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How to Erase and Factory Reset Your Mac - New EASY Method
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Jun 10, 2024
In this video, you'll discover an easy, step-by-step method to erase and factory reset your Mac. Whether you're preparing to sell your Mac, resolve performance issues, or simply start fresh, this tutorial guides you through the process. You'll learn how to back up your data, erase your Mac's hard drive using the new method, and reinstall macOS to restore it to factory settings. By the end of the video, you'll have the confidence and knowledge to efficiently reset your Mac, ensuring it's ready for its next use.
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0:00
If you're selling your Mac or if you're giving your Mac to someone else
0:03
it's best to erase all your content and reset your Mac to factory settings
0:08
Now, in the recent years, Apple has made this process a whole lot easier
0:12
It used to be pretty time consuming. You had multiple steps five, six years ago, but it's much, much easier now
0:18
So I'm going to show you how to do that, but I'll include that video just in case your Mac is really old and this doesn't work for you
0:24
There's an old way to do this, but that's for Macs before 2018
0:28
Now, the very first thing I recommend is go to your search box and type in Time Machine
0:33
and click on Time Machine over here. So if you don't know what Time Machine is, you need to set up Time Machine
0:39
and Time Machine will back up your old computer here. So I use an external hard drive
0:45
So then it will take everything that's on this hard drive of this Mac
0:49
and puts it over here using Time Machine. And it's the easiest way to then use what's in here to put it onto your new Mac
0:56
when you get a new Mac. If you already have another Mac, you could put them side by side
1:01
and migrate the information. I'll show you that in the next setting
1:05
But because we're going to erase everything, there's no other way to get it back. You need to back it up somehow
1:09
You could do it manually or you could do it with Time Machine or migration
1:14
Now, the next thing I recommend is go to the Apple logo right here and go to System Settings on this page
1:20
Click on General here on the left side. And if you have a really old Mac, this might look a little bit different
1:25
but either way, the General option should be available in your menu too
1:29
And go to System Update. And this is going to check for updates here
1:33
And if it finds a new update, it is recommended that you update your Mac
1:37
your operating system, if you have the room. So if you don't have the room, I still recommend you try to erase some things from your Mac
1:45
So you could go ahead and update it here. Because this will solve some problems if you have the latest operating system
1:51
that you may come across otherwise. So I recommend you update it here
1:55
And that is step two. For step three, click the Apple icon one more time and go to System Settings
2:02
So for this step, we need to sign out of our iCloud account
2:06
But the new Mac setting is going to let us do all the steps now that we need to do
2:11
So go to General. And there's an option here called Transfer and Reset
2:15
Click that. And right over here, this is the Migration Assistant. So if you want to transfer your information, all your data, all your apps to a new Mac
2:24
or even a Windows PC, you could set them next to each other side by side
2:29
Or you could use Time Machine Backup. But I recommend that that's when you need another hard drive
2:34
So if you don't have your new Mac ready, just get an external hard drive
2:38
I'll put a link in the description to one that you could pick up from Amazon
2:42
Now, this is the migration option. But to reset everything, we need to click Erase All Content and Settings
2:48
It's going to ask for the password for this computer that we're on. I'm going to type that in
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Now, this is going to take care of multiple steps that before we need to do manually
2:57
So we needed to sign out of our iCloud. This is going to just do that for us
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It's going to remove everything relating to Touch ID. It's going to remove any Bluetooth that are paired
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And it's going to remove this activation lock here. This location sharing will be turned off
3:11
I could go ahead and continue here. Now, to sign out of our Apple ID, we need our Apple ID password
3:17
So I do need to type that in here. Then you're going to get this pop-up
3:21
You're about to erase all the content and the settings on this computer, on this Mac
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So this cannot be undone. So I just want to make sure you have backed this up
3:31
migrated over and you have all this information. This is going to be gone forever
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There's no way to get it back. So make sure before you press this, you understand that and everything is backed up
3:41
Now, I'm going to press it. And then you should see the Apple logo with this little slider here
3:45
Let that complete. Okay, then it's going to bring you to this page after the Apple logo flashes a few times
3:50
So in this case, it took about five minutes for me. Go ahead and press restart over here
3:55
or it's going to restart automatically after the countdown is done. Now here, you're going to come to this page
4:00
So you could go ahead and get started here to set up this Mac as a new Mac
4:05
And at this point, this is actually where you want to leave it. Every time you get a new Mac, this is basically the first page of the setup screen
4:12
So you don't want to actually set it up. The operating system has already been installed
4:16
And you could actually close this up and shut down your Mac here. And you're ready to give it away, or you could sell it
4:22
If you want to keep it for yourself and you did this reset because there was an issue
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obviously go through the setup process and it's going to ask you to create a new login screen
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And everything is very straightforward on the steps on setting up your Mac
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If you follow the prompts. And that's all it takes to reset your Mac to its factory setting
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Again, if you have an older Mac, I do have that old video that shows you how to do it with that
4:43
That one requires a restart. You have to hold control and R. It's a different process altogether
4:49
So that is an older video that I'll include in the description as well. Thanks for watching
4:53
I'll see you next time
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