How to reset your Mac (macOS or OSX) to default settings and erase the disk?
As a Mac user, you would never wish to make your iCloud or personal hard disk data public. Therefore, if you are selling/giving away your mac or iOS device, you must wipe all data from your computer or mobile device. The best way is to perform a factory reset, which may also be useful when your computer or mobile device has problems. You can delete all data manually, but this will take a great deal of time and you might not be able to delete certificates and licenses, which you have purchased and added to your apps.
Furthermore, a factory reset will return your mac or mobile device to the default settings - wiping all data will make it appear as if it has just been unpacked from the box. This article demonstrates the factory reset with other tips and information.
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APPLE SSD Container disk2 Macintosh HD If you select that top node, (APPLE SSD), and then click erase and put in: Name: Macintosh HD Format: APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Scheme: GUID Partition Table Then it should ask for your AppleID Password and then it will delete the volume. Then you can proceed with the. Most users use Disk Utility to erase a disk or hard drive. But some Mac users might need to erase them from the command line on Mac OS. To do that, the only thing you need is a bit of precise syntax to make sure that you are erasing the proper disk. Here I'll show you how you can erase and format a disk using the command line. Working with Terminal. In Catalina, Mac HD is a protected volume containing only the active Mac operating system. Mac HD - Data is a separate volume containing everything else—apps and User folders. You delete Mac HD - Data first because the Mac needs the Mac HD volume to continue working. In Catalina you first need to erase the Macintosh HD-Data partition before erasing the Macintosh HD. Either click on the - button or go to the menu and choose Edit Delete APFS volume. 2) In Disk Utility, click on the drive ‘Untitled' to select it in the left sidebar, then click the Erase button at the top of the window. Type in the new name for the drive (in this case, ‘OWC Mercury Elite Pro mini'), make sure that ‘MacOS Extended (Journaled)' is selected as the format, and click Erase (see screenshot below).
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Check works before you start performing any factory reset
High Sierra works on Apple's latest file system called APFS. Users rarely encounter problems when resetting their Macs, however, sometimes an error appears displaying 'Could not create a Preboot Volume for APFS install'. Apple support states that you should choose macOS extended when formatting your drive, and not the new file system, APFS. If, however, you have already started to reset your system and have this problem, there is a solution. First, shut down your Mac, and then hold down Option, Command and R while turning on your computer. This combination will start an Internet Recovery and you can try to reinstall High Sierra. You may be forced to repeat this step several times until it works.
Create an BackUp
Create a backup of everything you will/may need in a future. Use Time Machine or another application to backup your system. We recommend that you make two cloud and two physical (local or remote) backups. Also consider using drive cloning apps such as Carbon Copy Cloner, Super Duper, ChronoSync, or similar. These create an identical copy of your drive and, unlike Time Machine, are bootable backups (i.e. if your computer ever stops working, you can boot your computer directly from these copies).
Disable FileVault
FileVault encrypts the entire disk to protect against unauthorized access to data stored on your startup disk. People rarely use this feature, but you may need to check it out, especially if you log in in with your account password (FileVault requires password secured log in).
How to disable fileVault?
Enter System Preferences and choose Security & Privacy. Then select the FileVault tab, click the lock button to unlock it. Enter an administrator name and password and turn off FileVault. Then, restart your Mac.
When your computer loads, decryption of your startup drive begins in the background. Decryption of all disks on your mac will take some time - you can check progress by entering the FileVault tab in Security & Privacy preferences.
Remove iTunes Authorizations
iTunes has a built-in authorization tool used to grant permission to access all iTunes content from the device/s you authorized. The maximum number of authorized devices is five, so do not give away your iTunes content and access permissions when selling your old mac.
Your content will not be deleted from your device when you deauthorize it - you will simply deny permission to access protected content (which can be recovered anytime by re-authorizing the same device). Do not skip the deauthorize step, since if you sell your authorized device and later decide you wish to deauthorize it, you will be forced to deauthorize all of your devices and then re-authorize all usable devices again. This will be time-consuming and inconvenient.
How to deauthorize your Mac:
Open iTunes (login with your Apple ID if required). From the menu bar at the top left of your screen, choose Account, select Authorizations, and finally click on 'Deauthorize This Computer.' If required, enter your Apple ID and password and click Deauthorize.
Deactivate programs and remove authorizations
Many third-party applications require machine authorization and activation, especially image, audio/video editing, and software design packages. For example, most Adobe programs require activation. To activate an application, log in with a valid user licence. Deactivation dissociates an application from a valid user licence, so if you need to use the same application on another device, you do not need to uninstall - simply deactivate and use the licence on the other machine. Look up your programs list to find and deactivate programs.
Sign Out your iCloud
Find my Mac ensures you have a copy of your iCloud data before proceeding.
