Clean install of Sierra from Big Sur ?

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Clean install of Sierra from Big Sur ?

I just bought a used MacBook Air for live music performance ( "Core i7" 1.7 11" Mid-2013 ).

It will basically be a single-purpose machine, repeatedly taking music plug-ins, files and settings from my studio production Mac and using them in a live (Ableton) environment.

Since my studio Mac runs High Sierra (10.12.6) , to avoid any APFS complications I want to have my Air likewise running 10.12.6 ( it arrived loaded with Big Sur 11.7.1 , but was originally 10.8.4 ).

My cautious question is, can I just fire ahead, go to the App Store and do a clean install of Sierra on my Air, or are there possible complications involved in going back to a pre-APFS operating system? (There are currently no files of my own on the machine, it's just out the box...)

MacBook Air

Posted on Dec 31, 2022 02:21 PM

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Answer 1

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MrHoffman

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Dec 31, 2022 02:34 PM in response to gordon k

Sierra is macOS 10.12, High Sierra is macOS 10.13, both Sierra (10.12.4+) and High Sierra use APFS, iPhone and iPad too use APFS, and High Sierra is fading from app support and from secure network connection support.

The effort involved in running older configurations is only going to increase over time too, as computer systems that are truly isolated and truly disconnected are quite rare.

To get to either Sierra (10.12) or to High Sierra, download and build a bootable installer, wipe the Mac, and reload it.

How to download macOS - Apple Support

Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

There is no downgrade path, only wipe-and-start-over, and various files and settings from newer versions will not work on and cannot be copied to older versions. You'll have to find whichever ones will work.

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Answer 2

BDAqua

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250,013 points

Dec 31, 2022 02:37 PM in response to gordon k

As long as you can erase the Drive MacOS Extended Journaled in Restore Mode you should be OK, or build a bootable USB stick...

Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

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Answer 3

gordon k Author

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49 points

Dec 31, 2022 07:33 PM in response to gordon k

Thanks guys - so I'm going down the path of creating a bootable Sierra installer.

I now have a disk image containing a file called InstallOS.pkg, and also an erased 32GB USB stick, Extended Journaled.

The terminal command I have for making the bootable installer is
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/KINGSTON31 --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app --nointeraction

This requires a .app file in the Applications folder.

How do I generate that from the .pkg file in the Disk Image?

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Answer 4

BDAqua

Level 10

250,013 points

Dec 31, 2022 07:51 PM in response to gordon k

PKG to APP…

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/254223/how-to-convert-a-macos-installer-pkg-into-an-app-to-run-it

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Answer 5

gordon k Author

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49 points

Dec 31, 2022 10:11 PM in response to MrHoffman

OK, I now have "Install macOS Sierra.app" in my applications folder, and the USB stick showing on the Desktop.

But when I go into Terminal and do

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/KINGSTON31 --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app

2023-01-01 05:48:00.438 createinstallmedia[2360:13436] *** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInternalInconsistencyException', reason: 'Couldn't posix_spawn: error 35'

*** First throw call stack:

(

0 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff20a83bfb __exceptionPreprocess + 242

1 libobjc.A.dylib 0x00007fff207bcd92 objc_exception_throw + 48

2 Foundation 0x00007fff2181aa71 -[NSConcreteTask launchWithDictionary:error:] + 4990

3 Foundation 0x00007fff21840c49 +[NSTask launchedTaskWithLaunchPath:arguments:] + 146

4 createinstallmedia 0x0000000107fe2968 createinstallmedia + 6504

5 libdyld.dylib 0x00007fff2092cf3d start + 1

6 ??? 0x0000000000000005 0x0 + 5

)

libc++abi: terminating with uncaught exception of type NSException

The Terminal command looks fine to me - any ideas what the problem might be?

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Answer 6

gordon k Author

Level 1

49 points

Jan 4, 2023 06:22 AM in response to gordon k

So for some reason I couldn't get the bootable USB stick thing to work, but arrived via a combo of the suggested methods.

Shift+Option+Command+R / Erase drive MacOS Extended Journaled / Internet restore to original OS (Mavericks) / Finally run the Install macOS Sierra.app file I generated to the USB stick earlier

Thanks for the various info - got there in the end!

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