Depending on how tidy your Mac is, this might take quite a bit of time. You can, of course, do so manually by deleting unused files and uninstalling old software to free up disk space.

You’ll need at least eight gigabytes of storage, depending on which macOS you downgrade to.Įven if you do have enough space, it’s a good idea to clean your computer before installing the desired operating system. On macOS Ventura, the flow is slightly different: open System Settings and head over to Storage. Tabbing over to Storage will let you know how much disk space you have available. Make sure you are ready to downgrade your operating system by checking what macOS version you currently use and ensuring you have enough hard drive room to download an older version.Ĭlick Apple in the top left corner of your screen and choose About This Mac. In this article, we’ll take you through everything you need to download and install an old OS X on your Mac. Apple also used to have OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard available for a fee, but it is no longer purchasable.Try free ✕ How to install old OS X on your MacĪlthough you might think that going back to the old macOS is not possible by looking at the App Store Updates tab, it’s actually quite easy to do. Mavericks was free to download, and Apple has not charged for Mac software since then outside of the legacy Lion and Mountain Lion updates. Apple began making Mac updates free with the launch of OS X 10.9 Mavericks, which also marked the shift from big cat names to California landmark names. The $19.99 fee dates back to when Apple used to charge for Mac updates. Macs that shipped with Mac OS X Mavericks or later are not compatible with the installer, however. MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer).Mac OS X Mountain Lion is compatible with the following Macs: Mac OS X Lion is compatible with Macs that have an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, or Xeon processor, a minimum of 2GB RAM, and 7GB storage space. Apple recently dropped the $19.99 fee for OS X Lion and Mountain Lion, making the older Mac updates free to download, reports Macworld.Īpple has kept OS X 10.7 Lion and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion available for customers who have machines limited to the older software, but until recently, Apple was charging $19.99 to get download codes for the updates.Īs of last week, these updates no longer require a fee, and can be downloaded from the OS X Lion and OS X Mountain Lion support documents on Apple's website.

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