I have a little OCD, so on previous Macs, would format the SSD before reinstalling the latest version of macOS.
I’ve just purchased a 16 inch MacBook Pro M1 Pro. It was pre-installed with macOS Monterey.
I upgraded to Ventura then formatted the SSD, but when choosing to reinstall macOS, it reverts to downloading Monterey.
Is there any way to clean install macOS and retain Ventura?
Thanks in advance.
MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 13.0
Old Toad, your advice is outdated and clearly demonstrates that you have never performed a "clean" instal of macOS.
Old Toad, your advice is outdated and clearly demonstrates that you have never performed a "clean" instal of macOS.
If it's a new M1 Mac and it came with Monterey there's no reason for a clean install. I've been using Macs since 1984 and have never done or needed to do a clean install, particularly with new Macs.
To do a clean install you would need to create s bootable installer according to this Apple document, Create a bootable installer for macOS, boot into it, erase the boot drive fully and run the installer. It's a lot of effort.
I imagine if all one does is email and surf the web with Safari, then no, you might never have needed to do a clean install. Things are different now with Apple Silicon Macs and a clean install may be a thing of the past for the new Macs, or so I hear. Regardless, one way to skip Monterey when doing a clean install is to download Ventura and make a bootable drive to install it from as outlined in the following Macworld article.
https://www.macworld.com/article/668644/how-to-clean-install-macos-on-your-mac.html
Thanks for this. Much appreciated.
Clean Install macOS Ventura
