How to Downgrade from OS X El Capitan & Revert to Prior Mac OS X Version

Most Mac users are happy with OS X El Capitan, but for some situations, the new version of OS X 10.11 is unusable for one reason or another. Perhaps it’s running worse than before, slow, or unstable, or maybe some important piece of software is not compatible with El Capitan, like some versions of Office. Whatever the reason, a solution for these situations can be to downgrade from OS X El Capitan and revert back to the prior version of OS X that was running on that Mac.

You can use this approach to downgrade to OS X Mavericks, OS X Yosemite, Mountain Lion, or Lion, directly from OS X El Capitan, assuming you have a backup from one of those versions. This relies on having a recent Time Machine backup made of OS X prior to the Mac updating to OS X El Capitan. Without a Time Machine backup to revert to, this particular approach won’t work.

Before getting started: You should finish a new backup before starting this process. You should also manually copy any new files or important data or documents that have been created from the date of the last backup from the prior OS X version and now, since you will lose those files in this downgrading process. Essentially what you are doing with this method is restoring from a prior Time Machine backup of a prior OS X install.

How to Downgrade OS X El Capitan Back to OS X Mavericks, Yosemite, or Mountain Lion with Time Machine

1. Connect the Time Machine drive to the Mac that contains the backup of a prior OS X installation
2. Reboot the Mac and after you hear the start chime start holding down Command+R to boot into Recovery Mode (you can also hold down the Option key and boot from a El Capitan installer drive)
3. When you see the “OS X Utilities” menu on screen, choose “Restore from Time Machine backup”
4. Select the Time Machine drive from the “Select Backup Source” screen
5. At the “Select a Backup” screen, choose the backup you wish to restore to, focus on the ‘Backup Date & Time” and “OS X Version” listings to make sure you are selecting the proper backup, keeping in mind the following:
• “10.10.5” or any “10.10.x” would be Yosemite
• “10.9.5” or “10.9.x” would be Mavericks
• “10.8.x” would be Mountain Lion
6. When you have selected the backup you wish to revert to, click on “Continue”
7. Now choose the destination drive to recover to, usually this is “Macintosh HD”, then click on the “Restore” button and let this complete – this will downgrade from OS X El Capitan to whatever version of OS X and the associated backup you chose

Once you’ve started the restore and downgrade process, you should be ready to wait for several hours, depending on the size of the backup being restored, the speed of the disk, and the speed of the Mac. Downgrading can take quite a while, so be sure the Mac is plugged in to a power source and don’t interfere with the process.

After the downgrade from OS X El Capitan is complete, the Mac will restart and boot back to where it was before at the date you selected, including whatever the OS X version was at that time. So if you were running OS X Mavericks prior to installing OS X El Capitan, and you chose that date and OS, the Mac would reboot to OS X Mavericks. The same applies to revert to OS X Yosemite, Lion, or OS X Mountain Lion from OS X El Capitan.

Once the downgrade and reversion to a prior release has complete, you can manually copy over any of the changed or new files that you made earlier, otherwise just be on your way. If you plan on avoiding OS X El Capitan, you may wish to hide the update from the App Store.

Another option is to perform a fresh install of the version of Mac OS you wish to run on the Mac. This will erase everything, however, and you’d be on your own to manually backup and restore your files. If that’s the way you want to go, you can clean install OS X Mavericks, Yosemite, or, if you are troubleshooting and that is the primary reason for wanting to start over, perhaps consider staying with OS X 10.11 butperforming a clean install of OS X El Capitan.

http://osxdaily.com/2015/10/09/howto-downgrade-os-x-el-capitan-mac/

How to Mute Safari Tabs in Mac OS X

New versions of Safari on the Mac allow users to instantly mute any tab or inactive window which is playing sound. This will instantly hush audio coming from a video, an audio file opened in the browser, ads, or any noisy multimedia element, but only for the Safari browser, making it preferable to muting everything on the Mac with the Mute option.

This is a really easy trick but it’s not necessarily the most obvious thing in the world until it’s pointed out to you in Safari for OS X.

Basically what you want to look for is the little speaker icon appearing either in the header of a tab, depending on which you click it will mute either all tabs or a specific tab.

Mute All Tabs in Safari for Mac

To mute all tabs, look in the the URL bar of Safari for the sound icon, if it’s blue, sound is playing, and clicking on that blue sound icon will mute the audio.

Mute Specific Individual Tabs Audio in Safari for Mac

You can also click on the same icon within the header of a tab to mute a specific tab or window, rather than all audio.

This works regardless of how many streams of audio are playing in Safari tabs and windows, as you can see in this demonstration video of the Safari tab muting experience demonstrated in OS X 10.12.1

Muting tabs and windows is available as an option to Safari 9.0 or later in OS X El Capitan, OS X Yosemite, and OS X Mavericks.

