How to erase macbook

How to Erase and Factory Reset Your Mac

If you plan to give away, sell, or trade in your Mac, the first thing you should do is erase the data on it and perform a factory reset. This article shows you how. If you’ve upgraded to macOS Monterey on a Mac with Apple silicon or a Mac with the Apple T2 Security Chip, follow the steps to erase all content and settings instead of following the steps in this article.

First, Back Up Your Data

Before you do anything, you should back up the files on your Mac. You could do this manually by copying across files onto an external drive. If you use iCloud, your photos, mail, contacts, documents, and so on should be automatically backed up in cloud storage.

However, we highly recommend that you take the time to perform a Time Machine backup of your system using an external drive. That way, the same backup volume can be used by Apple’s Migration Assistant during a macOS installation to quickly transfer your applications, files and settings from the old Mac to a new one.

Unlink your Apps

There are certain apps that will need to be manually unlinked from your Mac before you say goodbye to it. Some third-party apps require licenses that only work on a limited number of computers, so think about any licenses you may have purchased.

Similarly, you should de-authorize your iTunes account on the Mac, as this removes its access to content that you bought from the iTunes Store, iBooks Store, or App Store, including things like music, movies, TV shows, apps, and books.

To learn how to de-authorize your iTunes account, check out our dedicated guide.

Sign Out of iCloud

It’s also important to disable Find My Mac and sign out of ‌iCloud‌ in macOS. That way you’ll know for sure there isn’t anything lingering on your Mac that links your Apple ID to this machine. The following steps show you how.

How to Erase and Reset Your Mac

Now that you’ve taken the above precautionary steps and unlinked your purchases and accounts, it’s time to erase your Mac’s drive and reset the system to its factory defaults.

And that’s it. You’re now ready to sell your Mac, pass it on, set it up as new, or restore a backup.

What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your Mac

To prepare your Mac for a new owner, use these steps restore it to factory settings.

Should you use these steps?

If you’ve upgraded to macOS Monterey on a Mac with Apple silicon or a Mac with the Apple T2 Security Chip, follow the steps to erase all content and settings instead of the steps in this article.

For any other Mac or macOS, follow the steps below.

Back up or transfer your files

Use an external storage device to back up your files, or use Migration Assistant to move your files to your new Mac.

Sign out of iTunes

If using macOS Catalina or later, you can skip this step.

Open iTunes. From the menu bar at the top of the screen or iTunes window, choose Account > Authorizations > Deauthorize This Computer. Then enter your Apple ID and password and click Deauthorize. Learn more about deauthorizing.

Sign out of iCloud

If using macOS Catalina or later, choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, then click Apple ID. Select Overview in the sidebar, then click Sign Out.

If using an earlier version of macOS, choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, click iCloud, then click Sign Out.

You will be asked whether to keep a copy of your iCloud data on this Mac. You can keep a copy, because you’re erasing your Mac later. Your iCloud data remains in iCloud and on any other devices that are signed in to iCloud with your Apple ID.

Sign out of iMessage

Open the Messages app, then choose Messages > Preferences from the menu bar. Click iMessage, then click Sign Out.

Optional: Unpair Bluetooth devices that you’re keeping

If your Mac is paired with a Bluetooth keyboard, mouse, trackpad, or other device that you plan to keep, you can unpair it. This optional step prevents accidental input when the Mac and device have separate owners but remain in Bluetooth range. If you do this on a Mac that doesn’t have a built-in keyboard or trackpad, you will need to plug in a USB keyboard and mouse to complete the remaining steps.

To unpair a Bluetooth device, choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, then click Bluetooth. Move your pointer over the device that you want to unpair, then click the remove (x) button next to the device name.

Erase your Mac and reinstall macOS

After macOS installation is complete, your Mac restarts to a setup assistant. Press Command-Q to shut down instead of continuing setup.

Reset NVRAM and shut down

After resetting NVRAM, your Mac starts up to the setup assistant again. To leave the Mac in an out-of-box state, press Command-Q to shut down instead of continuing setup.

No matter the model or condition, we can turn your device into something good for you and good for the planet: Learn how to trade in or recycle your Mac with Apple Trade In.

Erase and reinstall macOS

You can erase your Mac and use macOS Recovery, the built-in recovery system on your Mac, to reinstall macOS.

WARNING: Erasing your Mac removes all the information from it. Before you start, back up your Mac with Time Machine.

On a Mac with Apple silicon or an Intel-based Mac with the Apple T2 Security Chip

Your computer must be connected to the internet. If you’re reinstalling on a Mac notebook computer, plug in the power adapter.

