If you are selling your MacBook or Mac, trading it in, or just passing information technology on to friends or family - you lot would be wise to wipe the Mac and restore it to mill settings first. This is partly so that your data stays safe, but it will also avoid any issues at a later date that could come about if you lot don't disconnect that Mac from diverse services and software you might employ. It also means the new user can restart the Mac as if it was brand new.

Just recollect that if someone is going to be using the Mac after you, removing personal data alone isn't enough - y'all also need to make sure there's a working version of macOS installed afterwards. Read our guide to selling a Mac.

Another reason why you might want to wipe your Mac is to perform a make clean install of macOS - which tin can be a good way to fix issues with your Mac if information technology's starting to conduct oddly or you lot are worried you might take a virus. Wiping a faulty Mac will allow you to ready it upwardly like a new Mac - which will hopefully fix whatsoever software-related problems you are having.

Follow our guide to do the following:

  • Clone or back upwards your Mac
  • Erase all your data from your Mac
  • Restore your Mac to its manufacturing plant settings
  • Reinstall macOS

First a bit of good news: If you accept macOS Monterey on an M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max, or a Mac with a T2 scrap, the process for erasing the content on your Mac has merely got and then much easier thanks to a new choice in Organisation Preferences. We'll run through the new steps beneath.

Step 1: Dorsum up your Mac

Before you do anything y'all should back upwardly or clone your Mac. This is because - equally you lot would expect - resetting a Mac to factory settings gets rid of all the data stored on that machine.

Don't fall in to the trap we fell into: Considering we use iCloud to sync all files across all our Apple devices we assumed that we could just recover everything we needed from the deject - which was truthful to a certain extent, but it wasn't until after we wiped the Mac that we realised that the data for one not-Apple tree app we used wasn't in the cloud. In these days of working predominantly in the cloud it is an piece of cake mistake to make! Unfortunately you tin't yet support everything on your Mac to iCloud.

Luckily bankroll upwards your Mac is easy to do - as long as you have a external hard drive to use. This can be done very merely using Apple tree's Time Machine software - here'south how to back up using Time Car. The best thing near bankroll up with Fourth dimension Car is it makes it really easy to motility your data to a new Mac afterwards.

If you don't want to use Apple tree's complimentary Time Motorcar software, or you tin brand a clone of the whole hard bulldoze using a program like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper (both are available as free trials).

This cloned bulldoze tin can be re-cloned dorsum to the main drive if you decide to restore your Mac, or information technology can exist used to access all the original files and transfer them and all your settings to your new computer.

Nosotros take a complete guide that explains how to dorsum up a Mac equally well as this guide to the best Mac Fill-in Software.

Pace two: Prepare and erase your Mac

You know you lot need to erase the Mac before you lot pass information technology on, but before you delete everything there'southward some more than admin to do first.

If you accept a M1 Mac, or an Intel Mac with a T2 scrap inside, and you are running macOS Monterey, this process is a little easier with many of the steps taken intendance of by a new option in Organization Preferences. If your Mac is older and then the steps you lot need to have are a little more complicated, we'll run though the steps for older Macs below.

M1 Macs and Intel Mac with T2 chip running macOS Monterey

If you have a M1 Mac, or an Intel Mac with a T2 chip inside, and you are running macOS Monterey this process is a little easier with many of the steps taken care of by a new option in System Preferences.

These Intel Macs take the T2 security chip:

  • MacBook Air from 2018
  • MacBook Pro from 2018
  • Mac mini from 2018
  • iMac 27-inch from 2020
  • iMac Pro
  • Mac Pro from 2019

How to erase an M1 Mac, or a Mac with T2 fleck

A new option arrived in Organisation Preferences in macOS Monterey that takes care of a lot of the complicated steps involved in wiping your Mac - as long every bit it is an M1 Mac or one with a T2 chip, as detailed above.

If you lot click on the new Erase All Content and Settings selection and then everything will exist taken intendance of, including removal of your stored fingerprints for Bear on ID, your Apple tree ID, annihilation in the Wallet app, and Observe My. Activation Lock will also be removed and Bluetooth devices will be unpaired. It also removes all your data and user-installed applications.

