If you are selling your MacBook or Mac, trading it in, or just passing information technology on to friends or family - you would be wise to wipe the Mac and restore it to factory settings commencement. This is partly then that your data stays condom, but it will likewise avert whatsoever issues at a later date that could come about if you don't disconnect that Mac from various services and software you might employ. It as well means the new user can restart the Mac as if it was make new.

Just remember that if someone is going to be using the Mac after y'all, removing personal information solitary isn't enough - you as well need to brand sure there's a working version of macOS installed afterwards. Read our guide to selling a Mac.

Some other reason why y'all might want to wipe your Mac is to perform a clean install of macOS - which can be a skillful way to fix issues with your Mac if information technology'due south starting to behave oddly or you are worried you lot might have a virus. Wiping a faulty Mac will let you to set up it upwards similar a new Mac - which will hopefully gear up any software-related issues you are having.

Follow our guide to do the following:

  • Clone or back up your Mac
  • Erase all your information from your Mac
  • Restore your Mac to its factory settings
  • Reinstall macOS

Get-go a chip of good news: If you accept macOS Monterey on an M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max, or a Mac with a T2 fleck, the process for erasing the content on your Mac has only got so much easier thanks to a new option in System Preferences. Nosotros'll run through the new steps beneath.

Step 1: Back up your Mac

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

Don't fall in to the trap we barbarous into: Because we apply iCloud to sync all files beyond all our Apple tree devices nosotros assumed that we could just recover everything we needed from the cloud - which was true to a certain extent, but it wasn't until later on nosotros wiped the Mac that we realised that the data for one not-Apple app we used wasn't in the cloud. In these days of working predominantly in the cloud it is an easy mistake to brand! Unfortunately you lot tin can't yet support everything on your Mac to iCloud.

Luckily backing up your Mac is like shooting fish in a barrel to do - as long equally you lot have a external difficult drive to use. This can be washed very simply using Apple'due south Time Machine software - here'due south how to back up using Fourth dimension Motorcar. The best thing about bankroll up with Time Auto is it makes it really easy to move your information to a new Mac afterwards.

If you lot don't want to use Apple'south gratis Time Motorcar software, or you tin make a clone of the whole hard bulldoze using a plan like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper (both are available as complimentary trials).

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

We have a consummate guide that explains how to support a Mac as well as this guide to the best Mac Backup Software.

Step ii: Prepare and erase your Mac

You know y'all demand to erase the Mac before you laissez passer it on, but before you delete everything in that location's some more than admin to do showtime.

If you take a M1 Mac, or an Intel Mac with a T2 chip within, and you are running macOS Monterey, this process is a piddling easier with many of the steps taken care of by a new option in Arrangement Preferences. If your Mac is older then the steps you lot need to have are a petty more complicated, nosotros'll run though the steps for older Macs below.

M1 Macs and Intel Mac with T2 scrap running macOS Monterey

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

These Intel Macs have the T2 security fleck:

  • 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 bit

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

If you click on the new Erase All Content and Settings option and then everything will be taken care of, including removal of your stored fingerprints for Touch ID, your Apple ID, anything in the Wallet app, and Find My. Activation Lock will as well be removed and Bluetooth devices will be unpaired. It besides removes all your data and user-installed applications.

  1. Open up System Preferences.
  2. Click on System Preferences in the carte du jour bar at the top of your screen.
  3. Click on Erase All Content and Settings. How to delete Mac
  4. Enter your password.
  5. Yous'll be reminded to exercise a fill-in with Time Machine before you begin deletion - but you can skip that stride.
  6. A window will show you lot what will be deleted, including Apple tree ID, Touch ID, accessories, and Find My settings.
  7. Finally you will need to log out of your Mac and all related services using your Apple ID.
  8. Before your Mac is erased you receive a final alarm, and then if you have second thoughts at least you tin can stop at this indicate! Erase Mac Monterey
  9. Having clicked the second Erase All Content & Settings your Mac will restart. Eventually you will meet a black screen while it restarts.
  10. Once your Mac restarts you can get through the steps to set it upwardly as new, or you can get out it at this stage for the side by side owner to set up. Just plow 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 yous volition probably be meliorate off updating the software offset equally information technology will brand things simpler for you), y'all will need to run through the steps below:

one. Deauthorise your accounts

You need to disconnect the Mac from any services y'all are linked to.

That means signing out of things like Apple Music/iTunes, iCloud, Messages, and Discover My.

For instance, in the Music app (or iTunes in older versions of macOS) you volition need to deauthorise your iTunes Store account and log out. This is important because you lot can only use upward to five 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 you've got.

