Switch from Mountain Lion back to Snow Leopard

I have a 2 year old MacBook and about a month ago installed Mountain Lion. After countless hours of struggling with the new mail program and a few other OS issues, I have buyer's remorse and want to go back. Is this possible? I would be happy just to have the older Mail program. Otherwise, I'm going to Thunderbird, which I really don't want to do.
PH
Morro Bay, CA

If I back up my computer on an external hard drive, will everything be intact: my files, mail, apps, music?
When you said to install it on a blank partition, what does that mean? Do I need to do something after that?

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I recently downgraded from Mountain Lion back to Snow Leopard and I forgot to export my bookmarks.

Unfortunately downgrading from Mountain Lion back to Snow Leopard means I need to wipe the hard drive and install everything from scratch. That takes hours, and I've already done the bulk of the work, twice actually since I forgot to back up my photos in Iphoto and had to start over from my Time Machine backup of Mountain Lion.
Anyhow, I am curious as to whether or not there is a way to retrieve my bookmarks from the Time Machine backup and get them onto my downgraded OS, or will I have to start all over again, restore my system to Mountain Lion and go through the hours it takes to get back to Snow Leopard.

You're missing the point. If you didn't make the /username/Library/ folder visible, then it's hidden on the TM backup. Getting to ii is beyond my ken. However, Pondini's TM FAQs might have info on that madness.

How to downgrade from Mountain Lion back to snow leopard with Time Machine

The final straw was the horrible mouse sideways page wiggle while trying to scroll down and read safari pages. Even after turning the feature off, tech support said it will still wiggle a little. That and the HORRIBLE grey icons everywhere was enough to send me back to my beloved iMac I loved when I bought it. I'll give up the iMessage and the few new items ML gave me. But as many others said, what I got new was far less than what was taken away.
So what tech support had me do was this. Even though the apple engineers said it would not work, apple tech support had me try it and it worked for me so good luck. Engineers said that after you install mountain Lion, it messes with ALL your time machine back ups and won't revert back to snow leopard even if you select a snow leopard date back in time. That didn't happen to me. I have a 2010 27 inch iMac
This worked for me but PROCEED AT YOU OWN RISK
Export individually any email folders or photos or data you will lose between now and the date you are reverting back to.
1. Insert Snow Leopard DVD that came with computer. The install disk not the applications. Make sure time machine external drive IS connected.
2. Restart computer and when you hear The Mac chime, hold down the C key and then it will take several minutes to boot up from the DVD.
3. Select the little blue triangle to continue in English.
4. When it gets to the screen that says "continue" stop. There might be a screen or two before this one I can't remember but either way stop at the word continue.
5. Go up to the top left and find the UTILITIES pull down menu and select disk utility.
6. In the window that opens up, Select the Apple drive which should be the very top one in the window.
7. Select erase.. it should be Mac OS extended journaled
8 select erase and maybe a password. It only takes a few seconds
9 go back up to UTILITIES in upper left and then select restore from time machine or backup or whatever it says. It's the last choice.
10. Select the external time machine drive and navigate to the date you last had Snow Leopard running and that will be the date it restores to. You will lose any data between now and then but you can export your mail, export photos, and other items separately. I only stayed on ML For a few days before hating it enough to go back so I had no loss of data except a few emails.
11. Hit RESTORE. And then it will take several hours. When you restart it, it should come right back to that day you selected as if ML was just a bad thought on someone's drawing board.   If for some reason it still comes up ML, Then they said to erase HD Again (steps 1-8) and then manually drags back USER folder or individual folders with Mail, photos etc.   if this way doesn't work, have another plan printed out so that you are not stuck by this one.
Good luck. Proceed at your own risk..