  1. Open Organisation Preferences.
  2. Click on System Preferences in the card bar at the top of your screen.
  3. Click on Erase All Content and Settings. How to delete Mac
  4. Enter your password.
  5. You'll be reminded to practise a fill-in with Time Auto earlier you lot begin deletion - but you can skip that step.
  6. A window volition show you what will exist deleted, including Apple ID, Touch on ID, accessories, and Discover My settings.
  7. Finally you volition need to log out of your Mac and all related services using your Apple ID.
  8. Before your Mac is erased y'all receive a final alarm, and then if you have second thoughts at to the lowest degree you tin stop at this point! Erase Mac Monterey
  9. Having clicked the 2nd Erase All Content & Settings your Mac will restart. Eventually you will see a blackness screen while it restarts.
  10. One time your Mac restarts you can get through the steps to set it up as new, or you can leave information technology at this stage for the adjacent possessor to set. Just turn the Mac off first.

How to ready and erase an older Mac

Unfortunately if your Mac is older than those above, or doesn't accept Monterey installed (if the latter is the case then you will probably be meliorate off updating the software first as it will make things simpler for you lot), you volition need to run through the steps below:

1. Deauthorise your accounts

You need to disconnect the Mac from any services you lot are linked to.

That ways signing out of things similar Apple tree Music/iTunes, iCloud, Messages, and Find My.

For example, in the Music app (or iTunes in older versions of macOS) yous will need to deauthorise your iTunes Store account and log out. This is important because you tin can just use upward to 5 Macs to play music and movies that are locked to your iTunes/Music account. The method of deauthorising your music services varies depending on which version y'all've got.

  1. Open up the Music or iTunes app and click on Business relationship, then log out.
  2. Open the App Store app, click on Shop, then log out.
  3. Click on Arrangement Preferences > Apple ID. And so click on Overview and Sign Out. When it asks if y'all desire to keep a copy of the iCloud data just deselect everything (of course make sure you back that information upwards somewhere). Then click Continue and expect for it to sign out (which may have a while). You'll eventually be asked if you want to download photos to the Mac (you don't unless you desire to brand a back up). Finally enter your Apple tree ID Countersign to confirm, and enter the countersign for the Mac.

2. Unpair Bluetooth devices

This is especially of import if you are passing your Mac on to someone in your home or office equally whatsoever Bluetooth device that may have one time been paired with your old Mac may connect to the old 1 once again - which could exist frustrating if you want to use information technology with your new Mac. It might also mean your new keyboard or mouse won't work.

iii. Turn off FileVault (if you lot use information technology)

FileVault encryption tin make information technology difficult for unauthorized persons to access the information on your Mac. If you are using FileVault to encrypt the data on your Mac before you delete your information and prepare the Mac for sale you should turn it off - this seems illogical as you want to protect your data, only yous will exist removing the data.

  1. To turn it of go to System Preferences
  2. Click Security & Privacy.
  3. Click on FIleVault.
  4. Click on the lock and enter your name and password.
  5. Click Turn Off FileVault.

4. Reset NVRAM

Another way to be admittedly sure that none of your personal settings remain on the Mac is to reset the NVRAM.

The NVRAM is a pocket-sized amount of retentiveness that your Mac uses to store certain settings. Resetting it will articulate your user settings and restore whatsoever security features you might have adjusted.

Here's how to reset the NVRAM:

  1. Hold down Option/Alt, Command, P and R.
  2. Wait 20 seconds and release the keys.

Note, y'all can't reset the NVRAM on an M1 Mac in the same way. You can change the settings but you tin can't reset it. However, y'all may non demand to because it seems to exist the case that the M1 Chip tests the NVRAM when the reckoner is started from shutdown (i.eastward. not after a normal reboot). If something is incorrect with the memory information technology is reset automatically. We describe how to reset NVRAM in this article: How to reset NVRAM on an M1 or Intel Mac. Of course, if yous have an M1 Mac you won't need to practise this step anyway.

v. Restart your Mac in Recovery

At present y'all have backed everything up, deauthorised your accounts and unpaired devices, you are fix to start to erase everything on the Mac. To do and so yous need to enter Recovery style. This will enable you to wipe the Mac.

