TX810FW printer does not work with Lion how do I go back to Snow Leopard?

Did you try removing the printer from the queue and then reinstalling it?
I attempted to print this morning for the first time after upgrading to Lion and discovered that while everything appeared normal on my Epson printer, it would never print.
I opened System Preference > Print & Scan and deleted the printer.
I then added the printer back and it now working again. Worth a shoot first I should think.
Much easier the a downgrade.
Allan

How do you switch back to snow leopard, lion is crap?

How do tou switch back to snow leopard? Lion is crap, so dissapointed.

Keep the inflamatory comments down or the thread will disappear, as long as your questions are supported related it's fine.
Here's how to go back to Snow.
How can I uninstall OS X Lion and go back to Snow Leopard?
1: Copy your user file folders (Documents, Pictures, Movies, Music, not Library) to a external blank Disk Utility formatted HFS drive (not TimeMachine) and disconnect all drives. Make a note of your username and hard drive name. Write down any essential information like passwords stored in keychains and product serial keys.
2: Stick the 10.6 installer disk into the machine and reboot holding the c key down. Second screen in choose Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
3: On the left select the hard drive makers name of your internal boot drive (important) then click Erase and Erase... button (if you want to wipe the drive of all lingering data then choose Security Option>Zero all data) when choosing a name for the drive, use the same drive name as before.
4: Quit and install 10.6, then go through setup, reboot and use the same user name as before. Software Update, install programs from fresh sources (enter any serial keys) Hold Option and click on Purchases in AppStore to redownload (not Lion of course) and then finally return user files to their respective folders on the Snow Leopard drive.
5: If you have issues with iPhoto, you can right click on the iPhoto Library and "Show Package contents" and in there is a folder with all your originals. Copy them out and delete the iPhoto Library and reboot, restart iPhoto and it should be recreated, which you can then import your copied originals again.
Note: using the same drive and user name as before, returning files exactly into their respective Music, Documents and Pictures folders like before matches any pathnames some files like iTunes has to the location of your files. If not done, then exclamation points will occur in iTunes when you click on a song. The iTunes Library will have to be opened in Text Edit and all the partial pathnames "find and replace" corrected to repair.
Optional, but recommended.
Ideally it's best to first Carbon Copy Cloner the 10.7 internal to another blank external HFS drive before doing the above steps 1-5 as that way you have a copy of everything in case you missed something or you need to hold option boot from the 10.7 clone. The clone can later be erased and used as a 10.6 clone. Or reversed cloned back onto the internal drive or as many external drives as needed. (don't boot a clone on a different Mac, you can access the files though)
Clones are hold option key bootable, TimeMachines drives are not.
Note: The above steps are ONLY for Mac's that didn't come with Lion preinstalled. For reverting a factory Lion to Snow Leopard requires other methods.

How do I recover apps after switching back to Snow Leopard from Lion?

I upgraded to Lion, had problems with it, then went back to Snow Leopard. I now have no mail app, safari or app store app. I have downloaded all software updates and am at a loss as to what is next. Please help!

I wrote a user tip here how to revert your machine to 10.6
How to revert your Mac to Snow Leopard
However I don't use Mail, so I don't know how you can bring back the emails to 10.6.
Sometimes you can redownload them from the server again, or perhaps you can export the emails out of 10.7 mail in plain text or something and save them as text files.
If you use Mail to show the headers too, then "select all" and copy and paste (a lot of work)
Another method would be to swtich hard drives, put a new one in the machine and install 10.6. fresh on it.
http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/
How to erase and install Snow Leopard 10.6
Take the old internal drive and put it into a USB enclosure with it's own power supply (or cheaper SATA to USB adapter), you then can hold the option key down and select the 10.7 drive to boot from to access the old emails in Mail like before.
BTW, I totally agreee with you about 10.7 and 10.8.

OS X Lion doesn't support Sonos 3.5 - how do I go back to snow leopard?

Having upgraded to OS X Lion, I discover it is not compatible with Sonos. I have a party this weekend and it would be more fun with music! How do I uninstall Lion and go back to Snow Leopard? Use the Snow Leopard installer disc? Any known problems with doing this?
Thanks in advance
The house with no sound.......