Erase your Mac using Erase Assistant.

Restart your Mac.

Choose Apple menu > Shut Down, press and hold the power button until “Loading startup options” appears, select Options, click Continue, then follow the onscreen instructions.

In the Recovery app window, select Reinstall for your macOS release, click Continue, then follow the onscreen instructions.

On an Intel-based Mac without the Apple T2 Security Chip

Your computer must be connected to the internet. If you’re reinstalling on a Mac notebook computer, plug in the power adapter.

Choose Apple menu

> Restart, then immediately press and hold Command-R.

In the Recovery app window, select Disk Utility, then click Continue.

In Disk Utility, select the volume you want to erase in the sidebar, then click Erase in the toolbar.

Type a name for the volume in the Name field, click the Format pop-up menu and choose APFS, then click Erase Volume Group.

When the erase process is complete, click Done, then choose Disk Utility > Quit Disk Utility.

In the Recovery app window, select Reinstall for your macOS release, click Continue, then follow the onscreen instructions.

If you want to erase your Mac without reinstalling macOS, in order to restore it to factory settings before you trade it in or sell it, see Erase your Mac.

How to Erase MacBook, MacBook Pro/Air, iMac

By Anders Smith

Thursday, September 30, 2021

Maybe you are seeking how to restore your Mac computer to factory settings because:

You want to erase your MacBook Pro/Air, MacBook, iMac to sell or give away the Mac.

Your Mac is running slow or having other problems so that you want to delete everything on Mac to start over.

If that’s the point, here’s exactly the place for you. It is not difficult to erase everything on a Mac and factory reset the MacBook or iMac. But if you want to get it done without losing data, or wipe a Mac securely and completely, there are a couple of things you should do. Just follow this guide to complete all the steps that are needed to securely and completely erase everything on Mac. Your Mac will be successfully factory reset after that.

Content

Step 1: Back Up Your Mac Before Factory Reset

There must be some important files on your Mac. Therefore, it is necessary to back up your files before erasing your MacBook or iMac.

Options to back up your Mac before wiping it

Move everything that are important to you to an external hard drive. It is time-consuming but feasible if you have limited documents, photos, videos, etc. that need to be backed up before erasing Mac.

Back up your files on Mac to a cloud storage, such as iCloud. Before doing that, make sure your iCloud account has enough free space.

Make a copy of your Mac data to an external hard drive with a backup program, such as Time Machine, Apple’s built-in backup tool for Mac. Learn about the steps to back up a Mac: How to Backup Your Mac with or without Time Machine.

Clean junk files to make back up quicker

You can wipe a Mac without losing data by using one of the backup methods mentioned above. And to reduce the size of your Mac’s backup and increase the backup speed, it is recommended to clean useless junk files on your Mac before a Time Machine or iCloud backup. Macube Cleaner can easily delete caches, logs, browsing history, duplicate files and photos, large files, useless apps and more from your Mac. What you need to do is to:

1. Download and run Macube Cleaner on your Mac.

2. Select the file type you want to clean, such as system junks, duplicate photos. Click Scan.

3. Click Clean to remove the junks you don’t need.

After the cleaning up, go ahead to back up your Mac. The backup will finish more quickly, taking less space of your external hard drive or iCloud account. For a more detailed tutorial, click How to Use Macube Cleaner.

Step 2: Completely Delete Private Files

Do you know that files on Mac are actually recoverable after factory reset? That’s right. Even though you have factory reset your Mac and erased everything on it, it is still possible to recover the erased files on the Mac with a data recovery program like FonePaw Data Recovery. If you have confidential files on your Mac and don’t want to take the risk that somebody may find the files from the formatted Mac after performing data recovery, you can use the Eraser feature on Macube Cleaner to completely delete confidential files on your Mac before factory reset. This feature can erase the trace of a file on the hard drive and make it unrecoverable. Just to:

1. Install Macube Cleaner on your Mac.

2. Click Shredder and select the files you want to destroy.

3. Click Clean to make it unrecoverable.

Step 3: Turn off FileVault

FileVault encryption is an Apple built-in feature that is designed to encrypt your hard drive and files on the hard drive. It is recommended to turn off FileVault before reset and clean install macOS system. Here are the steps to disable FileVault encryption.

1. Open System Preferences > Security & Privacy.

2. On the Security & Privacy window, click the FileVault tab.

3. Click Lock button and you will need to enter password of the administrator account the unlock FileVault settings.

4. After entering the password, you are able to click Turn Off FileVault. Click it.

All files on your Mac will be dencrypted after FileVault is off.