The ultimate solution:
You need an USB of at least 5 GB and the Snow Leopard Install DVD.
1. make a bootable USB with Disk Utility in it:
     a. download the Mountain Lion Installer from the App Store
     b. quit the installer after download
     c. find the installer in the Applications folder
     d. option+click in it and select "Show Pakage Contents"
     e. go to Contents>SharedSupport to find there the InstallESD.dmg file and mount it by double-clicking it
     f. with the Disk Utility, restore its contents into your USB
2. boot from the USB:
     a. restart the computer and hold-down the option key while booting
     b. select the USB and boot
3. run the Disk Utility and format in ONE partition the HD of your computer
REMEMBER: BACKUP YOUR HARD DISK BEFORE DOING ALL THESE, YOUR DISK WILL BE EREASED AND DATA BECOME UNRECOVERABLE OTHERWISE
4. insert the Snow Leopard DVD and reboot from it
5. follow the on-screen instructions to install OS X 10.6
After this, you can, if you will, upgrade to Lion or stay in Snow... Good Luck!!

Downgrading Mountain Lion back to Snow Leopard

I have a mid summer 2010 Mac Mini that originally came with Snow Leopard and I still have the install disks. In september, I upgrade to Mountain lion and due to the slow and unacceptable performance since then, I want to go back to Snow Leopard. I have been backing up on an external drive with TIme Machine for the past two years. I upgraded on September 12 and I have a several Time Machine Backups in August and early September when I was still operating with Snow Leopard. My question- Can I open up in Mountain Lion the Recovery disk option, use Disk Utility to erase the Mini's hard drive and then reinstall a time machine backup from before September 12? I have backed up files that have been changed in the past several months including mail and iweb. Will going to a previous back up in Time Machine before I upgraded work? If this won't work, can I use the Snow Leopard Disk and do the same thing- wipe clean the mini's hard drive and install a Time Machine Backup from before sept 12 from my external drive?
Any input, suggestions or instructions on this topic would be appreciated.
Thanks
Karl

Thanks mende1, excuse my ignorance but do I have the steps right?
1. Boot up with Snow Leopard Install Disk
2. Use utility to wipe clean the mini's hard drive
3. restore system using Time Machine Backup from before I upgraded to Mountain Lion
When and where will I find the option to restore from a Time Machine Backup?
Thanks

Sharing a Calendar from Mountain Lion server with Snow Leopard users on local network

Hello.
I have a new Mac Mini Server running Mountain Lion Server and I want to create a shared calender for a mix of Lion, Mountain Lion and Snow Leopard users on our local network. Does anyone have any info on how to do this? I have tried using the Server App and Calender Help within the applications, but the content isn't available. I have managed to create a Shared Calender from the Mini's Calendar App where I've added users and I can see a 'wireless' transmit icon to the right of the Calendar name - but I cant get any of the users' iCal or Calendar apps to recognise the Calendar on the local network. I've also created a Location in the Server App under Calendar and still can't see anything on the local network. Am I missing something really obvious?
Thanks in advance!

Sorry, I hadn't explained everything fully. I don't want to open up my VPN to friends and family. I do have the router assigning the NAS a fixed IP, so that when I connect over the VPN I can use the local IP address to connect, as you have mentioned.
What I would like is for my friends or family to connect to my server over AFP or SMB using the public IP of my network, which my router then forwards onto my server, and display the available sharepoints configured using Mountain Lion server. However, the NAS drive is not an available option this way as it has a separate IP to the server.
As the NAS alllows guest access, I also don't want to configure the router to forward a specific port to it, as this way it will be open to the internet. I wanted to try and use my server as an authentication point, with profiles set using Mountain Lion server, and limited to file sharing services only.
Hope this makes sense.

I reformatted from lion back to snow leopard how do i get my music back i have it on my iphone and when i sync up i still do not have my music on my mac how do i transfer it back to my mac

i reformatted my mac pro from lion back to snow leopard how do i get my music back. i have it on my iphone and when i sync up i still do not have my music on my mac how do i transfer it back to my mac.

