If you have a Mac, MacBook, MacBook Air or MacBook Pro and it has become old or slows down or you want to sell it or give it to someone else, first, you may want to reset it to factory defaults. Here, we will show you how to factory reset a Mac, MacBook, MacBook Air or MacBook Pro.
In this guide, you will learn how to remove Apple ID from your Mac, MacBook, MacBook Air or MacBook Pro, back up your data, delete all personal information from your system and factory reset your device. You will also learn how to reinstall the MacOS version that originally came with your Mac Computer over your Internet connection.
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Table of Contents
Delete your Apple ID
If you want to reset or factory reset your Mac, MacBook, MacBook Air or MacBook Pro, you must remove your Apple ID from it, otherwise the new owner may sign in via iCloud. The easiest way to do so is to boot your MacBook Pro, open System Preferences> iCloud and select “Sign Out”. You can safely choose to delete local copies of iCloud data on your Mac.
Open a web browser, visit the iCloud website, and sign in with your Apple ID. Select “Find my iPhone” Your MacBook Pro is listed under “All Devices”.
Select your MacBook Pro and click on ‘Remove from Account’. Be sure to repeat these steps for each of your Apple IDs that you enter with the MacBook.
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Backup your data
Remember, It is important to backup your useful data before beginning to factory reset your Mac, MacBook, MacBook Air or MacBook Pro. Although you may want to reset your MacBook Pro to its default settings, you may want to keep data such as documents, photos, and videos.
If you are backing up with Time Machine, insert your selected drive into your MacBook Pro, click the Time Machine icon at the top of your screen, and select “Back up Now”.
If you have not already supported your MacBook Pro, there is no better time than now. To get started with Time Machine, first find an empty external hard drive with a capacity equal to your MacBook Pro of at least 500 GB.
Connect the drive to your device. The Mac will ask if you want to use this drive for backup purposes.
Click OK and the backup process will start automatically. This can take several hours. You can use drives formatted specifically for MacOS in the Apple Online Store, but you can use any other external hard drive.
This process clears any information on the drive, so be sure to use a new or empty field.
Erase your hard drive
When the Time Machine has finished its backup, safely eject your hard drive using the exit icon next to the drive name.
Put the backup drive in a safe place, then turn off your Mac or MacBook Pro. When your device is completely turned off, make sure the power adapter is turned on, then hold down the Cmd + Alt + R key before restarting your MacBook Pro.
If all goes well, you will see the words “Starting Internet Recovery” on your screen with the image of a spinning circle. Release the keys and wait for the internet recovery to finish. If you do not see a small progress bar on the screen, click on your wireless network name and enter your password. This allows your MacBook Pro to download the tools you need.
Once the recovery area is loaded, click ‘Disk Utility’ and then select ‘Continue’. Your MacBook Pro hard drive is displayed in the white box on the left – its default name is “Macintosh HD”.
Click to display this drive in blue, then select the ‘Erase’ button. Check again if the Format is set to (macOS Extended Journaled), then click the ‘Erase’ button.
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Reinstall MacOS
When your hard drive is completely erased, click the “Disk Utility” button in the upper left corner of the screen, then select ‘Quit’. This will take you back to the internet recovery area home page.
Click the Wi-Fi icon at the top right of the screen to make sure there is a black tick next to your wireless network name. If not, click the network name to connect.
After doing this, click the second option in the center of the page on “Reinstall macOS” or “Reinstall OS X”, then click Continue. And it will start the reinstallation. Note that this is usually the operating system that originally came with your MacBook Pro, not necessarily the latest version of macOS.
This is because you are using an internet recovery tool. If you use the standard Mac Recovery area to reinstall MacOS, the operating system will be associated with your Apple ID, meaning that your password is required for each software update.
Internet recovery tool does not do this, which is very useful if you give your MacBook Pro to someone else. If they want the latest version of MacOS, it will convince them to log in to the App Store and download it using their Apple ID, after the reinstall is complete.
Click ‘Continue’ to continue, then click ‘Agree’. The installation wizard will now ask you to select the destination drive. Click on one of them that was deleted in the previous step (for example ‘Macintosh HD’) and then click on ‘Install’.
The reconnection time will vary depending on your connection speed.
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Using the setup assistant
Once the Mac OS is successfully installed, MacBook Pro will launch your startup assistant. Ever since you first bought your device.
If you want to sell your MacBook Pro, you can turn off the device. After rebooting, the new owner can enter their startup assistant and personal information if they are ready.
If you are resetting your MacBook Pro to fix a problem such as a slow system, click Next to accept the default language. The driver’s assistant later offers a chance to connect to WiFi – click on your network name, then the password. Enter your WiFi pass.
The assistant then asks if you want to transfer data to this MacBook Pro. This feature is very useful for people who buy new devices and to transfer data from an old Mac.
However, if you use it here, you may also have a software issue that has caused you to reset your MacBook Pro!
If you want to enter your apple id and password, select “Don’t transfer” and also select “Don’t sign in”. Launcher Assistant now asks you to enter your username and password to create an Administrator account on your MacBook Pro.
Enter the name ‘Test’ and the password ‘test12345’ for the macOS desktop. At this point you may be asked to sign in with your Apple ID. Now select “Don’t sign in” again.
If you already have a problem with macOS, try re-creating it to see if the problem persists. If it does, it may be a hardware issue.
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