- #How to downgrade mac os lion to snow leopard mac os x
- #How to downgrade mac os lion to snow leopard software license
- #How to downgrade mac os lion to snow leopard install
- #How to downgrade mac os lion to snow leopard license
This means that as long as you have a good backup a 5GB-or-larger thumb drive or external drive and either an already-downloaded copy of the installer or access to a Mac running Snow Leopard, Lion, or Mountain Lion, you can perform a bit of installer razzle-dazzle.
#How to downgrade mac os lion to snow leopard install
What if you don’t want to install Snow Leopard first, or if you don’t have your Snow Leopard disc handy? I’m not being coy here-perhaps you’ve misplaced the disc, or maybe you’re on the road and you’ve got your Mac’s original (Leopard) disc with you as an emergency boot disc, but you don’t have your Snow Leopard upgrade disc.Īs I mentioned above, the Mountain Lion installer will let you install onto a bare drive as long as the installer itself is run under Snow Leopard, Lion, or Mountain Lion. The Mountain Lion installer will, however, install onto a blank drive, so Mountain Lion clearly doesn’t need any of Snow Leopard’s files or settings.
#How to downgrade mac os lion to snow leopard mac os x
In my testing with many Macs, the Mountain Lion installer, like the Lion installer before it, refuses to install onto a drive containing Leopard in fact, it refuses to install on any drive running a version of Mac OS X below 10.6.8, just as its official system requirements claim. The Mountain Lion installer refuses to install onto a drive running Leopard (OS X 10.5). So then the question becomes whether there are any technical reasons you can’t install Mountain Lion over Leopard. In other words, in our view, you should be well within your rights to install Mountain Lion on any of your computers for which you have a valid, current Snow Leopard or Lion license-even if you don’t actually install Snow Leopard first.
#How to downgrade mac os lion to snow leopard license
While the letter of the law says you need to install at least Snow Leopard before installing Mountain Lion, the spirit of the law seems to be that a particular Leopard-equipped Mac just needs a license for Snow Leopard or Lion before you can upgrade it. Having performed this two-step upgrade many times while researching our various Mountain Lion-installation articles (and last year while writing our Lion-installation articles), I can tell you that it’s a real hassle.īut lets take a step back.
This is just one scenario-I can think of a number of situations in which you might have Leopard on a Mac or an external drive, along with a valid license for Snow Leopard, and you’d rather not take the interim step of installing Snow Leopard just to upgrade to Mountain Lion.
But what if, for example, you’ve got a family-pack license for Snow Leopard, and you’ve got a Mac that shipped with Leopard but that’s never been upgraded to Snow Leopard or Lion? The Mountain Lion license agreements say that even if that Mac is compatible, you can’t upgrade to 10.8 until you first install at least Snow Leopard. If your Mac doesn’t at least have Snow Leopard installed, you can’t install Mountain Lion. If your Mac shipped with Leopard or Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4), but you later purchased and installed Snow Leopard or Lion, you can install Mountain Lion.
#How to downgrade mac os lion to snow leopard software license
The software license you agree to when you install Mountain Lion states that you can “download, install, use and run for personal, non-commercial use, one (1) copy of the directly on each Apple-branded computer running OS X Lion or OS X Snow Leopard…that you own or control.” In other words, if your Mac shipped with Lion or Snow Leopard, you can install Mountain Lion. (Specifically, Mountain Lion requires OS X 10.6.8 or later.) The main practical reason for this requirement is that Mountain Lion is available only via the Mac App Store, and the Mac App Store debuted in Mac OS X 10.6-in other words, you need Snow Leopard or Lion just to be able to purchase and download Mountain Lion.īut once you’ve got your copy of Mountain Lion, can you install it onto a Mac or an external drive containing Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5)?
As I explained in my guide to installing Mountain Lion, one of the requirements for installing OS X 10.8 is that you already have at least Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6) installed.
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