macOS Tahoe 26 has been a controversial software release for the macOS system, mainly because of its completely redesigned system built on what Apple calls Liquid Glass, which has a new look, but which involves major usability and readability issues. Tahoe is also buggier and less refined than other Mac apps like Sequoia. Likewise, some Mac users have considered the surprising decision of downgrading macOS Tahoe 26, and returning their Mac to macOS Sequoia 15.
The easiest and most straightforward way to downgrade from MacOS Tahoe and back to Sequoia involves a series of steps that include creating a Sequoia installer drive, erasing the Mac, installing Sequoia on the Mac, and restoring your files from a backup if you have a Sequoia-compatible backup. If you don’t have a Sequoia-compatible backup, you’ll end up with a clean installation of Sequoia instead.
Note that if you want to download and save all your files and data, you need to have a Sequoia Time Machine backup made on Mac while running macOS Sequoia previously. If that backup is old, you’ll lose any data from between and whenever the Sequoia backup date was created, as well as the current one. If you don’t have a Sequoia-compatible backup, you can skip the restore backup part of this tutorial, which will still downgrade the Mac from Tahoe to Sequoia, but you’ll essentially have a fresh installation without your data, files, or installed apps.
If you don’t have a complete time machine backup before installing macOS Tahoe, you shouldn’t proceed unless you’re completely comfortable wiping the Mac and losing all data currently on the computer.
Downgrading from MacOS Tahoe to MacOS Sequoia Prerequisites
You will need the following to perform this download successfully:
- 16GB or larger USB drive. This is the bootable MacOS Sequoia USB installer drive that you will use to wipe Tahoe and install Sequoia.
- Mac must be compatible with macOS Sequoia (basically any M4 or earlier Mac, except Neo. No M5 series or newer Macs are compatible with Sequoia)
- Sequoia compatible backup made with Time Machine from before installing Tahoe. If you don’t have a Sequoia compatible backup, the Mac will be set up as new without your data/files/apps on it.
- A complete backup of the Mac in its current state is recommended
- The understanding is that you wipe the Mac and all the data/files/apps on it
- Time, this process is multi-step and will probably take several hours to complete from start to finish
It’s a good idea to make a full Mac backup before starting this process, this will create a new backup that is only compatible with MacOS Tahoe, but has all your current stuff in it. If something goes wrong, you can use this new backup to restore your Mac to its current state.
Part 1: Make MacOS Sequoia USB Bootable Installer
If you already have a MacOS Sequoia boot drive created and ready to go, you can skip this section of the tutorial:
- First, you need to download the latest version of macOS Sequoia as an installer package file (the direct download link for macOS Sequoia 15.7.5 is here) and run the installer on your Mac, place the file “Install macOS Sequoia.app” in your /Applications/ folder if it doesn’t get there automatically.
- Plug in your USB drive as usual, this will be erased and become the Sequoia boot drive
- Open the Terminal application, from Spotlight or from /Applications/Utilities/
- Run the following Terminal command, changing “USBFlashDrive” after /Volumes/ to the name of your USB drive:
- Hit return, enter the administrator password as requested
sudo /Applications/Install macOS Sequoia.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/USBFlashDrive
When the Sequoia boot disk finishes creating, you’re ready to use the bootable drive to start the boot process.
Part 2: Wipe Mac Completely & Remove macOS Tahoe
The next step involved completely wiping the Mac. This removes macOS Tahoe from the Mac, but it also removes all files, apps, data, and everything else from the Mac. If you don’t have a backup of your data, or you’re not comfortable starting over with nothing but Sequoia OS, don’t wipe your Mac.
- Connect the newly created MacOS Sequoia boot drive to the Mac you wish to wipe and mount it on Tahoe
- Restart the Mac, then do the following prompts depending on whether the Mac is Apple Silicon or Intel:
- Apple Silicon: Quickly press and hold the power button, keep holding until the boot options menu appears on the screen
- Intel: Quickly press and hold the Option (⌥) key during boot, until you see the boot menu.
- Select the macOS Sequoia installer drive to boot
- You are now on the macOS Utilities screen, where you can select “Disk Utility”
- Select the internal drive that hosts macOS Tahoe
- Click Clear on the toolbar
- Select Apple File System (APFS) as the drive format
- Click on Erase to format the disk – Warning: this erases all data on the Mac
- When Disk Utility has finished erasing the Mac, exit Disk Utility to return to the macOS Utilities screen.
Now the Mac is wiped, macOS Tahoe is removed, and the Mac is ready to move on to the next step, which is reinstalling macOS Sequoia.
Part 3: Installing macOS Sequoia on Mac
Next you simply install macOS Sequoia on a freshly uninstalled Mac:
- Select “Install MacOS Sequoia” on the MacOS Utilities screen
- Click on the on-screen prompts, select the newly erased drive as the target disk for MacOS Sequoia to be installed on.
- Start the macOS Sequoia installation process and let it finish
Installing macOS Sequoia may take a while, so be patient. When the installation is complete, the Mac will start macOS Sequoia as if it were a brand new Mac running the Sequoia operating system. macOS Tahoe is no longer available for Mac.
You can stop here and simply set up the Mac as new if you’d like, otherwise, if you have a backup of your stuff available, you can restore that with Time Machine, or manually, or with your preferred file recovery method.
Part 4: Optionally, Restore Your Files from Backup
If you have a MacOS Sequoia-compatible backup of your stuff, you can choose to restore your Mac files from that backup during the Sequoia setup process. Note that MacOS Tahoe backups are not compatible with MacOS Sequoia. If your only available backup is from macOS Tahoe, you’ll have to stay on macOS Tahoe (or reinstall Tahoe) to be able to restore those files.
- During the MacOS Sequoia setup process, choose to restore your files from Time Machine with a compatible MacOS Sequoia backup
- Go through the steps to restore Time Machine as provided on the screen
When the process ends, the Mac will run macOS Sequoia again, like a new Mac with a fresh installation, or your data restored if you used a time machine backup.
MacOS Tahoe 26 has been difficult for some Mac users, so it is understandable why some people have given up on the release and would like to go back to MacOS Sequoia.
The downgrade process works, but it’s admittedly a pain, and not everyone is happy with all the steps and time required including creating an installer drive, wiping the Mac, and installing Sequoia. If the whole process is too difficult for you, that’s understandable, so you’ll have to stick with MacOS Tahoe.
Help, I downgraded to Sequoia, but my backups are only compatible with MacOS Tahoe! What did I do? How do I return my items?
If your backups are only compatible with MacOS Tahoe, and you want to restore your items and data, you will need to install MacOS Tahoe again.
Backups from MacOS Tahoe are not compatible with MacOS Sequoia.
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Did you downgrade macOS Tahoe back to macOS Sequoia? How did the process go for you? Did you use the time machine restore method, a clean install, or another method? Let us know your experiences and thoughts about Tahoe downsizing in the comments below.