Is it possible to uninstall mountain lion and go back to snow leopard

Have an mid-2009 macbook pro and since installing Mountain Lion it has become very slow on startup, shutdown and everything inbetween including random crashes of software. Is is possible to go back to Snow Leopard ?
Thanks

Also you should look at this User tip as well, because your machine is a bit dated and likely needs a new boot drive + more RAM and performance tweaks for maximum Snow Leopard performance.
For Snow Leopard Speed Freaks
Snow Leopard is extremely fast on my Early 2011 machine here, it's because it's a 32 bit operating system that can address up to 16GB of RAM (or more)
OS X Lions are 64 bit operating systems so they act more like trucks and can move better in bulk.
Snow Leopard is like a small race car.

Similar Messages

How do I uninstall mountain lion and go back to snow leopard?

I've got a time machine backup that I can use.

How to revert your Mac to Snow Leopard
For Snow Leopard Speed Freaks

I am ready to dump mountain lion and go back to snow leopard

Can someone stop me? I am so frustrated with lion and now mountain lion that I am actually looking at dumping the OS X 10.8 and reverting back to snow leopard.
I have a small office with three mac machines. I have been a fan of the macs for many years, even though we have software for enigineering that requires a windows versions. I have several issues that will not go away on each machine. I have a table below that describes a few of the problems. These problems have left me and my staff with no trust that our work is safe (yes, we do backups and TM). Our work flow is no longer fluid or fun with mountain lion.
Machine
OS X issues
Macbook 2009 5,0 running 10.7.3
Graphics problems, extremely slow performance opening and closing files.
Macbook Pro mid 2009, 5,1 now testing 10.8.3 beta
Graphics problems, dropped WIFI, time machine corruption, very slow finder performance, CUDA performance issues, loads of lsboxd issues, spotlite runs indexing alot, Sync services still broken in mountain lion. Cannot keep the Adobe licensing for Creative Suite 4 activated. Fresh install of 10.8.2
Macbook Pro Late 2011, running 10.8.2
Graphics problems, flash problems, kernel panics after sleep, Kernel panics with VM Ware fusion 5.0.2, Memory relase issues after software quits, Very slow finder performance, Safari causes kernel panics. Any panic causes multiple versions of Office for mac 2011 autosaved files from one original file., spotlite indexing issues. Sync services still broken in mountain lion. Fresh install of 10.8.2
I am normally a good troubleshooter and have resolved many issues so far. But they just cntiue and I am spending a lot of time resolving problems with the machine's OS that I could be using for productivity. I guess I feel like the old days as an engineer in an office where windows requires a near constant windows administrator.
Is this just me whining? Is anyone else suffering through the OS X 10.7 and 10.8 issues?
Somebady tell me I am crazy... I just want to get back to work.

Some troubleshooting information.
Isolating Issues
Isolating an issue by using another user account
Isolating issues in Mac OS X
Safe Mode
Safe Mode - About
Basic Maintenance:
Disk Utility
Disk Utility Repair Permissions You Can Safely Ignore
Reset NVRAM/PRAM
Reset SMC
General Maintenance Recommendations
Safari Problems

I have a sonos music system that does not yet work with Lion and will not for about 3-weeks. I need to uninstall lion and go back to snow leopard, how do I do that?

I have a Sonos music system that is not yet compatible with Lion and will not be for several weeks. How do I uninstall Lion and go back to Snow Leopard?

While we all have MacBooks only a few have Lion. There's a Lion Support Community. You should also post this question there. https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/mac_os_x_v10.7_lion

How do I disable Lion and go back to snow leopard

I up graded to Lion. Now my wireless router can't connect because it doesn't support Lion. I don't want to have to buy a new router.
Can I disable lion and go back to snow leopard?
P.S. I am new at computers so be easy on the terminology please.

It would help if you gave some information on WHY the router isn't working. Start with the basics:
-What brand and model is the router? If you can get a version number, that is also sometimes helpful. This info is generally printed somewhere on the router, usually a label on the back or bottom.
-What do you mean by "doesn't support" - did you get this info from the manufacturer, or is this based on you not being able to connect? Routers use standard wireless protocols (called 802.11a/b, g, or n). The network cards in Mac computers also use these same protocols.I can't think of a reason why it shouldn't work.
-Does your router have a wired connection? If so, can you connect with an Ethernet cable? You may need to be able to connect to the router directly to change settings.
-How old is your router? And have you ever tried to upgrade the firmware settings on it?
-Can you connect to ANY wireless routers anywhere else with your Lion computer?
-Do you have any OTHER computers (Windows or Mac) that can successfully connect to your wireless router?

