Do you want to sell your Mac or MacBook or do you have problems that don’t seem to be resolvable? Then it may be useful to reset your Mac. In this tip, we’ll show you how.
This way you can reset your Mac or MacBook
Factory reset your Mac can be the only solution to problems in some cases. But even when you get rid of your old Mac and trade it in for a new MacBook Air, this is an important step.
Before resetting your Mac, make sure your files are stored in a safe place. It is best to use a USB stick or a cloud service for this. Examples of this are Dropbox or Google Drive, but you can also store your files in iCloud.
In addition, it is possible to save the entire contents of your disc. For this you do need an external drive, which also has enough storage to store all your data. Then open ‘Time Machine’ via ‘System Preferences’, and save your data safely on your external hard drive. You can also set your Mac to automatically make backups as soon as you connect this drive.
Factory settings
Once your files are safe, you can reset your Mac using the step-by-step plan below. After the reset, the device is completely empty, as if you turned it on for the first time. Always do this before you sell an iMac or MacBook. You can then be sure that no sensitive data is left behind for the buyer.
- Restart your Mac via the Apple menu, and hold down the key combination ‘Command + R’;
- Select ‘Disk Utility’ and then click on your startup disk on the left side of the screen;
- Go to the ‘Delete’ tab. In the new window that appears, name the drive, such as ‘Apple SSD’ or ‘Macintosh HD’;
- Select ‘APFS’ (or MacOS Extended (journaled) for older Macs) as the file system under ‘Structure’ and make sure that ‘GUID partition layout’ is in ‘Format’. Then click on ‘Delete’;
- After erasing, close the Disk Utility and choose ‘reinstall macOS’ in the menu that appears next;
- After following the installation process, your Mac will boot as if it were the first time.
During this process there are a number of details to pay attention to. For example, it is important to hold down ‘Command + R’ immediately during the restart, otherwise your Mac will not start up in the so-called macOS Recovery mode in which the window appears.
And are there, for example, multiple disks in the ‘Disk Utility’ menu? Then make sure you choose the SSD drive, which can be read from the drive name by default. Before erasing, you will be prompted to enter a name for the drive. It does not matter to the process what exactly you enter here.
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