When a colleague recently purchased a new M4 MacBook Air, they were getting far more than a well-regarded piece of hardware. They were also getting their first encounter with macOS 26 Tahoe and its Liquid Glass interface, Apple's most significant visual redesign since macOS 11 Big Sur arrived alongside the first Apple Silicon chips in 2020. Their reaction was not unusual. And their question was practical: can I go back?
The short answer is yes, for most Macs. But the process requires some preparation, and there are trade-offs worth understanding before you start.
The Liquid Glass backlash in context
Reaction to Liquid Glass has been sharper among Mac users than on iPhone, where adoption rates for iOS 26 have tracked broadly in line with previous years, according to Apple's own App Store data. On the Mac, however, the criticism has been more pointed. Developers Jeff Johnson and Norbert Heger have documented persistent oddities in Finder behaviour and window resizing that remain unresolved, and Daring Fireball's John Gruber has encouraged users to hold off on upgrading.
These are not merely aesthetic complaints. For professionals whose workflows depend on reliable window management, the bugs represent a genuine productivity cost. That said, those who can work around the rough edges may find that Tahoe, like most software redesigns, becomes less jarring over time as its quirks fade into background noise.
Security first: what you give up by going back
Before proceeding, it is worth being clear about the security implications. Unlike iOS, which requires users to be on the latest version to receive security patches, Apple supports older macOS releases for roughly three years. In the first year after release, older versions receive both security fixes and new features. For the following two years, they receive security patches and updated versions of Safari. Macs on older but supported releases also generally continue to receive the same firmware updates as those running the latest version.
For macOS 15 Sequoia specifically, security support is expected to run until around September or October 2027. That is a reasonable window. macOS 14 Sonoma, by contrast, has only about six months of updates remaining, which makes downgrading to it a poor investment of time and effort. Going further back than Sequoia is not recommended.
One caveat: Apple does not always backport every individual vulnerability fix to older releases. Only the current version is guaranteed to receive every patch. For most users, Sequoia represents an acceptable security posture. Staying on Tahoe remains the safest option for those who can tolerate its current state.
Which Macs can downgrade?
Any Mac with an M4 family chip or older, which covers Apple's entire current lineup except the M5 MacBook Pro, should be capable of running macOS 15 Sequoia (currently at version 15.7.4). The rule of thumb is that a Mac cannot run any version of macOS older than the one it shipped with. The M5 MacBook Pro launched after Tahoe and therefore cannot be downgraded. Any new Macs Apple releases in the coming months will carry the same restriction.
These steps apply equally to any Apple Silicon Mac, from the original M1 models through to the M4 generation. The process is also the same whether you bought the machine new or acquired it second-hand with Tahoe already installed. Intel Mac owners face a different situation entirely and are not covered here.
Option one: a bootable USB installer
The most straightforward path for most users involves creating a bootable USB installer. You will need a USB flash drive of at least 32 gigabytes (16GB is no longer sufficient, as both Sequoia and Tahoe have grown beyond that threshold) and a copy of the macOS Sequoia installer.
Apple's support page links to every downloadable macOS installer going back to 2011. On Tahoe, clicking the Sequoia link routes you through the App Store and into Software Update inside the Settings app. This process occasionally stalls; clicking the Get button a second time usually resolves it. When the download finishes, a prompt will appear warning that the installer cannot run within Tahoe. You can dismiss this safely; it will be run from the USB drive, not from within the operating system.
While the installer is downloading, format your USB drive using Disk Utility. Open the app, select the option to show all devices, click the root of your external drive, and use the Erase function. Set the format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and the scheme to GUID Partition Map. Once formatted, open Terminal and enter the copy command. Apple lists the relevant Terminal commands for each macOS version. For Sequoia, the command is:
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sequoia.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume
Adjust the volume name in the command if you named your drive something other than MyVolume. The Terminal will ask for your password and confirmation before reformatting the drive and copying the files across. On a standard USB 3 drive, the process typically takes only a few minutes.
When the command completes, shut down the Mac with the USB drive still inserted. Press and hold the power button (the Touch ID button on laptops, or the dedicated power button on desktops) until the text beneath the Apple logo reads "loading startup options." The Sequoia installer will appear alongside Macintosh HD as a selectable boot volume. From there, the installation process follows the familiar macOS setup flow.
Option two: DFU restore
For users who want a cleaner low-level restore, Apple Silicon Macs support a DFU (Device Firmware Upgrade) restore using Apple Configurator 2 on a second Mac. This method requires an additional computer but restores the machine at a deeper level than a standard installer. It is particularly useful if something has gone wrong with the system software itself.
This process involves downloading the appropriate IPSW restore file for your specific Mac model. The community-maintained database at Mr. Macintosh is a reliable resource for locating the correct file, though Apple's own servers host the files directly. Once you have the file and the target Mac is in DFU mode, Apple Configurator 2 handles the rest.
A pragmatic conclusion
The ability to downgrade reflects something genuinely useful about the Mac ecosystem: Apple supports older releases long enough to give users real options. The criticism of Tahoe's interface is not trivial, and the underlying bugs in window management deserve Apple's attention. At the same time, macOS redesigns have always attracted strong initial resistance, and many issues tend to be resolved through point updates in the months that follow.
For users who find the current state of Tahoe genuinely disruptive, downgrading to Sequoia is a practical and well-supported choice. For those who can tolerate its present shortcomings, staying put offers the strongest security posture. Either way, the decision is yours to make, and Apple's documentation, supplemented by community resources, gives you the tools to act on it.