Mac System Install Question

[Driswood]

I'm currently running Mac OS 10.12.6 (Sierra) on my Mac Mini. Having some software issues, and want to go back to 10.11 (El Capitan) I have the El Capitan installer on a bootable USB, and I have my Mac backed up on Time Machine. I know how to get El Capitan installed as a clean install.

My question - How do I restore everything onto my Mac from Time Machine EXCEPT the Sierra System? Directions aren't clear on this.

Any information will be greatly appreciated.

[sungfw]

Use Migration Assistant instead of Time Machine. It's faster and offers more control over what to transfer and where put it.

Be aware that data files created in applications updated/upgraded for Sierra may not be compatible with El Cap versions of those apps. Those apps will likely include an option to save/export those files to an earlier version of the app, but you'll need to boot into Sierra to run them, so you may want to make a clone your Sierra drive to an external drive before you downgrade.

[Insert rant about how TM is not a backup solution]

[Savio]

I have an old Mac mini (2009) and tried the latest OS. Didn't like it so I went back to El Capitan. From Sierra they went to another file system with more security. But lot of hardware doesn't work because of it. My sound card didn't work and the same with my big VGA screen with a VGA adapter. Everything works in El Capitan. I like Mac better than windows but every update from Apple, makes something else not outdated.
Leif

[ExZacLee]

I wanted to chime in here with my own warning - Mac updates will basically kill older versions of software. I've had this issue with Finale, ProTools and Digital Performer. If you don't want to shell out $150 or so every time an update comes out for your software of choice, don't update your Mac OS (the last time this happened I had to shell out about $500 getting everything updated.)

Jerry, did everything work out on your end?

[sungfw]

I have an old Mac mini (2009) and tried the latest OS. Didn't like it so I went back to El Capitan. From Sierra they went to another file system with more security. But lot of hardware doesn't work because of it. My sound card didn't work and the same with my big VGA screen with a VGA adapter. Everything works in El Capitan. I like Mac better than windows but every update from Apple, makes something else not outdated.
Leif

The switch to APFS (Apple File System) occured with High Sierra (10.13), not Sierra (10.12).

I'm surprised to hear you got the latest MacOS (10.14, Mojave) to install at all, much less to run, since it requires a Metal-capable GPU, which rules out any Mac model prior to Late 2012 except 2010 Mac Pros with Metal-compatible GPUs. I'm pretty certain that El Capitan (10.11) was the last version that officially supported 2009 Minis.

[sungfw]

I wanted to chime in here with my own warning - Mac updates will basically kill older versions of software. I've had this issue with Finale, ProTools and Digital Performer. If you don't want to shell out $150 or so every time an update comes out for your software of choice, don't update your Mac OS (the last time this happened I had to shell out about $500 getting everything updated.)

If you're willing to muck around under the hood a bit, installing Java 6 SE can sometimes resurrect "dead" older versions of Finale (you can have multiple versions of Java installed simultaneously) but it may take some tinkering to get Finale to default to it instead of a later (more recent) version. My church's music director is running Finale 14.5 in High Sierra on a mid-2016 MB Pro after installing 6 SE, even though MakeMusic's claims 14.5 is not compatible with High Sierra.

Have you considered running Finale/ProTools/Digital Performer in a VM? Most Mac VM software (VMware Fusion, Parallels, Virtual Box, etc.) these days will allow you to run earlier versions of OS X/MacOS as a virtual machine. Things won't run quite as zippy in the VM as they would on the host machine, but that will allow you to upgrade your primary OS for security purposes without having to shell out to upgrade your applications every time you upgrade MacOS.

Another alternative would be to dual-boot your Mac. If your internal drive is large enough you could create a second partition just large enough to hold the OS and boot from it as needed, but as cheap as SSDs are these days, it might make more sense to stick your production environment on a bootable external drive and boot from it as necessary. Bare internal 120-128Gb SSDs are running around $20, and 240-256s are running around $30. Throw it in a $10-15 USB 3 or USB C external enclosure, and you've effectively got a second computer for $30-40.

[Cmillar]

You could contact Michael Mortilla at:

http://www.midilifecrisis.com/HTML/Cont ... meset.html

Been following his sage guidance on Digital Performer for years, and he's pretty much a Finale expert/troubleshooter as well (...even though I mostly use Sibelius)

Tell him that he's recommended by a fellow 'MOTUnation.com' devotee!

[ExZacLee]

Sungfw: Now that I'm primarily on the school's system (they gave me a laptop when mine crapped out), I can't muck around with the OS and Java anymore... if I setup a personal system at home I'll try your suggestions. Thanks for the advice, I'll pass it around to others.

Unrelated, seriously considering switching back to DP for the DAW - ProToolsHD has some stability issues - had two sessions crash on the first take last week, running on a brand spanking new Mac Pro in the main studio. Good thing the best takes were 2nd and 3rd takes.