(forget all the "clean my mac stuff, they are pushing a software)
The first and the third cases in this article concerns you.
If you have a time machine old enough, from before Sonoma, you can use it. BUT all the files you made since that day will be lost. So, don’t forget to save on a separate drive all your recent stuff, and put them back after.
if you don’t have a time machine old enough, well make one right now. just in case.
if you don’t have many files, you can simply copy all your stuff (music, images, work or personnel files) on a drive, then do a clean install, and after, put all your files back. You’ll also need to reinstall all your softwares.
third solution, that I’ve used a couple of times, is to make a clone. I used a software (free) called “super duper”. it has a simple interface, “from” your computer “to” your external drive, then ask for a full backup, and start. it’ll take hours.
when the clone is made, you can do the clean install method. but during the install, mac os ventura will ask “do you want to import data from another computer or drive?” and there you say yes. plug in your drive, select it, and it’ll treat it as another mac. and import from it.
Most of the stuff will import OK, you might have to reinstall a few softwares, and if anything is missing, you can still access and navigate the external drive.
frankly, if you have a ventura time machine somewhere, this is the best you can do. backup your more recent files, and revert to this time machine.
the clean install methods will be more time consuming, and if it’s your first time… more stressful
(if you clean install, don’t forget to do a time machine save just in case)
Thank you for this. Honestly, too complicated for me but must of all, Apple technicians looked at my 2021 MacBook Pro with M1 Apple Chip and told me with a lot of confidence that only their protocole would be able to downgrade to Ventura or Monterey. In any case, Sketchup 2023 running very fine now with Sonoma, so no more need to downgrade OS.
Apple calling its technicians “genius” is an affront to geniuses more than a compliment to the tech support really…
basically 3 variations of the same way, reinstall, add your data :
save on a hard drive you stuff, and do a complete clean install back to ventura. then copy your stuff. as if it was a new machine
use time machine and ask time machine to revert to a certain date. careful, all you’ve made since will be lost, but you can save it on a hard drive, lie the first solution
use another copy/backup system, do a clean install, and import data from your backup as you would with a new machine.
all of them require a bit of tech know-how, a bit of material / backup solutions, and yeah, can be scary.
Regardless, having a backup solution is quite good. Could be time machine, could be an online backup (I’m using swiss backup), or even from time to time, plug in a hard drive and manually / automatically copy what’s important.
Wiping the machine and installing from fresh is always a cathartic experience, it can help you purge away things you never needed and freshen up settings that might be causing issues in general.
It will probably run better afterwards.