Open the Apple menu at the top left of your screen and select System Preferences. Then, choose iCloud and Sign Out. Ensure you have removed all personal data by selecting Delete From Mac in each pop-up. All of your data such as iCloud contacts, calendar signs, etc. will be wiped from your Mac.
Sign Out of iMessage
Open your iMessages applications Preferences and select Accounts, choose your account and click sign out.
Factory Reset MacBook Air and other Macs using macOS Recovery
macOS Recovery is a segment of the built-in recovery system. The utilities menu allows you to fully erase the internal hard drive. If you require a clean and fresh installation of your operating system, you can reinstall macOS to clear all private associations, such as your data, user accounts, Apple ID, etc.
How to reset your Mac using macOS?
Turn on or restart your MacBook and hold down the Option, Command and R keys until you see the Apple logo, and then release them. When the Utilities window pops up, startup is completed. Use Disk Utility to wipe your startup and any other internal hard disks. Select your drive name from the sidebar and click Erase. In the format menu, choose Mac OS Extended (unless you are using High Sierra), and above, select APFS, type a new name for your disk (we recommend that you leave the default - Macintosh HD) and click Erase. Note: this will wipe all data on the disk, including personal files and data.
Once erasing is complete, return to the recovery menu, select Reinstall macOS, and follow the on-screen instructions. When the Mac completes the installation, it will restart to a setup assistant. If you are selling/giving away your mac and wish to leave it in a factory default state, do not follow the assistant - just press Command and Q, and then click Shut Down. If you are retaining your Mac, follow the assistant and set up your clean system.
Restore from Time Machine backup
If you have a Time Machine backup, use it to restore. This procedure will erase the disk and then replace all data from a backup - this will return the computer to the state prior to the backup. To perform this, launch your macOS Recovery and choose Restore from Time Machine Backup. Follow the on-screen instructions to proceed. Another way to reinstall macOS is by using Apple App Store. Open the App Store and use the search field. Once you have found a version, download and install it.
Video showing how to reset your Mac to default settings:
There are mainly two reasons why you want to restore your Mac to factory settings and erase everything.
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.
It is not difficult to erase everything on a Mac and reformat the MacBook or iMac. But if you want to reset MacBook Pro/Air, iMac without losing data, or securely and completely wipe a Mac, 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 restored to factory settings after that.
Step 1: Back Up Your Mac Before Factory Reset
I believe that there must be some important files on your Mac. Therefore, it is a must to back up your files before erasing your MacBook or iMac. There are mutiple options to back up your Mac:
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 have 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.
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 incease the backup speed, it is recommended to clean useless junk files on your Mac before a Time Machine or iCloud backup. FonePaw MacMaster can easily delete caches, logs, borwsing history, duplicate files and photos, large files, useless apps and more from your Mac.
Download
Download and run FonePaw MacMaster on your Mac.
Select the file type you want to clean, such as system junks, duplicate photos. Click Scan.
Click Clean to remove the junks you don't need.
Go ahead to back up your Mac. The backup will be finished more quickly, taking less space of your external hard drive or iCloud account.
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 reformatted your Mac and erased everything on Mac, it is still possible to recover the erased files on the Mac with a professional data recovery program such as 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 reformatted Mac after performing data recovery, you can use Eraser on FonePaw MacMasterto securely delete confidential files on your Mac before factory reset. The Eraser can erase the trace of a file on the hard drive and make it unrecoverable.
Install FonePaw MacMaster on your Mac.
Click Eraser and select the files you want to destroy.
Click Erase to make it unrecoverable.
Erasing Macintosh Hd Failed
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 stpes to disable FileVault encryption.
Open System Preferences > Security & Privacy.
On the Security & Privacy window, click the FileVault tab.
Click Lock button and you will need to enter password of the administrator account the unlock FileVault settings.
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
You don't want your iTunes or iCloud account to be linking to your MacBook or iMac if you decide to sell it or give it away. You can authorize only 5 computer with your iTunes account so you don't want to lose an allocation to a Mac that you no longer own. Mac keyboard explained. So before erasing your MacBook or iMac, you should first deauthorize iTunes and disable iCloud on your Mac.
Deauthorize iTunes on Mac
Open iTunes on Mac.Click Account > Authorizations > Deauthorize This Computer.
You'll need to enter the password of your Apple ID. Then click Deauthorize.
Erase Macintosh Hd Data
Sign out of iCloud on Mac
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.
Deselect all the options and click Continue, which will ensure that your iCloud data won't stay on the 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.
Step 5: Erase MacBook, MacBook Air/Pro, iMac
After finishing the above steps, you are now offically 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. Select Disk Utility.
Is the sims free. Select the disk to erase. To erase everything on your Mac, you usually should choose the main hard drive named Macintosh HD.
Cannot Erase Macintosh Hd
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.
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 everthing. If you have more question, drop it in the comment section.