This works with separate windows too, but to keep things simple it’s often better tomerge many open windows into tabs within Safari, where it’s easier to identify what’s playing audio or video in the background.

You can do this on iOS too, though there’s nothing special to press or tap on because on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, if you switch from a Safari tab playing audio, it will automatically mute if you leave the active tab or session. In other words, it’s automatic in iOS Safari, where the additional steps are necessary in order to play background YouTube from iOS Safari to start the auto-paused audio track again.

http://osxdaily.com/2015/10/26/mute-safari-tabs-mac-os-x/

Play Video as Screen Saver in Mac OS X

if you have  ever wanted to play a movie, video, or multiple videos as a screen saver on a Mac, then SaveHollywood is the screensaver for you. The free download allows for playing just about any locally stored video file format as the OS X screen saver, with many options for customization.

This is great whether you want to play some of the videos captured on your iPhone as your Macs screen saver, or if you want your favorite movie to play when the Mac is inactive.

How to Play Any Movie as a Screen Saver in Mac OS X

1. Get SaveHollywood from the developer, it’s a free download, unzip the file and double-click the SaveHollywood.saver file to install the screen saver*
2. Open System Preferences from the  Apple menu and go to “Desktop & Screensaver” if you haven’t already done so through the installation process, then go to “Screensaver” and locate “SaveHollywood” from the left side

3. Adjust the SaveHollywood preferences as appropriate for your video(s) playing needs
4. Drag & drop a movie or video file(s) into the settings to add the video, or click the [+] plus button to add a video manually to the screensaver

5. Click on “Preview” or start the screen saver as usual to test the movie playing out

* You can always install the screen saver manually in OS X if you prefer.

In the example here, I am using one of the Aerial Apple TV screensavers of Hawaii downloaded locally as a video file (sample file is here as a 150MB .mov) rather than streaming it from Apple servers, but you can add or play any movie you want that’s on the Mac.

SaveHollywood has a variety of options, including the ability to play multiple movie files, play multiple movies randomly, play from the last stopped position, resize the video to fit screen or to play at the actual size, draw borders, show the movies title and copyright, and the ability to play movies audio at a set level or mute the video. You can even set the background color if the video is a different format from what the screen resolution setting accommodates.

It appears that just about every major movie file format is supported, so as long as the video opens in QuickTime Player it will almost certainly open and play in SaveHollywood as a screen saver as well. If you’re encountering a video file that won’t play use one of the free Mac video conversion apps discussed here to bring the file to a compatible format.

http://osxdaily.com/2015/11/08/play-video-as-screen-saver-mac-os-x-savehollywood/

Screen Capture and Save Screen Shots with Preview in Mac OS X

Screen Capture & Save Screen Shots with Preview in Mac OS X

The Preview image editing and photo viewing app in Mac OS X includes the ability to capture screen shots directly within the application. The resulting images open directly into Preview rather than saving to the Mac desktop, allowing user changes to file size, resolution, color, and file format.

There are three different screen capture modes available in Preview that are almost identical to the standard keyboard shortcuts that are typically used on the Mac. Here’s how to use each of the three options to take images of the entire screen (or screens) in the Preview app of OS X:

1. Launch Preview
2. From the “File” menu select “Take Screen Shot” and choose one of three options:
• From Selection – brings up the selection tool, just like command+shift+4
• From Window – enables the window selection tool, like command+shift+4+spacebar
• From Entire Screen – capture the entire screen (or both screens if you’re using two), same as command+shift+3
3. The screen shots launch automatically into Preview where they can be cropped, manipulated, and saved. All of this is instant with the exception of capturing the entire screen, which causes a timer to be displayed

The timed screen shot feature was previously limited to the Terminal or Grab, but it’s pretty handy to have directly in Preview, with the countdown timer showing up in the center of the screen like so:

Once the timer runs out, the screen is captured and launched instantly into Preview.

If you use multiple monitors, each monitors screen will be captured, and a new file will be generated for each individual monitor that is connected to the Mac. Thus, if you had 4 displays hooked up to your computer, you would create four screen shot files, or if you only have one internal screen, on say a MacBook Air, it would only generate a single screen capture for that internal display.

I originally assumed this was a fairly new introduction as of 10.7, but apparently this feature exists in many versions of the Preview app for Mac OS X, ranging from 10.6 Snow Leopard version of Preview, as well as OS X Lion, Mountain Lion, OS X Mavericks, and OS X Yosemite. Thanks for the heads up Makeup about compatibility for older versions of Mac OS X!

http://osxdaily.com/2011/09/07/capture-save-screen-shots-with-preview-in-mac-os-x-lion/

NETWORK TIME MACHINE WITHOUT A NETWORK

AUGUST 30, 2014 BY CHRIS BARCZYS

One of the realities of life is that, sometimes things don’t the way you plan them. Yes, even a “genius” has his off days. So it was with my install of the Yosemite Beta. After spending hours cloning my hard drive so that I could install it on a separate partition, I somehow managed to install it on my main hard drive and the separate partition too. I have NO idea how I managed to screw this up that badly, but I did it.

