diff --git a/.github/workflows/publish-sdist-wheels.yml b/.github/workflows/publish-sdist-wheels.yml
index 4813fb09..7a28b4a2 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/publish-sdist-wheels.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/publish-sdist-wheels.yml
@@ -64,7 +64,8 @@ jobs:
             ln -s $PWD/src-cache /Users/runner/work/src-cache
             bash ci/hdf5-build.sh /Users/runner/work/src-cache
           UNIXY_AEC_VERSION: 1.0.4
-          UNIXY_HDF5_VERSION: 1.14.2
+          # we try and match what is being released by the latest h5py:
+          UNIXY_HDF5_VERSION: 1.12.2
         run: |
           # x86_64 macOS allows for cross compilation; first we do arm64,
           # only for the 11.0 target; and store in the cache the compiled code...