Follow These Steps to Factory Clean or Restore a Mac

Before selling or giving away your Mac, it is important to restore it to its factory settings; In addition, this can help you correct a series of technical problems that your Apple computer may be experiencing. If you’ve noticed that she’s feeling slower than usual, it’s probably time to step up and start from scratch. Factory reset a Mac is not complicated. But first pay attention: as you will erase all your data, documents, photos and applications, first we suggest you make the necessary backups.

Factory Clean or Restore a MacIn general, “remove everything” is a cause for concern; But there are situations when restoring your laptop is necessary. The most common is when you want to sell it, using a service like eBay or Craigslist. After all, no buyer will want a computer with a hard drive full of someone else’s data.

Part of the process includes disavowing your computer in iTunes, which will remove any personalized login information. However, you should also factory reset a Mac if you plan to gift it to someone else. It’s something that doesn’t take long, and here we explain how to do it step by step.

Erase your Mac

Step 1 : For MacBooks, plug in the power adapter, so you don’t run out of battery.

Step 2 : Make sure your Mac is connected to the internet, preferably via a wired connection. Erasing your hard drive is easy, but if you do, you need to access your Mac’s factory settings. Apple stores this data remotely on its servers.

Step 3: Click on the Apple logo in the upper left corner and select Restart… from the drop-down menu.

Step 4: Once your Mac restarts, press the Cmd and R keys simultaneously. Hold them down until your device displays an Apple logo, spinning globe, or other home screen. This takes you to macOS Recovery .

Step 5: After a few moments, enter your password. The macOS Utilities pop-up window will appear on your screen. Select Disk Utility from the list and click Continue .

Step 6 : Your Mac’s startup disk will appear on the left. It is generally referred to as “Macintosh HD” unless you change the name. Another unit also appears with the word “Data” appended to the end. For example, if your startup disk is Macintosh HD , you should see a drive labeled Macintosh HD – Data . If you don’t have a data drive, don’t worry, just skip to Step 9 .

Step 7 : Select the data drive, click Edit in the menu bar, and then select Delete APFS Volume from the drop-down menu. Alternatively, with the data drive selected, click the minus (-) button on the Disk Utility toolbar.

Step 8: In the resulting window, click Delete to confirm. Make sure you don’t click Delete Volume Group . If you have other data drives, delete those as well, but leave only the normal Macintosh HD drive.

Step 9: select your main volume. It is generally Macintosh HD. Click Edit located in the menu bar followed by Delete… in the drop-down menu. Give it a name (or stick with Macintosh HD if you want) and choose a format.

Note: For the file format, you must choose APFS or macOS Extended (Journaled). Disk Utility displays the recommended format by default; keep it unless you have a specific reason for choosing another format.

Step 10 : Click Delete . You may see a message for your Apple ID information.

The process of erasing your Mac’s drive could take some time. When you’re done, close Disk Utility to return to the macOS Utilities window.

Reinstall the operating system

Once you’ve erased everything that made your Mac special, cleaning your system is only half the way back to factory settings.

Once you are done with Disk Utility, you should see an option to Reinstall your current MacOS . Select the reinstall option, confirm that you really want to, and continue. You may need to click a few confirmations before the installation is ready to begin.

Since Apple stores your Mac’s factory settings on its servers, your computer requires an internet connection in order to retrieve new settings off the assembly line.

Note : This online download solution only works for the latest versions of macOS. It shouldn’t be a problem with most current Mac computers, as long as you’re running newer operating systems.

However, if you are working with Snow Leopard (10.6) or earlier, you cannot reinstall this configuration from the web. Instead, you will need the original MacOS installation disc that came with your computer.

Also, when you reinstall MacOS, a setup wizard asks you basic questions about your region, among others.

If you’re selling or giving away your Mac, leave the setup wizard intact. Instead, hold down the Command and Q keys to close it, then click Shut Down . This will shut down your Mac and leave the setup wizard waiting for the new owner.

Alternative

If cleaning your Mac isn’t what you’re looking for, you can also completely reinstall macOS without erasing any data. It is the “lite” version of a full erase, since you do not need to remove the disk, if you just want a clean installation.

This option is useful if you have corrupted data, malware that you cannot isolate, or problems resulting from a faulty update. However, this process can leave data that would be relatively easy to recover, so it is not a good idea if you are selling or giving away your Mac.

If it is the method you are looking for, follow the steps below. As always, be sure to make a backup copy of the data and documents you want to keep.

Step 1: Shut down your Mac and restart it as you normally would. Immediately after turning on your computer, hold down the Command and R keys, then release the keys when you see the Apple logo. This will open the macOS Utilities window in macOS Recovery .

Step 2: Select Reinstall macOS from the list. Confirm that you want to reinstall the operating system, so you will receive the latest version.

Another alternative: Time Machine

If you use Time Machine to store backup copies of your data, you can also use it to restore a particular version of your computer. This is useful if you prefer to restore particular settings and data rather than trying to completely erase everything.

Step 1 : Shut down your Mac and then restart your computer. Immediately after turning it on, hold down the Command key and R and release the keys when you see the Apple logo. This will open the Utilities window.

Step 2: Instead of going to Reinstall, choose Restore Time Machine Backup . Note that if you’ve saved a backup to an external hard drive or server, your Mac must be connected to that device to perform this full restore.

Disable Apple Music, iCloud, and iMessage

If you are selling or giving away your Mac, be sure to remove the permissions from your Mac and any connected devices before restoring the original factory settings. This helps prevent anyone from accessing your personal information in the future.

Apple Music

Captura de pantalla de Apple Music

Step 1 : Open Apple Music and click Account on the menu bar.

Step 2 : In the drop-down menu, hover over Authorizations , then click Deauthorize this computer .

Apple Music will remove that particular device from your list of authorized devices. You will no longer be able to access any of your Apple Music content from this machine, but no one else will either.

iCloud

Captura de pantalla de iCloud

Logging out of iCloud is not enough; you should also make sure that no local data remains on your computer.

Step 1 : Click on the Apple logo in the upper left corner and select System Preferences from the drop-down menu.

Step 2 : Click on the Apple ID icon within the System Preferences window .

Step 3 : Select the Overview category shown on the left and then click the Sign Out button.

The MacOS system will ask you if you want to keep your current iCloud data on the machine. Uncheck the boxes for anything you want to remove.

iMessage

If you want to keep your messages private, you must log out of the Mac iMessage application. This program syncs messages between your iPhone and Mac, so disavowing it is very important. Luckily, it is easy to do.

Step 1 : With the Messages app open, click Messages in the menu bar followed by Preferences in the drop-down menu.

Step 2: A pop-up window will appear on your screen. Click the iMessage tab and click the Sign out button.

Remember : backing up your data is always a good idea, especially before a major move like this. Here we explain how to make a backup to an external drive.