At first I thought I was going to dodge a bullet. Everything seemed to be running great. But as I tried other apps it became apparent that some of the mission critical apps I use were completely unstable or unbootable. Obviously I expected this to be the outcome on a beta version of the OS.  Normally I would have rebooted onto my main hard drive and things would have been fine, but I didn’t have one to boot to.

TIME MACHINE TO THE RESCUE

Thankfully I have a Mac mini that acts as a network based Time Machine. By now you should not only be familiar with Time Machine, you should be using it religiously. What you might not know is that you can use Time Machine to back up multiple Macs across the network, just like the more expensive Time Capsule. There are two ways to make your own Time Capsule for less.

• The first way is to use an AirPort Extreme that was made in the last 4 or 5 years and a USB Hard drive. I like the small bus powered drives based on laptop hard drives, but there is nothing stopping you from slapping on a Multi-terabyte array, as long as it has a USB port.
• The second way is to set up an old Mac as an OSX Server. In my case I have a 2009 Mac mini that I bought specifically to be used as a server, but any machine that can boot 10.6 or newer can be used (although, unless you have access to 10.6 Server disks it’s going to cost you an arm and a leg to buy them, so since 10.7 and up are free, I’d recommend that the machine be able to boot 10.7 and up if it is to be cost-effective). Once you have the Server software installed ANY storage device that can be attached to the Mac can become a location for Time Machine to back up to.

This setup is fantastic, especially if you have  a MacBook Pro, or a McBook Air since ether can be backed up wirelessly through the network instead of having to lug around a backup drive.  Look Mom, No Cords!  As with everything there is a couple of small catches when using Time Machine this way.

• Non-Bootable Disk– Unlike the single machine Time Machine, the networked Time Machine doesn’t create a bootable recovery partition on the hard drive you are backing up to.
• Image Files vs. Folders– The network Time Machine saves the backups of a specific machine as a disk image, while the single machine saves the info in folders that can be readily accessed.

Under normal circumstances this wouldn’t be an issue.  To recover a network Time Machine backup you would boot into the recovery partition of the machine you want to restore, click restore from Time Machine, connect to the network Time Machine, select the name of the machine you want to restore, and away you go.  Unfortunately the Beta updated the recovery partition on my hard drive.  I could see the Time Machine Server, but I couldn’t connect to it.  In my case the problem is fairly easy to solve.  I could just boot from the recovery drive of another hard drive that had OSX Mavericks on it, and then perform the above steps.  But what if the server itself was down, or the network was damaged/unavailable, or maybe the USB connection is faster than the network (think USB 3 vs. Fast Ethernet). What then?  How do you recover the info without using a network?

THE PROBLEM

The problem breaks down into  two sub-problems.

1. Getting the computer booted into recovery mode.  We need to be in recovery mode because the Time Machine recovery program is only accessible in that mode.
2. Getting the Time Machine recovery program to think that a network backup is a single machine backup.  The Time Machine recovery program expects to see disk images when it connects to a network backup, and a folder structure when it restores form a single machine backup.  The trick is to make the Time Machine recovery program think that a disk image is not a disk image, but an actual hard disk.

HERE’S HOW YOU DO IT

1.  GET THE NETWORK BACKUP DATA.

You need to get the disk image of the machine you wish to restore onto some type of portable media.  In my case, I have a 4 TB external drive that I use to store the backup images on.  So I just shut down Time Machine on the Server,  and disconnected the external drive.  If the image was on an internal HD or some non-transportable, external device (like a rack mounted array), you are going to have to copy the disk image file (see next paragraph) to something that can be plugged into the computer you want to restore.  I’d suggest a USB hard drive.

The file you need is the file with the same name as the Bonjour name of the computer.  In my case the Bonjour name for my computer is HAL.local.  So I only need the HAL.dmg file.  Unless you have this info written somewhere you are likely going to have to go to the other computers using the network Time Machine and look up their names.  You can find the name at the top of the Sharing preferences in the System Preferences > Sharing.