How to enter Recovery on an Intel Mac

  1. Click the Apple tree logo at the tiptop left of the screen and select Restart.
  2. Immediately hold downwardly the Control and R keys until you see an Apple logo or spinning globe. (You may be amend off using a unlike key combination depending on the age of your Mac, and which macOS y'all want installed or was installed on the Mac when you bought it - we accept a consummate guide to starting a Mac in Recovery Fashion here). For instance, Apple recommends that "if yous're selling or giving abroad a Mac that is using OS X El Capitan or earlier, use Option-Command-R to make certain that the installation isn't associated with your Apple ID".
  3. Look it to take a while for the Mac to starting time up in this fashion.
  4. You may come across a screen asking you to cull a language.
  5. The next screen yous'll run across is the Recovery Mode Utilities window. Since macOS Sierra and later it looks something similar this:

How to factory-reset a Mac: Recovery Mode Utilities

If you lot're having problems considering Control + R isn't doing the trick, read this: How to reinstall macOS if Recovery won't work.

Note: The process by which you admission Recovery on a M1 Mac is dissimilar to the process on an older Intel-powered Mac, but, because if you lot have an M1 Mac you will probably have used the Erase All Settings this shouldn't be necessary for yous. If you do want to enter Recovery on an M1 Mac, instead of pressing the Command and R buttons when yous restart your Mac y'all will need to practice the following:

  1. Plough off the computer past clicking on the Apple logo and choosing Close Downward...
  2. At present printing and hold the power button to plow the Mac on over again. Go along holding the ability button!
  3. When the Apple logo appears yous'll also see text informing you that if y'all continue holding you will be able to access startup options.
  4. Keep to hold the push button down (probably for around v more than seconds) and the text should switch to Loading Startup Options.
  5. Eventually you will exist able to select Options > Continue.
  6. This will open Recovery.

We besides detail how to access Recovery on an M1 Mac in this article: How to do everything on an M1 Mac.

half dozen. Erase and reformat your Mac

Now yous accept entered Recovery you tin erase your Mac.

Again, the instructions are a trivial different depending on the version of macOS y'all are using and whether your Mac is Intel or M1.

Nosotros'll run through the method in Monterey, Large Sur and Catalina, before moving onto Mojave and previous versions of macOS below that.

How to delete your Mac in Big Sur/Monterey on an Intel Mac

  1. Now that you are in Recovery, as per the instructions higher up, you need to select Deejay Utility from the listing.
  2. Once in Deejay Utility select Macintosh Hard disk drive (or whatever you take chosen your 'hard drive').
  3. In that location are diverse options along the top: click on Erase.
  4. You should encounter the name of your drive and the format should exist APFS. Underneath you should see an selection to Delete Volume Group (this will ensure you delete both the Macintosh Hd and Macintosh HD Information.)
  5. Once you have deleted the Macintosh Hard disk you tin then click on any other drives and volumes and click the - to delete the volume.

To make sure you delete everything you volition demand to choose Erase Book Group, if you don't run into this option endeavour the instructions below.

How to delete your Mac in Catalina

When Apple introduced macOS Catalina in 2019 information technology added a new read-only volume where the operating system lives. This volume is Macintosh Hd (yours may have a different name). Alongside it you will likewise accept a Macintosh HD - Data book. This is where your data resides.

The reason Apple separated the two volumes in Catalina is to ensure that disquisitional operating arrangement data can't be overwritten. Because of this extra volume the procedure is a petty different to how it works on older Mac.

