Reinstall macOS Catalina you can reinstall over your existing OS without losing data the BlueSky patches contain HIToolbox and SkylightOriginal Reactions: jackluke and hal90088 Syncretic. When your Mac starts reinstalling MacOS Catalina, it’s going to take an hour or two to finish, so stay patient. The good news is that your files and apps — unless corrupted — should be saved.
- How To Install Mojave From Catalina Without Losing Data
- Reinstall Catalina Without Losing Data
- How Do I Reinstall Macos Without Losing Data
- Reinstall Catalina Without Data Loss
macOS Catalina is slightly outdated since the release of macOS Big Sur in November of 2020. Nevertheless, many users prefer to stick with it because it's much more familiar visually. And it offers a bunch of expanded features, such as a screen extension with an iPad or the new Apple Podcasts app.
The problem is that it might not always work as intended. Glitches in macOS Catalina are commonplace: in fact, all existing operating systems like Mojave or High Sierra could freeze and crash from time to time. No software is immune.
But what do you do in this case? The surefire way to deal with jaded performance is to reinstall macOS Catalina altogether. Read through our guide below to learn how.
How To Reinstall Mac OS Catalina
It’s important to note that when you reinstall macOS Catalina the process simply updates the operating system and doesn’t affect any files on your hard drive or user files or even settings. That makes reinstalling principally different from performing a clean install, which erases everything.
Here are the proper steps to follow to reinstall mac OS Catalina.
1. Back up your Mac first
By default, the best thing you could do before making any significant changes to how your Mac works is to back it up. Backups are just like saves before encountering challenges in video games — represent the point you can always come back to.
How To Install Mojave From Catalina Without Losing Data
There are lots of great backup solutions on the market to suit every need. If you don’t have the time to search for something specific, your Mac features a decent native option — Time Machine.
To get Time Machine started:
- Connect an external USB or WiFi hard drive to your Mac
- Go System Preferences ➙ Time Machine
- Click on Select Backup Disk…
- Press Use Disk
2. Delete junk off your Mac to speed it up
There’s nothing better than the feeling of a brand new Mac with a brand new macOS. If only the latter is new, the experience could be subpar. Trying to get the most out of macOS Catalina on your older machine might be a challenge. But don’t hurry to your local Apple Store just yet — not all is lost.
Just like the dust behind your couch or on the top of your kitchen cupboards, small bits of system files, caches, and hidden libraries tend to aggregate over the years and never get deleted, eventually slowing down everyday processes. While it’s possible to clear out some of them manually, others require specific technical knowledge and lots of time.
Luckily, there’s a professional automatic solution available — CleanMyMac X. Optimizing behind-the-curtain processes on your Mac with CleanMyMac X is no more difficult than clicking a single button:
- Download a free version of CleanMyMac X.
- Open the app and navigate to System Junk in the left-side panel.
- Click Scan and wait for the process to complete.
- When done, press Review Details.
- Uncheck anything you’d like to keep and click Clean.
Now your Mac is free of all the pointless log files, user caches, language files, old updates, and more. Which directly translates into improved processing power, memory usage, and response time. At last, your Mac is ready to take full advantage of macOS Catalina.
3. Reinstall macOS Catalina in Recovery Mode
With your Mac in top shape, it’s time to get that macOS Catalina download link. Surprisingly, you won’t find it in Software Update or even App Store (where it used to be in macOS High Sierra).
The correct way to reinstall macOS Catalina is to use your Mac’s Recovery Mode:
- Restart your Mac and then hold down ⌘ + R to activate Recovery Mode.
- In the first window, select Reinstall macOS ➙ Continue.
- Agree to the Terms & Conditions.
- Select the hard drive you’d like to reinstall mac OS Catalina to and click Install.
Automatically update all your software for Catalina
The reinstallation process will start shortly and roughly take 30 minutes. When complete, your Mac will start up as usual. No files should be lost, but it’s always a good idea to check CleanMyMac X’s Applications Updater to see if you can improve compatibility of the new macOS with any of your existing apps:
- Launch CleanMyMac X.
- In the left-side panel, navigate to Updater.
- View any available updates and their notes and click on Update.
This Updater tool in CleanMyMac X automatically searches for latest available versions of ALL your apps. One or two clicks and everything feels fresh. It even updates the macOS file itself.
Trust in your backup
Finally, in case you notice any files or apps missing, or settings misconfigured, you could open up Time Machine to restore a specific folder or the whole backup from the step one:
- Launch Time Machine from Applications.
- Simply scroll all backup versions to find the file you’re looking for.
- Click Restore.
If you decide to restore the whole backup, make sure to then repeat the whole process to optimize your Mac and reinstall macOS Catalina as detailed above. The good thing is that more often than not the reinstallation works wonders right from the first time.
