Comments on: How to downgrade from Lion to Snow Leopard

By: D Rant

D Rant — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 23:59:15 +0000

Lion is dogshit!

By: Mark Bella

Mark Bella — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 01:10:08 +0000

I just bought a 2011 iMac the other day band new with Lion pre installed. I’ve read on some of the comments here that retail SL disks won’t allow you to install SL on a pre installed Lion iMac, that they are experiencing bugs when they do downgrade.Is this true even if we follow the process above? I figure that by booting off the disk and using disk utilities to erase and set one new partition (without the emergency recovery Lion partition) that it would then allow you to install SL. Is this true? Or is the special Lion firmware preventing this process baked into the system? I know this is the same iMac hardware that shipped earlier this year with SL….at least that what I assume. I hope I don’t have to go back an get an older iMac just to get SL back!

By: Brian Park

Brian Park — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 03:30:58 +0000

I’ve just tried doing this and it seems step 5 and 6 in “best fit” solution are somewhat combined… I hit “partition” apply button and just further prompts to a secondary step to hit another final “partition” button where it then erases which I already did now. Is it too late now or does it really make a difference to start up from the cloned disk and then restore from it too???

By: Ben Clarke

Ben Clarke — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 01:10:05 +0000

I have had a 2011 iMAc 27inch running Lion perfectly, everything was without issue. Then we changed IT and location to a new comapny and they installed SL and 2 days later my screen has died or the hardware is having serious issues, very blown out and only some colours. If it aint broke don’t fix it :( Lion was actually very stable and fine. I didn’t bother with Mission Control etc. THe apple site does say not to install earlier versions of OS X on your Mac and now I would have to agree.

By: RobG

RobG — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 12:19:19 +0000

Well I ended up with Lion, not on one, but on two machines. I decided to grab one of the new 11″ Airs. About 3-4 days in, I was hating it and about ready to return the thing. But it was so fast and zippy that I wanted something faster than my older (mid-2009) 17″ MacBook Pro. I checked Craigslist and found a deal on a 3-mo-old Feb-2011 release 17″ Pro with 8 gig and a 256 gig SSD. Downside was it had Lion. But I knew it could run Snow Leopard since they were originally released with it. Thing is, I couldn’t find anybody with an SL DVD from one of those, as it wouldn’t boot the “Retail” version of SL that I had.

I went ahead and got the machine, because I couldn’t pass it up due to the price. That was last weekend. That same weekend I was at a seminar, and had the 11″ with me. I was doing some coding while at the seminar, and something just “clicked” for me. I took the time to arrange my Desktops in a specific way, like how I had done with Spaces (just horizontally instead). I’m at eleven desktops now. But between that and the VERY slick gesture to move between desktops, I really came to like Lion. It’s now really easy, especially when coding on one display, to flip back and forth between Eclipse and Firefox… easier than it was on Slow Leopard!! So I was hooked.

Now, I do hate the mutli-monitor support. It’s lame. But it does work. I’m also hoping they will add the ability to re-order desktops and drag apps from one desktop to another without having to be ON that desktop. BTW, hold the OPTION key in Mission Control when clicking on other desktops and it’ll switch to it while keeping you in Mission Control.

Compatibility… I’ve had NO compatibility problems. Office (2011) runs just fine. I’ve had NO crashes from any of my apps. Now, these are 100% fresh OEM Lion installs too, not upgrades from Snow Leopard. I would advise against upgrading SL to Lion. Do a wipe and fresh install. It’s the only way to be absolutely sure that there’s no old junk around to screw stuff up is with a wipe.

I’m going to download the Lion installation DMG this week and make a bootable USB stick in case I need to do a repair or reinstall. But for now, I’m liking Lion. I do still miss Spaces and the better multi-monitor support, but I’m having a much better Lion experience than I had expected.

By: Someth Victory

Someth Victory — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 04:52:27 +0000

Hi all, Could you all give me some recommendation about how to downgrade from Lion to Snow Leopard on MacBook Air 13 inches 2008? I really appreciate for your time and consideration.. Thanks!

By: koenigt

koenigt — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 09:01:21 +0000

Not to forget: Steve Jobs succeeded in transforming APPLE into a multimedia company, everything worked together well: the networking, the iLife-apps & iTunes and then they switch off FRONT ROW! – the part I miss the most. And the Front-Row-enablers can’t save it at all … They can all have it back: Mission Control, App Store, Launcher and the other Lion-rubbish if they give me back my Front Row. That’s why I will downgrade.
Can anybody set up a short list which essential data are to be exported and folders are to be saved before downgrading?

By: FRGough

FRGough — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 14:44:40 +0000

EXPORT your mailboxes first! Snow Leopard and Lion use a different mailbox format. You will LOSE any emails you have stored locally after your upgrade to Lion if you don’t export the mailboxes first.

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 23:03:33 +0000

lion is still not very good with multiple displays and the samba flaw is the worst in OSX history. The Launcher is OK, but it also shows the uninstall Apps and other links that make it inefficient. Mission control may be good, but frankly I don’t use it at all. I’m currently running 10.7.1, which did fix a few kernel panic errors with most apps, but productivity wise, Snow Leo seems far superior. maybe because it had the user in mind, instead of who knows whose needs.
Lion, although stable for the most part, feels like it’s on the beta stage, IMO. After the 7.2 update, I’ll consider on upgrading to Lion, based on reviews, but for now, SL FTW! =D

By: jmgschmoe

jmgschmoe — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 18:49:31 +0000

Who ever though up this one?

Flawed is not the word! Lion is a Blunder… NO backward compatibility.. no new computer…

Word, Excel and many, many other applications absolutely will not work in Lion. Except for one system change I have ALWAYS BEEN ABLE TO USE MY OLD SOFTWARE! I simply cannot afford to “Get with the program.” I know people who, without backups would have lost PhD thesis or years of business records.

Imagine my horror and consternation when I could not read a large number of Excel files hundreds and hundred of pages of Word Documents. (I am working on several books.) Are you supposed to buy a NEW MS Office? Are you supposed to laboriously transfer megabytes of data to Text edit or “Pages?”

I could not use my DesignJet z3100, my Epson 3800, the internet was iffy, problems with Adobe. AutoCad (think $4000!) will not work.

One would have thought one was dealing with, heaven forefend, (horrors) MS! I never thought I would utter these words.

SUGGESTION. Make a “clone” on your external drive (Get one if you don’t have one.) If you are thinking about UPDATING to lion, don’t. If you want to get a new machine make sure it is backward compatible – people I spoke to have “hemmed and hawed” and “arummmed, cough-coughed” about it. Many newer Macs will run on SL, but you have to do a clone from your back up. New Airs don’t seen to be backward compatible.

“NEVER BE CLEVER FOR THAT SAKE OF BEING CLEVER!” That is NOT clever!!! I shall tell everyone I know not to buy Lion until the situation is completely resolved. The download took some 8 hours to say nothinf of the terribly long install.

I have been using Macs since 1987 And SINCERELY WISH I HAD SOMETHING GOOD TO SAY!