  1. As per the steps to a higher place start up your Mac in Recovery.
  2. Once Recovery starts up cull Disk Utility.
  3. Y'all should run across two disks - Macintosh Hd and Macintosh HD - data (shown below - sorry about image quality!) This data drive is where your data is stored separately to the macOS installation. (It'south possible your drive is chosen something else, similar Home HD for instance). Macintosh HD Data
  4. Click on this Macintosh HD - Information drive to select it.
  5. Either click on the - push or get to the menu and choose Edit > Delete APFS book.
  6. Yous will see a message warning you that this will permanently erase your data. Click on Delete.
  7. Wait while the volume is deleted. Delete Macintosh HD Data
  8. Now you lot need to get back to Disk Utility to delete the Macintosh Hard disk drive. Y'all accept to do both steps as you won't merely be able to reinstall macOS over the top of macOS. And you will need to reinstall the macOS in order to recreate the Macintosh Hard disk drive-Data volume. Click on Macintosh Hard disk to select it.
  9. We recommend that you click Unmount. Initially when we tried to delete Macintosh HD nosotros saw an fault message that stated: Erase process has failed because volume Macintosh Hard disk on deejay 2s5 couldn't be unmounted because it is in use by process 793 (kextcache). Unmounting showtime fixed this problem.
  10. With Macintosh HD still selected click on Erase. Erase Macintosh HD
  11. Enter a name you lot want to give the drive one time y'all accept reformatted information technology, such as Macintosh Hard disk drive.
  12. Choose the format. This is will be APFS if you are using Catalina - older OSs might have had the option of  Mac Bone Extended (Journaled).
  13. Click Erase and enter your Apple ID if required. Wait.
  14. Now quit Disk Utility to return to the MacOS Utilities screen.

How to delete your Mac in Mojave or earlier

The process for deleting and reformatting your Mac is slightly less complicated in macOS Mojave or earlier as at that place isn't the second Data book to delete first.

As above, first upward in Recovery.

  1. Select Disk Utility from the options, and click Continue.
  2. Click on your main hard drive, typically chosen Macintosh HD, in the sidebar on the left. You're looking for the disk name, not the volume name indented underneath it if that appears. How to factory-reset a Mac: Disk Utility
  3. To wipe your hard drive, click the Erase button, then click Erase. Note that this permanently erases all data on the hard drive then don't practise this unless yous've cloned the drive or are happy to never admission anything on that drive again. How to factory-reset a Mac: Erasing the hard drive
  4. When it's finished, go out the program by going to the height menu and selecting Disk Utility > Quit Disk Utility.

Step 3: Reinstall macOS

The next step involves reinstalling macOS - you tin can't simply sell your Mac having erased the contents - if you do the new user will be confronted with a flashing question mark when they start upward the Mac because there volition exist no operating system installed. You need to reinstall macOS before you tin can sell it on.

If yous have an M1 Mac, or a Mac with the T2 bit, this will be handled by the Erase All Contents and Settings option in System Preferences, equally detailed above. But if that isn't an option for you then the below guide should help:

How to reinstall macOS

Whether yous are reselling the Mac, or just planning to keep to use the Mac and just wanted to exercise a make clean install yous will want to install a version of macOS.

You should still exist in macOS Utilities every bit per the steps higher up.

  1. Choose Reinstall macOS from Utilities and follow the instructions that appear  to reinstall macOS.
  2. Your Mac will start to download and install which always version of macOS your Mac was running - alternatively, if you wanted to install an older version of macOS nosotros have more information below.
  3. Somewhen afterwards the longest-always 49 mins or so your Mac will restart. Merely the expect isn't over. It volition notwithstanding take a little time while yous kickoff up and watch the white bar. Ours said 11 minutes remaining around that time, just it took a lot longer than that. Just get out your Mac to get on with it and ignore any time remaining indicators.
  4. Finally you will see the Welcome screen. If y'all are selling or passing on your Mac you can go out it at this phase because the new user volition need to input their details. If you want to continue to employ the Mac then follow the steps to fix information technology up.

How to install an older version or downgrade macOS

The method above will piece of work if y'all desire to install the latest version of macOS installed on the Mac. It won't upgrade you to the latest version if you aren't already running it.

There are other options if you want to install a different version of the macOS.

Instead of pressing Command + R at start upwards you could press Shift + Option/Alt + Command R (if you lot are running Sierra ten.12.4 of later) to install the version of macOS that came with your Mac, or the 1 closest to it that is notwithstanding bachelor. (Control + R won't work on an M1 Mac).

Alternatively you could brand a bootable drive containing the version of macOS that y'all desire to run and install it on your Mac using that. Read how to practice that here: How to make a bootable macOS installer on an external drive.

If y'all need to install an older version of the Mac operating organisation and are wondering how you lot can do that if yous oasis't got the original discs, read this: How to install old versions of macOS or Mac OS Ten.

We accept some other article that goes into more than item on how to install an older version of macOS using Recovery style.