  1. Open the Music or iTunes app and click on Account, and then log out.
  2. Open up the App Shop app, click on Store, then log out.
  3. Click on System Preferences > Apple ID. Then click on Overview and Sign Out. When it asks if you want to keep a copy of the iCloud data just deselect everything (of course make sure you dorsum that data up somewhere). Then click Go on and wait for it to sign out (which may take a while). You'll eventually be asked if you want to download photos to the Mac (you don't unless you want to make a dorsum up). Finally enter your Apple tree ID Countersign to confirm, and enter the password for the Mac.

two. Unpair Bluetooth devices

This is specially important if you are passing your Mac on to someone in your home or function as any Bluetooth device that may have once been paired with your former Mac may connect to the old 1 once more - which could be frustrating if you want to use it with your new Mac. It might besides hateful your new keyboard or mouse won't work.

3. Turn off FileVault (if yous use it)

FileVault encryption can go far hard for unauthorized persons to access the data on your Mac. If you are using FileVault to encrypt the data on your Mac before you delete your data and prepare the Mac for auction yous should plough it off - this seems illogical as you want to protect your information, only you volition be removing the information.

  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 Plough Off FileVault.

four. Reset NVRAM

Another fashion to exist absolutely sure that none of your personal settings remain on the Mac is to reset the NVRAM.

The NVRAM is a small corporeality of memory that your Mac uses to store certain settings. Resetting it volition clear your user settings and restore any security features you might have adjusted.

Here'southward how to reset the NVRAM:

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

Note, you can't reset the NVRAM on an M1 Mac in the same way. You can change the settings but you tin't reset it. However, you may non demand to because it seems to be the case that the M1 Chip tests the NVRAM when the computer is started from shutdown (i.east. not subsequently a normal reboot). If something is wrong with the memory it is reset automatically. We draw how to reset NVRAM in this article: How to reset NVRAM on an M1 or Intel Mac. Of course, if you have an M1 Mac y'all won't need to do this stride anyhow.

5. Restart your Mac in Recovery

At present you lot have backed everything up, deauthorised your accounts and unpaired devices, you lot are ready to first to erase everything on the Mac. To do so you demand to enter Recovery mode. This will enable you to wipe the Mac.

How to enter Recovery on an Intel Mac

  1. Click the Apple logo at the top left of the screen and select Restart.
  2. Immediately concord downwardly the Command and R keys until you see an Apple logo or spinning world. (You may be better off using a different cardinal combination depending on the historic period of your Mac, and which macOS yous desire installed or was installed on the Mac when you bought it - we have a complete guide to starting a Mac in Recovery Mode here). For example, Apple recommends that "if you're selling or giving away a Mac that is using Bone X El Capitan or before, use Option-Command-R to brand sure that the installation isn't associated with your Apple ID".
  3. Expect information technology to take a while for the Mac to start upwardly in this fashion.
  4. You may run into a screen asking you to choose a language.
  5. The adjacent screen yous'll run across is the Recovery Manner Utilities window. Since macOS Sierra and afterwards it looks something like this:

How to factory-reset a Mac: Recovery Mode Utilities

If you're having issues because Command + R isn't doing the trick, read this: How to reinstall macOS if Recovery won't work.

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

  1. Turn off the computer by clicking on the Apple logo and choosing Shut Downward...
  2. At present press and hold the power push button to turn the Mac on over again. Proceed belongings the power button!
  3. When the Apple tree logo appears you'll also see text informing y'all that if yous continue holding you will be able to access startup options.
  4. Go along to hold the button down (probably for around v more seconds) and the text should switch to Loading Startup Options.
  5. Somewhen yous will be able to select Options > Go along.
  6. This will open up Recovery.

We also 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 have entered Recovery yous tin erase your Mac.

Again, the instructions are a little different depending on the version of macOS yous are using and whether your Mac is Intel or M1.

We'll run through the method in Monterey, Big Sur and Catalina, earlier 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, every bit per the instructions to a higher place, you demand to select Disk Utility from the list.
  2. Once in Deejay Utility select Macintosh HD (or whatever you have called your 'difficult drive').
  3. At that place are diverse options along the acme: click on Erase.
  4. You should encounter the proper name of your drive and the format should be APFS. Underneath y'all should run into an option to Delete Volume Group (this volition ensure you lot delete both the Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD Data.)
  5. Once you have deleted the Macintosh HD you can so click on whatsoever other drives and volumes and click the - to delete the volume.