Step 4: Remove iTunes Authorization and iCloud Account

I believe you don’t want your iTunes or iCloud account to be linked to your MacBook or iMac after you sell your Mac or give it away. By the way, you can authorize only 5 computers with your iTunes account, so there’s no reason to lose an allocation to a Mac that you no longer own. Therefore, before erasing your MacBook or iMac, you should first deauthorize iTunes and disable iCloud on your Mac.

Deauthorize iTunes on Mac

1. Open iTunes on Mac. Click Account > Authorizations > Deauthorize This Computer.

2. You’ll need to enter the password of your Apple ID. Then click Deauthorize.

Sign out of iCloud on Mac

1. Open System Preference > iCloud. Click Sign Out. A window will pop up, asking whether you want to keep a copy of your iCloud data on the Mac.

2. Deselect all the options and click Continue, which will ensure that your iCloud data won’t stay on the Mac.

Sign out of iMessage on Mac

Also, don’t forget that your iCloud account can also be used to receive iMessage. So run Messages, click Preferences > Accounts to sign out of iMessage.

Note: If you have devices that are paired with your Mac via Bluetooth, remember to check and unpair them at Apple menu > System Preferences > Bluetooth before you wipe your Mac.

Step 5: Erase MacBook, MacBook Air/Pro, iMac

After finishing the above steps, you are now officially able to wipe your MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air or iMac. You need to erase your Mac in recovery mode.

Enter your Mac into recovery mode

Power off your Mac and then reboot it. As it is rebooting, press and hold Command + R (Option + Command + R or Shift + Option + Command + R) until you see the Apple logo.

Generally, you can use Command + R combination to enter the Recovery mode. If you need to upgrade you need to the latest macOS compatible with your Mac, use Option + Command + R; If you want to clean install the macOS that came with your Mac, use Shift + Option + Command + R.

Erase everything on your Mac

When you are in recovery mode on Mac, you will see the macOS Utilities menu.

1. Select Disk Utility.

2. Select the disk to erase. To erase everything on your Mac, you usually should choose the main hard drive named Macintosh HD.

Note: If the Mac is running High Sierra or later, Disk Utility will show all the Macs linked with your Apple ID under Macintosh HD. So be careful not to delete the drive of other Macs.

3. Click Erase. Then you need to enter name and format of the drive. You can choose either APFS or Mac OS Extended (journaled) to reformat the Mac. APFS is a new file system introduced by Apple since High Sierra, which is more recommendable. Click Erase to begin wiping everything on your Mac.

Step 6: Reinstall macOS on MacBook, iMac

After deleting everything on your Mac, you can now reinstall macOS. Go back to macOS Utilities menu. Select Reinstall macOS and follow the on-screen instructions to finish.

That’s all about how to factory reset your Mac and erase everything. If you have more question, drop it in the comment section.

Стирание данных с компьютера Mac

На компьютере Mac с чипом Apple или на компьютере Mac с процессором Intel и чипом безопасности Apple T2 Security Chip можно использовать Ассистент стирания для восстановления заводских настроек Mac перед обменом или продажей устройства. Ассистент стирания можно использовать для стирания Mac перед переустановкой macOS. Ассистент стирания удаляет весь контент, настройки и установленные приложения.

ПРЕДУПРЕЖДЕНИЕ. При стирании компьютера Mac вся информация с него удаляется. Перед началом стирания выполните резервное копирование содержимого компьютера Mac с помощью Time Machine.

Что такое Ассистент стирания?

Ассистент стирания выполняет следующие действия на Вашем Mac.

Выход из служб Apple, например, iCloud.

Выключение функции «Локатор» и блокировки активации — Ваш Mac больше не связан с Вами.

Удаление всего контента, настроек и установленных приложений.

Стирание всех томов (не только используемого). Если на компьютер Mac была установлена ОС Windows с помощью Ассистент Boot Camp, также стирается том BOOTCAMP.

Удаление всех учетных записей и их данных (не только Вашей учетной записи).

Стирание данных с компьютера Mac

Нажмите на значок Apple

В строке меню выберите «Системные настройки» > «Стереть контент и настройки».

В окне «Ассистент стирания» введите данные администратора.

Выберите объекты, которые будут удалены вместе с Вашим контентом и настройками.

Если на Вашем Mac несколько учетных записей, нажмите стрелку рядом с именем Вашей учетной записи для выбора данных объектов.

Нажмите «Продолжить» и следуйте инструкциям на экране.

Примечание. Если Ваша версия macOS была модифицирована, Ассистент стирания не сможет стереть данные с Вашего Mac и отобразит ошибку с указанием сначала переустановить macOS. Переустановите macOS, затем используйте Ассистент стирания.