How do I remove Lion and go back to Snow Leopard OS?

How do I remove Lion and go back to Snow Leopard?

If you have the white upgrade disk (originally, you had Leopard and bought SL later), easy. I'm not sure if you have the grey disks (you bought the machine with SL).
If you have the white disk, the first thing you do is get a USB external HD. Format it to GUID with disk utility.
Insert the white SL disk and restart. Follow the instructions to install SL on the external disk.
Have a look here for a step by step tutorial for setting up the external HD: http://www.maciverse.com/installing-snow-leopard-onto-an-external-hard-drive.htm l
From here on in you have two choices:
1. You can run SL off the external disk and keep Lion and all your files/data on the internal disk.
This is the easiset thing to do. You can open files from your Internal Lion disk by navigating through to it in Finder when you're booted in to SL on your external disk. Practical if you have a desktop machine, maybe not if you have a laptop that you need to carry everywhere (you'd have carry the external HD with you all the time).
Any non-Lion only (i.e., not Safari, Preview, Terminal and Mail Lion upgrades) apps should also run off your Lion disk when you're booted into SL, but if you have any problems, just drag them from the Lion Apps folder to the SL apps folder.
2. Move everything over to the external disk if you plan to install SL back to your internal disk.
Start copying over all your apps and files manually by dragging them from the internal disk Apps and Folders to the external disk Apps and Folders. If you have Time Machine, you can also copy your files by navigating to Time Machine through the Finder rather than trying to use the Time machine interface.
You might spend some days doing this, but it's worth doing it manually. When you're done and sure you have everything, google 'Carbon Copy Cloner'. Download it (its free), and clone your external HD to your internal HD. SL restored!

Is there anyway I can get rid of Lion and get back to Snow Leopard?

Is there anyway I can get rid of Lion and get back to Snow Leopard?

Back to Snow Leopard from Lion install method
Read and print out these instructions, your computer is going to be offline and you wil be cutoff from help until your machine is restored.
Clear the Desktop, Downloads and Trash of anything you wish to keep by placing their files in the respective Documents, Music, Pictures, Movie folders.
Disconnect other drives except the sole backup drive.
Backup ALL your Users folders (Documents, Pictures, Movies, Music etc) manually (drag and drop methods) to a (not TimeMachine) external powered drive (HFS+ journaled formatted in Disk Utility) and disconnect, your going to be wiping the entire boot disk of ALL DATA.
(warning, everything will be gone and not recovered, OS, programs, files, Windows etc all gone.)
Note: You might want to hold c and boot off the 10.6 installer disk and use Disk Utility to format the new blank external drive instead of using OS X Lion if that's hosed. Then reboot into Lion and copy files, may be safer that way.
Here we go!
Hold c and boot off the 10.6 installer disk that comes with your computer and second screen in just STOP there, don't install OS X yet.
Look at the Utilities Menu for Disk Utility.
On the left is the name of your hard drive maker, click it and Erase (format HFS+ Journaled), give it the same drive name as before, and click Erase...
(note: if you want to "scrub" the drive of old files that haven't been overwritten yet, then use the Security Option > Zero Erase, takes a lot longer)
This should wipe the drive of ALL partitions (GUID, OS X and 10.7 Recovery, Windows if present)
When it's done, quit and install OS X 10.6. Then install all your programs from fresh sources and validate/update.
When you setup a first account, use the same user name as before, this way you can simply drag and drop the content of your previous Users folders from the external drive right back into the new Users folders and everything should work peachy. Links in iTunes to music, playlists and iPhoto links especially.
Update OS X to 10.6.8 using the Combo Update for best results.
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1399
(Note: If your original machine had 10.5 and you want the free iLife that comes with the disks with the computer, then you'll have to install 10.5 first using the same c boot/erase/format methods as above, then update to 10.6 via the disk, then Combo Update 10.6.8)
Final step optional but highly recommended.
A lot of people use a Carbon Copy Clone of their boot drive to a new HFS+Journaled external drive (used only for this purpose) as a "hold the option key" bootable backup in case something goes wrong with their boot drive or need to restore to a previous OS X version.. (in addition to TimeMachine drive for more immediate backups.)
It's not advised to have a Bootable Clone and a TimeMachine partition on the same external drive, as two drives gives hardware protection in case one fails.

