MacOS Sonoma beta is enticing. macOS Sonoma Beta is enticing until you spot an issue that is causing you to lose your workflow. Here’s the best way to return to macOS Ventura.
Tell us that you’d have backed up your Mac prior to installing the macOS 14 beta. If not, chances are you’ll want to stick to macOS Sonoma instead of trying to upgrade.
This is because downgrading requires you to erase your Mac completely. This means you can wipe your Mac and then reinstall the apps and files, hoping everything is already in iCloud and, if it isn’t, it’ll be a slow process.
Even if you have backups but you’re not likely to change to macOS Ventura in five minutes.
If you have to downgrade from macOS Sonoma beta the simplest method is to wipe the Mac and start new in Recovery Mode.
How to uninstall macOS Sonoma on Apple Silicon Macs
- Shut down the Mac
- Restart the Mac by pressing and holding Power (on Intel Macs, press Power, then hold Command-R)
- On the screen that eventually appears, choose Options and click Continue
- When prompted, enter the password for your user account
- Do not choose the reinstall macOS option when offered
- Instead, click on Disk Utility, and then Continue
- Choose the very top level of the hard drive displayed, then click Erase
- Enter a name for your Mac and click the new Erase button
- Confirm — twice — that you are certain you want to do this
- When prompted, choose a Wi-Fi network for the Mac to join
- After a moment, your Mac is activated and you can click Exit to Recovery
- Now choose Reinstall macOS Ventura
It is a way to download the latest version of macOS Ventura and install it. Be aware that it’s about 12GB of download. Also, depending on the speed of your internet the download could take up to a couple of hours.