A new macOS update will require that you reinstall macOS and sometimes you may lose data in the process. So, how can I reinstall macOS without erasing data? This is the focus of this article. However, before going into the details, you must understand that there are other reasons why you may need to reinstall macOS other than the release of a new update. Some of the other reasons why you may require macOS reinstallation include a system crash or slow performance of your Mac. Whether you want to reinstall the latest Mojave or Catalina, the fear of losing data is real. However, you don’t have to worry about this. In this post, we will share steps that you can follow to install new macOS without losing data.
Prep Work: What to do before Reinstalling macOS
Before you reinstall macOS on your system, you must have everything in place. You must ensure that nothing will stop the reinstallation halfway as this can disrupt the optimal performance of your system. The tips highlighted below will help you prepare for a smooth reinstallation process.
- Make sure you have a minimum of 8.8GB storage space and 2GB memory on your system.
- Ensure that your computer’s battery life is at a minimum of 45% before you launch the installation process.
- Make sure that your Mac is connected to a reliable WiFi connection.
- Check to see that your Mac Apps have been updated to the latest versions.
- Ensure that your data are backed up and you can also generate backups for your current Mac data on Time Machine.
It is recommended that you back up your data on an external hard drive to avoid unexpected problems or system update failure. When you are sure that your data has been backed up, you can start the reinstallation process. When you want to reinstall macOS without losing files, the best option is to go through macOS recovery mode. This will make it possible to reinstall the macOS, erase or repair disks, restore files from Time Machine, and much more.
How to reinstall macOS
You can easily reinstall macOS without losing any data irrespective of the reason why you want to launch the process in the first place. The steps below will guide you through the process in detail.
Reinstall Catalina Without Losing Data
Step 1: Launch your Mac using the macOS Recovery mode. To do this, turn on your system and simultaneously press and hold the ‘Command + R’, ‘Option + Command + R’, or Shift + Option + Command + R. When the Apple logo or a spinning globe or a popup for the firmware password comes up, release the keys.
Step 2: A list of Utilities Window will come up and you have to select the ‘Reinstall macOS’ option and then click on the ‘Continue’ button.
Step 3: Follow the prompting on the screen to select the specific hard drive that you want to install the Operating System. The next step is to launch the installation process.
Step 4: Do not close the lid of the Mac or put it to sleep while the installation is ongoing. You may notice that your Mac is restarting over and over again. Do not worry about this because it is normal. You may also see the screen go while during the installation. Do not panic. All you have to do is to wait for the completion of the process.
When the process is finished, your Mac system will restart, and that completes the installation process. If you lose data while reinstalling macOS, you can easily restore the lost file using professional data recovery software.
How to Recover Lost Data after Reinstallation of macOS
If you notice that you have lost data while reinstalling macOS, it is recommended that you recover the data as soon as you can. We recommend that you use iBeesoft Data Recovery for Mac because it is the best software you can trust to recover all lost files seamlessly.
The iBeesoft Data Recovery for Mac is a professional data recovery software that enables you to recover lost/deleted files from your system’s hard disk and other storage devices. Irrespective of the size or nature of the data loss, you can trust it to recover all lost or deleted files from Mac desktops and other storage devices. It works 100% to quickly recover and restore data, including documents, photos, music, videos, and other files.
Your Effective Data Recovery Software for macOS
- Recovers permanently deleted folders and files from emptied trash.
- Recover and restores data from formatted hard drive, USB drive, SD cards, and other external storage devices.
- Completely compatible with APFS drive in the latest macOS.
- Retrieves lost data on Mac caused by deleted, inaccessible, hidden, damaged, repartitioned disk, or volume loss.
Guide to Recover Lost Data Caused by macOS Reinstallation
The first step is to download and install the Apple data recovery software on your system. You don’t have to worry because it is virus-free and compatible with the latest Mac OS. After the installation, you can follow the steps below to restore lost data after Reinstallation of macOS.
How Do I Reinstall Macos Without Losing Data
Step 1: Select the file types that you want to recover on Mac. When you launch the software, the main window will popup and you will see the file types. All files are checked by default, so you have to uncheck the files that you don’t need. When you are done, click ‘Start’ to begin the recovery process.
Step 2: Another window will pop up and you will see the volume of the Mac and the external hard drives that are available for a scan. Select the appropriate drive where you want to recover data from and click the ‘Scan’ button to start the scan process.
Step 3: Preview and recover deleted files on Mac system. Depending on the size of the data you want to recover, it may take from seconds to a few minutes to scan the files. When the scan process has been completed, all the found files will be displayed in the result window. Preview the files accordingly and select the ones you need and click ‘Recover’ to save them on your Mac.
Reinstall Catalina Without Data Loss
Reinstalling macOS without losing files is very easy. So, if you have been asking how to reinstall macOS without losing data, the steps highlighted above is the right way to do it. If you lose data in the reinstallation process, you can easily recover them using iBeesoft Data Recovery for Mac.