You'll need to erase your disk. Be sure to create a backup.
Use SuperDuper or CCC. If you purchased the retail SL upgrade you can use that, but you'll sill need your original install disks for your iLife apps. After that on the first boot of the new system, in Setup Assistant choose to migrate only your user from the clone.
If the backward migration presents any problems, you can do it over and just drag your own data manually. Then you have to re-install any other software you purchased.

How to switch back to snow leopard from mavericks

My macbook takes forever to lauch and many applications crash when i use them.
i need my laptop to run as fast as it used too before mavericks.
im not a professional concerning computer so i need step by step instructions on how to switch back to snow leopard.
Please help me !!!

See this User Tip > https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6161

How do I go back to Snow Leopard after upgrading to Mountain Lion ?

After upgrading from Snow Loepard to Mountain Lion, a key piece of Firewire equipment (a Tascam FW-1082) no longer works. The computer (and Logic Pro) doesn't show that it's even connected now !? The manufacture no longer produces or support's it, so a driver upgrade is out of the question. HELP !!! I want to ditch Mountain Lion and go back to Snow Leopard . . . I don't have a Time Machine image to go back to, I just want to know How best to re-install Snow Leopard from the upgrade disk I purchased, or even get my Macbook back to how it was the day I bought it and then once again upgrade to Snow Leopard. Many THANKS !!!

You'll need to erase your disk. Be sure to create a backup.
Use SuperDuper or CCC. If you purchased the retail SL upgrade you can use that, but you'll sill need your original install disks for your iLife apps. After that on the first boot of the new system, in Setup Assistant choose to migrate only your user from the clone.
If the backward migration presents any problems, you can do it over and just drag your own data manually. Then you have to re-install any other software you purchased.

How to revert back to Snow Leopard from Lion?

Foolishly I just jumped straight in, downloaded Lion and installed it, and well... I really don't like it. It's not a patch on SL.
So I'm trying to work out the best way of reverting back to Snow Leopard.
I have:
My Snow Leopard install disc.
A SuperDuper, bootable backup from 48 hours pre-upgrade.
A Time Machine backup from 48 hours pre-upgrade.
I'm fairly sure that just putting the SL install disc in, isn't going to work.
I think I have a couple of options.
1. Erase the hard drive completely, and then do a fresh SL install, then restore the last TM backup.
2. Boot from the SuperDuper backup, then restore the last TM backup.
I'd prefer option 1, as this gives me a clean install (I hope).
Before I go ahead, can anyone:
a) See any problems with carrying this out, or
b) Suggest a better, safer method?
I'm a bit concerned that SL was an upgrade to an existing OS, rather than a complete OS in itself, so I'm very wary of what might happen if I wipe the drive then put the disc in, hoping it'll give me a nice new version of SL. Might need to go and do a bit more reading up.
Thanks.

For ref.
Dragged and dropped copies of important files (Docs, Pictures, Downloads, Movies etc) to a spare drive.
Printed off any docs that I absolutely could not afford to lose.
Shut down Mac.
Attached USB drive with SuperDuper backup, and powered up drive.
Powered up Mac, and immediately pressed the option key.
From the window that popped up, chose my USB drive as the boot disk and pressed return.
Mac powered up running Snow Leopard from USB drive.
Started Disk Utility, and erased the disk labelled 250.06 GB Fujitsu.... etc In the 'name' field, entered 'Macintosh HD'
Started up SuperDuper! and copied my backup over Macintosh HD.
Incidentally, the first step it took was to erase Macintosh HD anyway, so I could probably have skipped the first erase.
Let SuperDuper! do it's thing for 90 mins.
Once it had completed, closed the machine down (it wouldn't let me eject the USB drive, as presumably it was still using that as the boot disc).
Detached and powered off USB drive.
Pressed Mac power button and crossed fingers...
And goodbye annoying Lion, hello again, good old Snow Leopard!
Didn't even need to restore the last Time Machine backup.
I may take another look at Lion again, further down the road, when hopefully Apple will have realised that OS X and iOS are two completely different animals, and that we don't all want our Macs behaving like our iPads.
For now though, I'm sticking with SL.

Lion painfully slow. How do I go back to Snow Leopard???