Wow, you didn't make a backup of your files first?
You shoudl have come here first for help before doing that.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16276201#16276201
All I can say is make sure you have the same account name on the computer like before, even if you have to create a new user under System Preferences>accounts, then log into your itunes account with that and try to reverse sync from the iPhone like you would normally.
Apple doesn't expect one to go backwards, so they are not all that friendly, you may have to ask around on MacRumors for third party software that can reverse sync from iOS devices.
Good luck

How do I uninstall mountain lion and reinstall snow leopard

If I had known that I would not be able to use my excel files I would not have purchased OSX Mountain Lion. Is there a way to uninstall mountain lion and reinstall snow leopard?
Thank you,

To get more to the point the answer is the only way to go back to SnowLeopard is if you have a complete backup of your system from before the upgrade.
If you do you would boot off your original SL DVD wipe the disk and install SL and then restore from your SL backups.
Short of that here is no way to go back. But as the others have offered there are other less drastic means to deal with the problem.
regards

How do you erase mountain lion to install snow leopard?

Hi, My mother now has a new to her late 09 mini that originally shipped with snow leopard. When she bought it it came with mountain lion preinstalled from a private seller. We were thinking that to be on the safe side that it might be better to erase and install what's on it just to be sure it is secure. I tried to erase and install snow leopard from a disk but it says that the installer is not compatible with this version of osx(mountain lion). Question: How do I erase mountain lion and install snow leopard?
I've read here that there is possibly a built in recovery disk that I can use to erase and reinstall mountain lion. Q: Is there a built in recovery disk available in my situation? and if so should I use it or be even safer by installing snow leopard instead?
Thank you,

I think I found the answer (from sl install disk use disk utility to erase then install sl). Thanks for looking.

HT3910 How do I erase Mountain Lion and reinstall Snow Leopard?

Can anyone help me erase Mountain Lion and reinstall Snow Leopard. When I had installed Mountain Lion,I discovered that my music notation program, Overture was not working with Mountain Lion. Please help me, years of work is for now lost.

Back up your data files.
Use the Snow Leopard installer disc to completely erase your hard drive and everything on it.
Re-install the SL operating system, then all your applications, then your data files.
If you happened to make a bootable backup clone of your hard drive before installing Mountail Lion then you can just clone the backup back to your drive.

How to use Migration Assistant to transfer files from osx lion to osx snow leopard

I have MacBook with osx Lion and I need transfer my user acount to another mac computer (Mac mini) because my MacBook was broke and I send it to service. On Mac mini I have osx Snow Leopard. Is possible to use Migration Assistant to transfer files from osx Lion to osx Snow Leopard?

Sorry, but there's no way to "go back" with Migration Assistant.
Can you upgrade the Mini?

Is mountain lion compatible with snow leopard?

is mountain lion compatible with snow leopard? can you use the same version of iTunes

VMware and Toaster can be upgraded to versions that will run on Mountain Lion.
I was not able to find anything on PalmPilot for Mountain Lion. Of course seeing as how it is at least 15 years old that doesn't surprise me.
As I see you want to run two operating systems which means rebooting to use them just for PalmPilot. IMHO that is a lot of effort on your part for a very small gain.
Allan

How do I switch from Mountain Lion to Snow Leopard? New used computer that I don't have anything on yet but has Mountain Lion installed.

I just puchased a used 2008 MacPro 2.8 ghz 8 core and it has Mountain Lion installed on it. I want to go back to Snow Leopard because it is a better stable OS for using Final Cut Pro 7. I just bought the Snow Leopard Discs to install. I need to erase the hard drive and install Snow Leopard. Any help on how
to do this? Thank you.

Downgrade Lion/Mountain 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.
If you have Snow Leopard Time Machine backups made while on Snow Leopard, then you may 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/Mountain Lion files.

