How to downgrade from Big Sur to Catalina? Catalina is no longer available in the app store

Question

How to downgrade from Big Sur to Catalina? Catalina is no longer available in the app store

I would like to downgrade my OS from Big Sur to Catalina, so that I can use refind again (which stopped working in Big Sur).

However, when I click the click the apple link to download Catalina (e.g. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/macos-catalina/id1466841314?mt=12) it open the mac app store and then displays a message:

"Item Not Available: The item you’ve requested is not currently available in the U.S. store."

When I search for Catalina in the App Store I also can't find it.

How can I find Catalina to downgrade to it? I would also be ok with downgrading to another version of OS X (e.g. High Sierra).

Mac mini, macOS 10.14

Posted on Jun 30, 2021 05:23 AM

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Answer 1

Jun 30, 2021 05:39 AM in response to maximusfowler

Backup your data because you are going to need to erase the internal disk
Shut down the Mac, boot into Safe Mode by holding SHIFT (flushes system caches, etc.) then Shutdown fully
Boot normally
Try the hidden link to Catalina in the App Store again: (macOS Catalina 10.15)
Once it downloads, do not run the installer, if it launches, quit it
Use the link below to create a bootable macOS installer for a flash USB drive (16GB+)
Hold Option while booting and select the USB drive to boot the installer
Delete your internal drive with Disk Utility completely
Install Catalina to the internal drive
Restore your backup

How to get old versions of macOS:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

How to create a bootable installer for macOS:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

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Answer 2

Jun 30, 2021 06:50 AM in response to Owl-53

Thanks for the replies!

The link you included to Catalina still gave me the same error, "Item Not Available: The item you’ve requested is not currently available in the U.S. store.",

but I was able to fix the issue by opening the link in safari instead of from firefox, and then it opened in the app store properly. Not sure why.

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Answer 3

Owl-53

Level 10

100,249 points

Jun 30, 2021 06:10 AM in response to maximusfowler

Agree with all mentioned from previous person posting and follow all the steps and directions.

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How to downgrade from Big Sur to Catalina? Catalina is no longer available in the app store

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