Over the years, OS X has undergone many changes. But her defining qualities - strength, simplicity and elegance - remained unchanged. Creating OS X Yosemite, we have tried to make the system even more powerful and easier to use, while maintaining its basic elements. This is an important step in the evolution of OS X.

So, you’ve decided to download an older version of Mac OS X. There are many reasons that could point you to this radical decision. To begin with, some of your apps may not be working properly (or simply crash) on newer operating systems. Also, you may have noticed your Mac’s performance went down right after the last update.

Finally, if you want to run a parallel copy of Mac OS X on a virtual machine, you too will need a working installation file of an older Mac OS X. Further down we’ll explain where to get one and what problems you may face down the road. A list of all Mac OS X versions We’ll be repeatedly referring to these Apple OS versions below, so it’s good to know the basic macOS timeline. Cheetah 10.0 Puma 10.1 Jaguar 10.2 Panther 10.3 Tiger 10.4 Leopard 10.5 Snow Leopard 10.6 Lion 10.7 Mountain Lion 10.8 Mavericks 10.9 Yosemite 10.10 El Capitan 10.11 Sierra 10.12 High Sierra 10.13 Mojave 10.14 STEP 1. Prepare your Mac for installation Given your Mac isn’t new and is filled with data, you will probably need enough free space on your Mac. This includes not just space for the OS itself but also space for other applications and your user data. One more argument is that the free space on your disk translates into virtual memory so your apps have “fuel” to operate on.

The chart below tells you how much free space is needed. Note, that it is recommended that you install OS on a clean drive. Next, you will need enough disk space available, for example, to create Recovery Partition. Here are some ideas to free up space on your drive: • Uninstall large unused apps • Empty Trash Bin and Downloads • Locate the biggest files on your computer: Go to Finder > All My Files > Arrange by size Then you can move your space hoggers onto an external drive or a cloud storage. If you aren’t comfortable with cleaning the Mac manually, there are some nice automatic “room cleaners”. Our favorite is as it’s most simple to use of all. It deletes system junk, old broken apps, and the rest of hidden junk on your drive.

For OS 10.4 - 10.8 (free version) for OS 10.9 (free version) for OS 10.10 - 10.14 (free version) STEP 2. Get a copy of Mac OS X download Normally, it is assumed that updating OS is a one-way road. That’s why going back to a past Apple OS version is problematic. The main challenge is to download the OS installation file itself, because your Mac may already be running a newer version. If you succeed in downloading the OS installation, your next step is to create a bootable USB or DVD and then reinstall the OS on your computer.

How to download older Mac OS X versions via the App Store If you once had purchased an old version of Mac OS X from the App Store, open it and go to the Purchased tab. There you’ll find all the installers you can download. However, it doesn’t always work that way. The purchased section lists only those operating systems that you had downloaded in the past.