How do I remove Lion and go back to Snow Leopard?

I spent half a day downloading and installing Lion today.
All my Microsoft Office applications are now unusable. This is unacceptable!!! It is more important to be functional with my apps than to have a fancy new OS that doesn't allow me to work!!!
So, please, how do I uninstall/remove and go back to Snow Leopard?

MacIntouch Lion comments:
The Office for Mac team recently posted a blog post concerning Lion compatibility. You can find that blog post by following the link below:
http://blog.officeformac.com/office-for-mac-2011-and-mac-os-x-10-7-lion/
You can find more information concerning Lion (10.7) compatibility on the following KB article:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2586538
http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/lion/index.html#d23jul2011

How can I delete Mt. lion and go back to Snow Leopard?

I just installed Mt. lion and learned that I can no longer use Microsoft products (Excel and Word). These are MUST apps. How do I go back to Snow Leopard?

The reason Office will not run is because you are trying to run Office 2004 which is coded for the PowerPC that is no longer supported. If that is your only problem with Mountain Lion then I would suggest you upgrade Office rather then downgrade the operating system.
If you still wish to downgrade, you can't install an older version of OS X on a disk with a newer version installed. So the first step is that the disk must first be erased. That means that everythinbg will be removed from the disk. So you must backup anything you want first. It also means that you are going to have install all of your applications again which are not part of the operating system.
There are free version of Office available such as OpenOffice and NeoOffice, you don't want to pay Microsoft for their upgrade.
Allan

How do i backoff lion and go back to snow leopard

Too many issues with too much time for system to come up, time capsule, Adobe CS does not work, Bento files dont work, just want to go back to Snow Leopard...what are the steps?

You'll want to backup first (obviously)!!!!!!!!
But
1) boot from a Snow Leopard Disk (or your computer's original system disks if your machine came with 10.6) by EITHER holding down the OPTION key or the C key when rebooting (the compute rgoes 'bong' and then press the key immediately)
2) Choose your language
3) When you choose the disk on which to install Snow Leopard, it should yell at you (which is good).
(I don't have the images in front of my, so I apologize if the instructions aren't exact)
4) Chose ARCHIVE & INSTALL if you can.
*Archive & install, is a wonderful feature removed after Snow Leopard where you can reinstall the OS w/o overwriting the old, or reformatting the drive.
5) DO the standard install, or click 'advanced' and unselect that which you don't need (like Chinese for example, or printer drivers for brands you don't have).
6) Once the install is done, you'll want to immediately run the MAc Updater and get up to 10.6.8, the current rev of Snow Leopard.
However, should the disk not allow you to 'archive and install'; you'll need to either choose 'erase and install'; or if THAT isn't an option;
go into the menus, and to DISK UTILITY
Choose your hard drive, and erase it.
Quit Disk Utility, and repeat the above steps to install a clean version of Snow Leopard.
But please, BACK UP FIRST.
Use Super-duper or Carbon Copy Cloner (both free, both good) to clone your drive as it is presently; I am not sure if a 10.7 Time MAchine will be readible from a 10.6 migration assistant.
And next time, read before you update your OS; we've known for MONTHS that CS, CS2 won't work as they are PPC applications. CS3+ work just fine for the most part- there are some subroutines in Photoshop that evidently are still PPC applications.
I don't allow my users to upgrade to a new OS until the x.x.2 release; and in the case of Lion- I have been going over their system apps to make sure they don't use PPC apps anymore.

How can I unistall Lion and go back to Snow Leopard?

I upgraded to Lion (stupidly and blindly) and now most of my programs are not compatible. What is the process to go back to Snow Leopard?

