How to Downgrade from MacOS Tahoe to MacOS Sequoia

macOS Tahoe 26 has been a controversial release of MacOS system software, mostly due to it’s completely redesigned interface built around what Apple calls Liquid Glass, which has a new look, but includes some major usability and legibility issues. Tahoe is also just buggier and less refined than other Mac operating systems like Sequoia. Accordingly, some Mac users have considered the rather dramatic decision of downgrading from MacOS Tahoe 26, and reverting their Mac back to MacOS Sequoia 15.
The simplest and most direct way to downgrade from MacOS Tahoe and back to Sequoia involves a series of steps including creating a Sequoia installer drive, erasing the Mac, installing Sequoia on the Mac, then restoring your files from a backup if you have a Sequoia compatible backup. If you do not have a Sequoia compatible backup, then you will end up with basically a clean install of Sequoia instead.
Be aware that if you want to downgrade and keep all of your files and data, you need to have a Sequoia-compatible Time Machine backup made from the Mac when it was running MacOS Sequoia previously. If that backup is old, you’ll miss any data from between whenever the date of the Sequoia backup was made, and the present. If you do not have a Sequoia compatible backup, you can skip the restoring of backup portion of this tutorial, which will still downgrade the Mac from Tahoe to Sequoia, but you will basically have a fresh installation with none of your data, files, or apps included.
If you do not have a complete Time Machine backup from before installing macOS Tahoe, you should not proceed unless you’re comfortable completely erasing the Mac and losing all data currently on the computer.


