To make certain you delete everything you will need to choose Erase Volume Group, if you don't come across this choice endeavour the instructions beneath.

How to delete your Mac in Catalina

When Apple tree introduced macOS Catalina in 2019 information technology added a new read-only book where the operating organization lives. This book is Macintosh Hard disk drive (yours may have a unlike name). Alongside it you volition likewise have a Macintosh Hd - Data volume. This is where your data resides.

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

  1. Every bit per the steps above kickoff upwards your Mac in Recovery.
  2. Once Recovery starts up choose Disk Utility.
  3. You should see two disks - Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD - data (shown below - sorry near epitome quality!) This data bulldoze is where your data is stored separately to the macOS installation. (It's possible your drive is chosen something else, like Abode HD for instance). Macintosh HD Data
  4. Click on this Macintosh HD - Data drive to select it.
  5. Either click on the - button or go to the card and choose Edit > Delete APFS book.
  6. You lot volition run across a message warning you that this will permanently erase your information. Click on Delete.
  7. Look while the volume is deleted. Delete Macintosh HD Data
  8. Now you lot need to go back to Deejay Utility to delete the Macintosh Hard disk drive. You have to do both steps as y'all won't just be able to reinstall macOS over the top of macOS. And you lot will need to reinstall the macOS in social club to recreate the Macintosh Hard disk drive-Data volume. Click on Macintosh Hd to select information technology.
  9. Nosotros recommend that you click Unmount. Initially when we tried to delete Macintosh Hd we saw an error message that stated: Erase process has failed because volume Macintosh HD on disk 2s5 couldn't exist unmounted because information technology is in use past process 793 (kextcache). Unmounting first fixed this problem.
  10. With Macintosh Hd notwithstanding selected click on Erase. Erase Macintosh HD
  11. Enter a name you want to requite the drive once yous take reformatted information technology, such as Macintosh HD.
  12. Choose the format. This is volition be APFS if you are using Catalina - older OSs might have had the option of  Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
  13. Click Erase and enter your Apple tree ID if required. Wait.
  14. Now quit Disk Utility to render 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 there isn't the second Information volume to delete first.

As above, starting time upward in Recovery.

  1. Select Disk Utility from the options, and click Continue.
  2. Click on your main hard drive, typically called Macintosh HD, in the sidebar on the left. Y'all're looking for the deejay 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 information on the hard drive so don't practise this unless you've cloned the drive or are happy to never access annihilation on that drive over again. How to factory-reset a Mac: Erasing the hard drive
  4. When it'south finished, exit the plan past going to the top menu and selecting Disk Utility > Quit Deejay Utility.

Step 3: Reinstall macOS

The side by side step involves reinstalling macOS - yous can't but sell your Mac having erased the contents - if yous exercise the new user will be confronted with a flashing question marking when they start up the Mac considering there will exist no operating system installed. You need to reinstall macOS before you can sell it on.

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

How to reinstall macOS

Whether you lot are reselling the Mac, or just planning to continue to utilize the Mac and just wanted to do a make clean install y'all volition desire to install a version of macOS.

Yous should still exist in macOS Utilities as per the steps to a higher place.

  1. Choose Reinstall macOS from Utilities and follow the instructions that announced  to reinstall macOS.
  2. Your Mac volition start to download and install which ever version of macOS your Mac was running - alternatively, if you wanted to install an older version of macOS we have more than information below.
  3. Eventually after the longest-ever 49 mins or so your Mac will restart. Just the wait isn't over. Information technology will still have a piddling fourth dimension while you start up and watch the white bar. Ours said xi minutes remaining effectually that fourth dimension, simply it took a lot longer than that. Just leave your Mac to get on with information technology and ignore any fourth dimension remaining indicators.
  4. Finally you will meet the Welcome screen. If you lot are selling or passing on your Mac you can leave it at this stage because the new user volition need to input their details. If you desire to continue to use the Mac so follow the steps to set information technology up.

How to install an older version or downgrade macOS

The method above will work if you want 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.

In that location are other options if you want to install a different version of the macOS.

Instead of pressing Control + R at start up y'all could press Shift + Option/Alt + Command R (if you are running Sierra x.12.iv of afterward) to install the version of macOS that came with your Mac, or the one closest to it that is even so available. (Command + R won't work on an M1 Mac).

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

If you lot need to install an older version of the Mac operating system and are wondering how you can practice that if you oasis't got the original discs, read this: How to install one-time versions of macOS or Mac OS X.

Nosotros accept another article that goes into more detail on how to install an older version of macOS using Recovery mode.