2.  GET YOUR MACHINE INTO RECOVERY MODE.

Once you have the device with the image file you need on it, plugged into the mac you need to restore, you will have to get the machine booted into Recovery Mode.  There are numerous ways to do this.  I’ll go over three of them

• Reboot using Cmd+R:  If you haven’t hosed up your recovery partition, you can reboot the machine and hold down the Command and the R keys at the same time until you see the Apple logo screen.
• Use/Make an emergency boot disk:  If you are like me you have a couple hard drives around with versions of OSX installed on them.  You can simply use one of them to get booted into recovery mode (See above about Cmd+R).  If you don’t have an emergency disk, you are going to need 3 things.  1) An  8GB or larger Flash Drive, 2) someone with OSX 10.7 or higher installed on their computer, and 3) DiskMaker X.  After installing DiskMakerX on your friend’s computer you can follow the prompts and you will have an emergency drive.
• Use someone else’s Time Machine Backup:  Since a single machine’s Time Machine disk is bootable, you can borrow it to boot into recovery mode  (See above about Cmd+R).

 3.  GET THE DISK IMAGE MOUNTED.

The Time Machine Recovery program expects to see a hard drive with a special folder attached to the Mac you want to restore.  Unfortunately the network Time Machine doesn’t store the backups this way.  Since the special folder is being stored in a disk image, we need to get the image mounted so that the recovery program will think it is a hard drive connected to our Mac.  Normally we could just double-click on the image file and it would automatically mount.  But recovery mode is not a full version of the OS.  Since there is no Finder, we can’t just double-click.  This is where things become a bit complex, I have created a video showing the steps below.  You can find it in the near the bottom of this post.

1. Click on Disk Utility.
2. Click the Continue button.
3. When Disk Utility comes up, click the name of the hard drive that has the disk image file on it.
4. Click the Restore tab.
5. Click the Image button.
6. Click on the name of the hard drive with the disk image on it.
7. Find the disk image file and click on it.
8. Click the Open button.
9. Find the DMG file in the left column.
10. Click the DMG.
11. Click Open.  You will get a message that says the image is mounting, just wait until it goes away.
12. Quite Disk Utility

4. RESTORE FROM BACKUP.

At this point you should be back to the main recovery mode screen.  Now that we have what the Recovery Time Machine program expects to see, we can finish this up just like a single machine recovery.

1. Click on Restore from Time Machine Backup.
2. Click the Continue button.
3. When the Restore program comes up, click the Continue button.
4. Select the Disk image icon.
5. Click the Continue button.
6. Select which Backup you want to restore and click the Continue button.
7. Select the drive to restore to.
8. Click the Continue button.  A warning pane will drop down to tell you that you are going to erase the drive.
9. Click the Continue button.

PMGTV: NETWORK RESTORE VIDEO

WRAP UP

Once the restore begins it will likely take forever. In my case I did 500GB in about 4 and a half hours.  Your mileage will vary. Obviously this is a bit of a propeller head post. If you are the type that learns better by seeing it done, check out the video. I hopefully you will never have to go through all this to get your data back. Remember, BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP!

https://www.personalmacgeniuses.com/2014/08/30/network-time-machine-without-a-network/#.VjnFbn7hCUk

APPLE RAID QUICK TIP

AUGUST 24, 2014 BY CHRIS BARCZYS

I received a call from a client who was having a terrible time reformatting a G-Raid Array.  For those of you who aren’t aware, the G-Raid drives are setup using the Apple Disk Utility.  These drives are usually configured as a  “Software”  striped RAID array (RAID 0).  When connected to a Thunderbolt or ESATA interface these striped drives provide an array with transfer speeds that are easily fast enough for most users needs.  My client found himself in the enviable position of having an extra 8TB array.  He decided that the best use for this extra drive was to turn it into a Time Machine backup.  In addition he wanted to change the drive from a striped array to a mirrored array.

THE PROBLEM

My client opened the Apple Disk Utility and clicked on the array.  He them clicked on the Delete button in the lower right corner assuming that this would delete the array.  Instead he got a message stating that the array can’t be deleted while it is online.  So my client unmounted the array and clicked Delete again.  Much to his annoyance he got the same error message.  No matter what he tried the same message kept popping up.  It turns out that as long as a drive in the array is connected to the computer the system considers the array as being online and un-deletable.  With his sanity hanging by a thread, he called me.

THE SOLUTION

The solution is simple, but totally un-Mac like.  You have to damage the array to the point it goes off-line.  One way to do this is to disassemble the array, remove a drive, reboot, and reformat the remaining drive.  This is WAY too much work for my taste, and in this case would have voided the warranty on a new device.  I prefer the simple way.

THE SIMPLE WAY

All you have to do is erase the hard drives that make up the array.  Once the drives that make up the array were wiped the array disappears and the system allows you to create a new array out of the erased drives.  In case you are the visual type, I have created a quick 4 minute video showing the exact process.

PMG TV: DELETING AN APPLE RAID ARRAY

 https://www.personalmacgeniuses.com/2014/08/24/apple-raid-quick-tip/#.VjnCAX7hCUk