I have just "upgrade" to Lion and my Mac is no unusable. It runs at 15-20% of the speed it ran at under Snow Leopard, where it ran perfectly. For instance:
- It takes Word 08 about 7-8 minutes to launch
- It takes Entourage 08 almost as long
- Preview, which used to launch in about a second, now takes 2 minutes
- I was in Firefox and wanted to quit Preview. The process of going to the dock, clicking on Preview, choosing Quit from the menu and having Preview actually quit to 90 seconds.
- When i finished typing the previous sentence, I had to wait about 15 seconds while the typing on the screen caught up.
- in any application, it takes 5-10 seconds for a menu to open after I click on it
- When I double-click on a word it takes 7-9 seconds for the word to highlight
- When I gesture to move a page up it takes 5-8 seconds for the page to begin to move
- When I click on a different place in a document , it take about 5 seconds for the cursor to move
- This message took me about twenty minutes to type
Is it possible for me to go back to Snow Leopard?
Save me! Thank you!
Ian

Downgrade Lion to Snow Leopard
1. Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.
This will erase the whole drive so be sure to backup your files if you don't have a backup already. If you have performed a TM backup using Lion be aware that you cannot restore from that backup in Snow Leopard (see below.) I suggest you make a separate backup using Carbon Copy Cloner 3.4.1.
If you have Snow Leopard Time Machine backups, do a full system restore per #14 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions. If you have subsequent backups from Lion, you can restore newer items selectively, via the "Star Wars" display, per #15 there, but be careful; some Snow Leopard apps may not work with the Lion files.

Help.. i want to go back to snow leopard from lion

if I reinstall snow leopard and restore my latest backup from my time capsule will it leave snow leopard or will it restore lion? I don’t like how lion has slowed down my system so i want to go back to snow leopard and restore my latest files. here's what i got:
Hardware Overview:
Model Name:          MacBook Pro
Model Identifier:          MacBookPro8,1
Processor Name:          Intel Core i5
Processor Speed:          2.3 GHz
Number of Processors:          1
Total Number of Cores:          2
L2 Cache (per Core):          256 KB
L3 Cache:          3 MB
Memory:          4 GB
Boot ROM Version:          MBP81.0047.B0E

Downgrade Lion to Snow Leopard
1. Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.
This will erase the whole drive so be sure to backup your files if you don't have a backup already. If you have performed a TM backup using Lion be aware that you cannot restore from that backup in Snow Leopard (see below.) I suggest you make a separate backup using Carbon Copy Cloner 3.4.1.
If you have Snow Leopard Time Machine backups, do a full system restore per #14 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions. If you have subsequent backups from Lion, you can restore newer items selectively, via the "Star Wars" display, per #15 there, but be careful; some Snow Leopard apps may not work with the Lion files.

Back to Snow Leopard from Lion

How can I remove OS Lion from my 17" Intel iMac and go back to Snow Leopard. I have many documents and forms that I cannot open which are used in two different settings - a farm market and a social club - which I need and made with Appleworks. Cannot open them. Can't open anything I did on '09 Pages either. I bought 2011 Microsoft Office, but it would take me months to make over several years worth of forms and documents. PLUS - I don't like LION and the ways that it makes my computer act. I am 75, have been using Apple computers since 1987, and am fairly proficient BUT I don't want to learn a lot of new stuff as far as motions, etc., just to get done what I could do quite well before. I have both the magic mouse and the magic pad and both of them drive me crazy. I am spending more time trying to figure out how to get rid of little icons following the cursor around than I am getting actual work done. What used to be simple has become annoying and difficult!! Lion is no improvement as far as getting real work done as far as I can see.
HOW DO I REMOVE THIS ANIMAL? HELP!!!

Downgrade Lion to Snow Leopard
1. Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.
This will erase the whole drive so be sure to backup your files if you don't have a backup already. If you have performed a TM backup using Lion be aware that you cannot restore from that backup in Snow Leopard (see below.) I suggest you make a separate backup using Carbon Copy Cloner 3.4.1.
If you have Snow Leopard Time Machine backups, do a full system restore per #14 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions. If you have subsequent backups from Lion, you can restore newer items selectively, via the "Star Wars" display, per #15 there, but be careful; some Snow Leopard apps may not work with the Lion files.

How do I go back to Snow Leopard from Mavericks (10.6.3 from 10.9.4)

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