IPhoto 9.1.5 won't open, downgraded from Lion back to Snow Leopard

I have tried to open iPhoto and every time I get a similar error window like I have pasted below. I have reinstalled iPhoto from iLife '11 disc. I have updated until I get the message that everything is up to date. I can't help but think that priviously installing Lion and then going back to Snow Leopard has had something to do with this. I also go to "Finder>Pictures>iPhoto Library" and there is nothing there. No arrow saying there is something inside, no list of folders titled with what roll or event they belong to.. nothing.
here is a copy of the error message, it is long, and I don't know what it means
Process:         iPhoto [730]
Path:            /Applications/iPhoto.app/Contents/MacOS/iPhoto
Identifier:      com.apple.iPhoto
Version:         ??? (???)
Build Info:      iPhotoProject-6150000~1
Code Type:       X86 (Native)
Parent Process: launchd [135]
Date/Time:       2011-07-31 13:15:16.679 -0400
OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.6.8 (10K549)
Report Version: 6
Interval Since Last Report:          14716 sec
Crashes Since Last Report:           36
Per-App Crashes Since Last Report:   10
Anonymous UUID:                      6E3CAB0C-061D-4097-ABC1-D1E4ED15272A
Exception Type: EXC_BREAKPOINT (SIGTRAP)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000002, 0x0000000000000000
Crashed Thread: 0
Dyld Error Message:
Library not loaded: /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreMedia.framework/Versions/A/CoreMedia
Referenced from: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ProKit.framework/Versions/A/ProKit
Reason: image not found
Binary Images:
0x8fe00000 - 0x8fe4163b dyld 132.1 (???) <4CDE4F04-0DD6-224E-ACE5-3C06E169A801> /usr/lib/dyld
Model: iMac9,1, BootROM IM91.008D.B08, 2 processors, Intel Core 2 Duo, 3.06 GHz, 4 GB, SMC 1.45f0
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 4850, ATI Radeon HD 4850, PCIe, 512 MB
Memory Module: global_name
AirPort: spairport_wireless_card_type_airport_extreme (0x14E4, 0x8E), Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.10.131.42.4)
Bluetooth: Version 2.4.5f3, 2 service, 12 devices, 1 incoming serial ports
Network Service: AirPort, AirPort, en1
Serial ATA Device: WDC WD1001FALS-40K1B0, 931.51 GB
Serial ATA Device: HL-DT-ST DVDRW GA11N
USB Device: Built-in iSight, 0x05ac (Apple Inc.), 0x8502, 0x24400000 / 4
USB Device: Ext HDD 1021, 0x1058 (Western Digital Technologies, Inc.), 0x1021, 0x24300000 / 3
USB Device: Keyboard Hub, 0x05ac (Apple Inc.), 0x1006, 0x24100000 / 2
USB Device: Apple Optical USB Mouse, 0x05ac (Apple Inc.), 0x0304, 0x24130000 / 7
USB Device: Microsoft® 2.4GHz Transceiver V2.0, 0x045e (Microsoft Corporation), 0x071f, 0x24110000 / 6
USB Device: Apple Keyboard, 0x05ac (Apple Inc.), 0x0220, 0x24120000 / 5
USB Device: Hub, 0x050d (Belkin Corporation), 0x0234, 0x26400000 / 2
USB Device: Deskjet 6940 series, 0x03f0 (Hewlett Packard), 0x8904, 0x26420000 / 4
USB Device: CanoScan, 0x04a9 (Canon Inc.), 0x221f, 0x26410000 / 3
USB Device: IR Receiver, 0x05ac (Apple Inc.), 0x8242, 0x04500000 / 2
USB Device: BRCM2046 Hub, 0x0a5c (Broadcom Corp.), 0x4500, 0x06100000 / 2
USB Device: Bluetooth USB Host Controller, 0x05ac (Apple Inc.), 0x8215, 0x06110000 / 3
FireWire Device: My Book, WD, Up to 800 Mb/sec
FireWire Device: d2 DVDRW FW/USB, LaCie, Up to 400 Mb/sec
FireWire Device: LaCie d2 Extreme LUN 0, LaCie Group SA, Up to 800 Mb/sec

