Reset your Mac before Setting it: The time has come when you need to change your computer and you have a Mac laptop, therefore, you must need to clear all the data from your Mac book once you decide to sell or replace your computer. We feel that you are lucky for us that you own a Mac and thus, we are able to help you with this article which enables you to erase all your data and turn your device into a whole new.
Best ways to Reset your Mac Before Selling it
First and foremost, it would be essential and prior to clear all your personal data from your Mac. Otherwise, your data can potentially be leaked if the person you are selling your Mac decides to turn your down with your personal information. Therefore, for the security, you just need to eliminate your private data completely from your Mac before selling it.
Any stranger with good hacking knowledge can also create a problem for you if you are logged-in and you don’t have your Mac completely erased. If your decision of selling Mac looks convincing to you then you can follow the steps below:
Step 1: Back up your Mac
We believe that you have brought your new Mac, only they had decided to sell your old computer. If this is the case, then you can easily recover your data from your old Mac to your new Mac using an older time machine back up. If you happen to be the person who doesn’t own new laptop yet, then we recommend you to save every piece of information and get them stored in a space from where you can get back data easily. This is supposed to be the most prior thing which you need to do even if you change your mind of selling your Mac. But,
Step 2: Sign-out from all your important account associated with the Mac
As we know, the software that comes with the laptop is licensed to the owner of the device, And, by selling you are not giving them the permission to install any software using your account since only the operating system is get transferred. Therefore, you need to sign-out from all associated account which needed to install and download software. In addition to that, some of your accounts may contain your personal data, so you will not let someone use your private data, will you?
Follow the steps mentioned below which will guide you to sign-out from different account linked to your Mac.
How to sign-out from iTunes
- Launch iTunes
- You will find Account on the left side of your computer screen, tap on it.
- Click on Sign-Out option.
How to Sign-out of iMessage
- Launch Messages on your device
- You will find Messages in the menu bar at the top side of the left corner of your screen, tap on Messages.
- Now, from the drop-down menu, choose preferences.
- Select your iMessage account
- Tap Sign-out
How to Sign-out from iCloud
- Tap Apple icon at the top left corner on your computer screen
- Now, select system preferences from the drop-down menu
- Select iCloud
- Disable Find My Mac
- Next, you need to provide your system password
- Click Sign-out
- Next up, you need to select Remove data from this Mac when asked
Step 3: Format hard drive
As you reached the third step, we believe that you have backed up your data and also you have all your accounts signed out from the computer. Once you become sure that there is no possibility that someone can connect to your data by any means, you can erase all the information stored on your device by following the steps mentioned below.
- Start with Restarting your Mac
- Now, at the time when start up disc initiates the functioning of waking up, you need to press and hold down Command+R keys together until you are led to the macOS recovery.
- Next, Choose Disk Utility
- Tap on continue
- Tap View
- Next up, you need to select Show all Devices.
- Choose the Start-up disk
- Tap erase from the bar at the top.
- Here, you need to name the file which is going to be erased
- Depending upon HFS+ and APFS of your Mac OS, select Mac OS Extended and APFS respectively.
- If you find Scheme, choose Guide Partition from the Map
- Select erase.
- Once you are done with the process, you would select Quit Disk Utility in order to terminate the program.
Step 4: Re-install a new Mac operating system.
If you have formatted your hard drive, then the next step would be the reinstallation of operating system. Here, you would be the utilities window after you have completed the elimination of the data. Otherwise, you need to hold Command and R until you find Apple logo on your Mac screen.
Ensure that you reinstall macOS on your computer using Recovery Mode. You can enable recovery mode by pressing Command + R so that you will be able to install a clear and new macOS without sign-in with your apple id.
Follow the mentioned steps to re-install new Mac operating system once you have cleared all the data.
- Restart your Mac
- Press and hold Command + R keys which will redirect you to macOS Recovery mode.
- Next, tap on Reinstall macOS so that you can reinstall the operating system on Mac
- Tap Continue
- Here, you will be asked to select your hard drive
- Next up, select Install in order to install the latest macOS on your system.
Note: Make sure that you don’t accidentally put your Mac on sleep mode while installing new operating system on your device.
- Press the Command button and Q once the installation process gets completed. We recommend you not to proceed with the setup instruction since you will no longer be the owner of the Mac.
- Turn off your Mac.
Once you complete the whole process, your Mac will be ready for its new owner; and, the owner will have the full authority to set up Mac as per the requirement.
Pro tip 1: If you are selling your MacBook Pro with touch bar
The above mentioned steps also work for erasing touch bar data. However, if you wish to have a third-party application to erase your data then you can follow the steps mentioned below:
- Restart your MacBook Pro
- Press and hold Command and R simultaneously until you see the macOS utilities window.
- Select Utilities from the menu bar which is provided at the top left of your Mac screen.
- You need to locate Terminal from the drop down menu of the Utilities.
- Enter “xatutil –erase-all” command in the Terminal window.
- Press Return on Keyboard
- Enter command “Yes” when asked to confirm the above command
- Quit Terminal by heading toward the Terminal menu bar provided at the top left side.
Pro tip 2: Troubleshooting erasing your hard drive or reinstalling macOS
We have received a ton of inquiries concerning issues, a few users have with eradicating or reinstalling macOS (generally reinstalling). Some of the time, the most effortless approach to fix issues with reinstalling macOS is to begin by holding Option+Command+R which will put your Mac into a substitute variant of Recovery Mode that enables you to introduce the first macOS that accompanied your Mac. From here, you can either keep that working framework and let the new proprietor update to their favoured macOS, or experience the macOS update process.
In case, during the macOS reinstallation process, the installer doesn’t see your circle or says you can’t introduce the working framework on the starting-disk, you may need to make a decent attempt to eliminate the data from drive once more. Restart your Mac and hold down Command+R to raise Recovery mode and rehash Step 3.”
Since macOS changed to APFS, a few people have battled with which configuration alternative to pick when erasing their startup disk. Here are some other conceivable investigating issues from Apple’s help archive that may support you.
We hope this article will help you reset your Mac before selling it to anyone. Moreover, if you have any queries regarding Android and iOS, reach out to us for an accurate solution. You can write down the issue in the comment section below.
People also search for like: How do I delete everything on my Mac before selling it? , Is factory reset enough before selling Mac? , How do I completely Reset my Mac to factory settings? , How do I permanently delete all data from my Mac? , How to hard Reset a MacBook?
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