Given the lack of response to this particular discussion, and given all the various and sundry ideas on this topic, I have had a panic-stricken 48 or so hours since I asked my question. Here's what finally worked to get me back to normal:
1. First, I gritted my teeth and erased my hard drive, hoping and praying I'd be able to restore from Time Machine. I'd been backing up for quite some time, but never needed it before. HOWEVER:
Lion evidently left little gremlins all over my hard drive, because I simply could not get my hard drive restored properly, not from the Time Machine restore function on the SL disk NOR from a manual "Star Wars" pick and choose with my Time Machine. Therefore (and this is important):
I zeroed out my hard drive completely, after trying for an entire day to get things back to normal. What you have to do is start up from the Snow Leopard disk, and do a COMPLETE erase, by which I mean that when you use DU to erase your hard drive, you go into the "security" panel on th DU screen and do a 7-pass zero-initialization of your hard drive, i.e., write zeros all over everything on your hard drive seven times, leaving it truly free of that yucky Lion. THEN I reinstalled Snow Leopard, ran Software Update several times until it had updated everything it wanted to ad nauseum, and THEN was able to get Time Machine to work properly and bit by bit restored everything I wanted to restore. I am appalled at the lack of accurate documentation that comes with Time Machine, frankly. Anyway, when you get ready to restore your software AFTER you put the Snow Leopard system back on your hard drive and update it, you have to go back to a backup from BEFORE you installed Lion, though: this is important. Don't try to put anything associated with Lion back on your hard drive. For me, that backup was done was last Friday. It took ages, but....my hard drive is now purring like a kitten, and I have Snow Leopard and all my old software back. It was a mess, but it seems to be over. I learned from this disaster how important it is to completely wipe your hard drive clean before trying to reinstall an older operating system. As far as Lion goes, I will be extremely careful before I assume any new upgrade is a good upgrade. It isn't. I LIKE my elderly Adobe programs and my kid likes her games that need Rosetta, as does Word 2004. My Mac is much happier with Snow Leopard. For now. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

How do I uninstall mountain lion and go back to lion, how do I uninstall mountain lion and go back to lion

Please help!!! I dont like it!

The installer may do squirrelly things in an upgrade like nip and tuck the code, turning Lion into Mountain Lion. The best option is to do a fresh install. Do a Time Machine backup of your files (you can probably exclude the system folder and apps - just download them again from the App Store). Concentrate on your home folder - iTunes files, your library folder, iPhoto library, etc. Re-download Mountain Lion from the App Store. If the installer starts, quit the app. Now go to your Application folder and find the Mountain Lion installer. View the contents of the package and go to Contents:SharedSupport:InstallESD.dmg. Drag the .dmg file to your desktop or someplace else convenient. Next, open Disk Utility and burn the disk image to an 8 GB DVD or flash drive. If you burn it to a flash drive, you may get an error saying the burn failed. If it burned for a while, long enough for the image to actually copy over, ignore it. Reboot your Mac whole holding down the Option key with the flash drive in a USB port or DVD in the drive. You should get the option to boot from that drive. Select the Mountain Lion DVD/USB option to test the boot. You can then either continue the installation or quit the installer until you're ready.
If you purchased Lion from the App Store previously, there doesn't seem to be a way to download Lion within Mountain Lion. You may have a friend with either Lion or a newer Mac with Snow Leopard installed, if so, you may want to login to their App Store, download it, and try to install Lion that way. If you bought your Mac with Lion preinstalled, you won't be able to download Lion at all.

Need help uninstalling Mountain Lion and going back to Lion.

I have just installed Mountain Lion. I am having serious compatibility issues with Matlab, though, and I want to reinstall Lion so that I can work in Matlab. I do not have a recent enough time machine backup of Lion, and I bought Lion from the app store. When I try to re-download the Lion installer from the app store, it says "You can’t upgrade this version of Mac OS X because a newer version is installed." How can I get Lion back?

Did you by chance create a USB thumb drive with the Lion Recovery HD on it? Hopefully you did. If so, you can boot from that thumb drive and you will see the Lion logo for the Reinstall Mac OS X selection on the Utilities menu.

How can I uninstall Mountain Lion and go back Lion?

I have tried everything. My MacBook Pro is just not the same since ML. I want to get rid of it and go back Lion. What is the easiest way to do so?

Clearing cache is a poor thing to do to improve system performance.
In fact, when you clear cache you actually slow your system down until cache is reloading again.
Yes, it is true cache can get corrupt and have to be cleared. This happens so infrequently that it is almost never a required solution unless you have problems that are specific to corrupt cache.
By the way why are you replying to my post when in fact your comments have nothing to do with my post at all.
Allan

How to uninstall lion and get back to snow leopard, how to uninstall lion and get back to snow leopard

my Final Cut Express 4 is not good in Lion...i have to get back to snow, but how?

i believe i dont have...i just sent my mac to someone i know for rebooting and after that when i had it already it turned to Lion....
hmmm is there a prize updating? bacause the installer i bought is the FCE 4...to what should i upgrade it?

Is it possible to uninstall mountain lion and go back to snow leopard

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