This has affected a number of people who reverted from 10.7 to 10.6. Iphoto is missing some background framework that it needs.
"Library not loaded: .../Versions/A/CoreMedia
...Reason: image not found"
A reinstall may help:
To re-install iPhoto
1. Put the iPhoto.app in the trash (Drag it from your Applications Folder to the trash)
2a: On 10.5: Go to HD/Library/Receipts and remove any pkg file there with iPhoto in the name.
2b: On 10.6: Those receipts may be found as follows: In the Finder use the Go menu and select Go To Folder. In the resulting window type
/var/db/receipts/
2c: on 10.7 they're at
/private/var/db/receipts
A Finder Window will open at that location and you can remove the iPhoto pkg files.
3. Re-install.
If you purchased an iLife Disk, then iPhoto is on it.
If iPhoto was installed on your Mac when you go it then it’s on the System Restore disks that came with your Mac. Insert the first one and opt to ‘Install Bundled Applications Only.
If you purchased it on the App Store you can find it in your Purchases List.
However, if that doesn't help - and in the case of Core Media I wold have my doubts - you'll need to reinstall the OS.
I also go to "Finder>Pictures>iPhoto Library" and there is nothing there. No arrow saying there is something inside, no list of folders titled with what roll or event they belong to.. nothing.
This is normal. Since iPhoto 7 (iLife 08) the old iPhoto Library Folder is a Package File. This is simply a folder that +looks+ like a file in the Finder. The change was made to the format of the iPhoto library because many users were inadvertently corrupting their library by browsing through it with other software or making changes in it themselves.

How do i go from lion back to snow leopard

I have a HP Officejet 8500 printer/scanner/fax and since I've upgraded to Lion OS X 10.7.5 I can no longer scan from my computer like I did previously. I don't know if it was a previous version of Lion or Snow Leopard. If I can downgrade from 10.7.5 to see if that will scan, that is my first choice. If not, I'd like to go back to Snow Leopard. I am using USB instead of wireless.

Akeen1 wrote:
HP Officejet 8500 printer/scanner/fax
Those models usually have custom drivers you need to install as it also includes software and the upgrade wiped it out.
Check the HP website and search for drivers for your model/OSX version and install it.
If you want to downgrade (upgrade ) to Snow Leopard anyway, this is how to go about it.
How to revert your Mac to Snow Leopard
How to erase and install Snow Leopard 10.6
For Snow Leopard Speed Freaks

How do I upgrade from Lion back to Snow Leopard?

I had a Macbook Pro that after 3 trips to the shop, Apple finally replaced with a new machine. Unfortunately the new machine came with the most suck *** operating system ever developed. It is enough to make me think about going back to Windows.
The first one is the annoying security feature that many users have complained about, namely that opening any type of file from the internet generates a warning. I have tried using the terminal command with limited success but in the end I still have to give permission to open up each file and in a file with 500 photos, that is completely impractical.
The second one involves Preview denying me permission to view files. I have loaded numerous .jpeg photos (from my camera, that I took,) onto my computer and if I try to open them in preview, it denies me permission even though the permissions list me as being able to read and write that particular file.
I have been to the Apple store several times with this problem and each time, they claim they either know nothing about the problem (i.e I am the only one who has encountered it) or they just shrug and say it is a Lion improvement.
So my question is, does anyone know how to fix these problems or better yet upgrade to Snow Leopard which did not have these problems but can no longer be downloaded from the Apple Store?

tafmia wrote:
snip ....
So my question is, does anyone know how to fix these problems or better yet upgrade to Snow Leopard which did not have these problems but can no longer be downloaded from the Apple Store?
Snow Leopard never could be downloaded from the Apple Store, you will have to buy it on disc.

Switch from Mountain Lion back to Snow Leopard

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