Downgrade Catalina Beta 5 to Mojave (error -1008F)

I'm trying to downgrade Catalina Beta 5 to Mojave. I formated disk, made bootable usb, but every time when I'm trying to load os from usb, macbook connecting to iternet, doing somthing (I don't know what, but it takes from 20 min to 2 hours) and getting an error "-1008F". I tried shift+opt+cmd+r, opt+r and and still the same error.

Replies

i had a same issue, so i tried to reset NVRAM and SMC.


now i could install caltalina again.....

I had to send my macbook back to Apple for repair. It was not giving me the option to choose the hard drive when booting up with usb stick.

Before attempting to downgrade you had to go to Recovery Mode and enable External Boot to Allow booting from external media. That way you can install Mojave from a USB drive.


I had to Macbook Pro that I upgraded to Catalina and attempted to rollback to Mojave. I was able to rollback on one of them by doing the step previously mentioned. The other had to be sent to Apple for repair. My guess is you will have to do the same.

If you have a Mac with a T2 chip to install from a bootable USB of Mojave you need to boot into recovery (command+r) then once in, go to startup system security and turn off full security to no security and enable boot from USB) then restart holding the option key. Once you have successfully installed and set up Mojave with a password, boot into recovery again and turn on full security and disable boot from disk.


If that doesnt work I have used the internet recovery (CMD+Option+R) to install the latest version of shipping software compatible with your Mac


If you dont have a Mac with a T2 chip. Just use the (CMD+Option+R) internet recovery


I have used both of these options to revert back to macOS Mojave on a 2019 Macbook Pro (T2).


Good luck

I kept getting the error -1008F after the download for internet recovery.

I was stuck there as that was what my Mac did as soon as it booted up.


Contacted support and there were two things probably. The Wifi in the office had been a bit dodgy, not sure that is why but connecting using an old fashion cable took me past the first hurdle.


Then I had to go to https://beta.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/unenroll#
At the bottom there is a link for leaving the beta program, I did that and then finally I got the recovery options...


It would still not recover to any of my 14.6 backups. So I choose the option to set up as a new Mac which installed 15 again and copied all my settings from my backup.
Unfortunately, Xcode and a few other things would not run after that so tried to restore a backup (again) and this time it worked.

About 30 hours after trying the beta I am now back working again.


So unsubscribing from the beta program is worth trying if you have this problem.

Thanks a lot! You saved my day

Hi from Germany,

I keep getting error 1008f my machine is a 2018 MBP 13" TB 4 Port T2

Here is my Strange Problem:

I had Catalina Beta installed and had issues with a couple of programms.

So I wiped my Mac with the Disk utility then I did everyting mentioned here and somehow managed to get it working and Re installed catalina beta trough internet recovery this was one week ago and only took me about 10 tries inclouding:
deleting RAM, signign out of beta via the link obove, trying cmd + r and then cmd+option+r .

Naive as I was I was not pleased and created an mojave install Disk, Turned on usb Boot, wiped my mac OS Disk again and could not boot from my install Disk (usb ssd Drive), it does Not Show up in boot Menu. So probably my install Disk is not Right.

At this Point I just wanted any kind of Mac OS back and again tryed internet recover:

Nothing works I tried it min 100 times, inclouding everything mentioned here.

The really weird thing is That my bootcamp windows is still working normal and curently I am using my mbp with Windows only.

I can only send in my mbp After 07. Okt. 2019 because I am working on something very Important for university.


I even got an Ethernet Adapter for an wired internet Connection (More stable?) and I got an 1005f error one time, but otherwise I ceep getting error 1008f.


Please Help

Same issue 1008f error here on Internet Recovery: -I connected to to the best internet connection possible multiple times. -I created a Mojave installer USB. -Did SMC/NVRAm resets. I finally took it into the Apple store. They are suspecting something with the T2 chip being corrupted. Also, I am hypothesizing the T2 Chip is flagging the Mojave install as unauthorized . However, Internet Recovery is supposed to still allow the downloading of the recovery partition and a valid OS if the Boot Drive is indeed unauthorized Will know in a few days what the Apple Store finds.

I had the same issue after updating to MacOS Catalina then wiping the MacBook 2018 with Touch Bar(T2 chip). The macbook restarted and then I was stuck on 1008f error. The solution for me was to remove the macbook from find my [device] app(from icloud.com) and to remove the device from my devices(on my iphone with ios13 is found on the apple ID section). I have also unenrolled from beta test program(no idea if that helped in any way). After removing the mac from icloud and my devices the macbook booted into recovery mode and needed to activate(so apple deactivated the t2 chip and needed activation like the one on the iphones). The process failed a couple of times with a message saying that tbsc.apple.com is unable to verify certificate and the only option was to restart the macbook and start again with the internet recovery. I was able to activate the macbook using my mobile hotspot from the iPhone and after that I was greeted with the well known recovery screen where I was able to format the SSD and perform a restore from my backup harddrive. So, what I can say is that error is related in my case to icloud wipe that I’ve done and I was close to get my mac serviced at apple because I bricked it. Just as a precaution, what I recommend is to have a backup of the data because with the new macbooks you can loose your data if there is any problem with the T2 chip.

Had the same issue, on MBP 2019 13inch. Bought on 14th Nov and updated to Catalina only to realise a ton of 32bit apps wot. Work. I wiped the OS from recovery after building the USB and didnt realise need to disable T2 Security to boot from USB. 😝 Tried the usual recovery options but no go and faced the Globe Icon with exclusion triangle and -10008F. 😠 😕 😟 . I removed the device from Find My and also unenrolled from beta programs. Tried recovery a couple of more times and hey presto! 🙂

THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH. Thing is, i repasted my macbook when i bought it, feeling confident it wouldnt ever need a board replaced, which... yeah i know is stupid in heinsight. But still, unsubscibing from the Beta program and unenrolling in Find My Macbook did the trick, THANK YOU ONCE AGAIN!!!!

Hi Guys, I'm the one livin' in R.O.K

And I have exactly same problem with a origin' post. (I formated apple ssd and tried to install mac os)

I already called apple support and they tried several things but It still doesn't work...

Every time I tried to do Internet recovery, 1008f has loaded.

If anyone here could give me some advice??

I have a 2018 MBP and have been trying to do a clean install of either Mojave or Catalina using a bootable USB. Regardless of what I try (resetting PRAM/NVRAM, removing my device from iCloud/FindyMy/other devices/etc) I ultimately end up with the -1008F error. Recovery mode always forces me to log in to a wifi network and I am never able to access the MacOS Utility window (even tried Safe Mode hoping to get to the MacOS utility). Please someone help, I am at my wits end. Fortunately I have not formatted my drive so can still use my MBP but I ultimately need to do a clean install of my OS.

2020-11-14

Thanks very much, the post saved my date.

I confirm that removing device from iCloud/FindMy and leaving the beta program solved that issue.
My issue is on beta version of Big Sur.