Do you have a Mac running an earlier version of MacOS that you’d like to upgrade to a newer version, but you don’t want to run MacOS Ventura? For example, let’s say you’re running MacOS Catalina, Mojave, or Big Sur on a Mac, and you want to upgrade that Mac to MacOS Monterey 12 specifically, rather than MacOS Ventura 13 (a situation found in this question from our comments).
This is a particular scenario that some Mac users find themselves in, so we’re going to cover the process of upgrading an older MacOS version to MacOS Monterey directly, while avoiding installing the latest release of MacOS Ventura.
How to Upgrade from Older MacOS (Catalina, Mojave, Big Sur) to MacOS Monterey (And Avoid Ventura)
The simplest way to upgrade directly to a particular release of MacOS is to download the full installer for that system software release you wish to run, and upgrade to it directly. In this case, for MacOS Monterey.
Step 1: Download the full MacOS Monterey installer on the Mac you want to upgrade
There are two easy ways to download the complete installer for MacOS Monterey. On the Mac you want to upgrade to Monterey, do one of the following:
- You can download the full MacOS installer from our list here or by using this direct download link for MacOS Monterey 12.6.3, opening InstallAssistant.pkg will place the “Install MacOS Monterey.app” installer into your /Applications folder ready to use
- Alternatively, you can download a full installer for MacOS Monterey 12.6.3 (or another version by specifying it) from the command line, by issuing the following command string into the Terminal application:
softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 12.6.3
Step 2: Back up the Mac before upgrading
Be sure you back up your Mac with Time Machine before beginning any system software upgrade.
This preserves your data and makes sure that you can get your stuff back in the event something goes wrong. It also allows you to revert back to the prior OS version if you wish to by using the Time Machine restore process.
Do not skip the backup process before any major system software upgrade or install.
Step 3: Upgrade from MacOS Catalina, Mojave, Big Sur, to MacOS Monterey (and NOT Ventura)
After you have downloaded the installer for MacOS Monterey, you are ready to upgrade the current Mac directly to MacOS Monterey, whether that’s MacOS Catalina, MacOS Mojave, MacOS Big Sur, or otherwise.
Simply launch the “Install MacOS Monterey.app” installer found in your /Applications folder and walk through the installer to upgrade directly to Monterey. At this point, the upgrade process is the same as every other upgrade of MacOS.
As long as you did not download a macOS Ventura installer, or go through the method of installing MacOS Ventura, you will avoid that, and instead install Monterey onto the Mac in question.
Once you’re running MacOS Monterey (or Big Sur, or your MacOS of choice), you will continue to be prompted to ‘upgrade to macOS Ventura’ in the Software Update preference panel, but you can install MacOS system updates without installing Ventura with this trick – just pay close attention to what you’re doing in the Software Update control panel. Apple continues to release security updates for the prior two generations of MacOS system software (in this case, Big Sur and Monterey), and they’re important to keep up to date on your Mac.
There are a variety of reasons users may wish to avoid Ventura, whether it’s compatibility of particular apps, to avoid certain bugs, to skip out on the cumbersome redesign of System Settings, or merely for personal preferences. What you run on your Mac is up to you!
