While wiping your MacBook may seem a bit drastic, there are some good reasons for factory resetting a MacBook. If you’re selling or trading in your MacBook, you obviously don’t want to share old files with a new owner. Or maybe, after lots of use, your trusty MacBook has built up clutter and bugs. And a clean slate seems like the way to go. Whatever the reason, we’ll show you the easy way how to factory reset your MacBook.
Restore Mac to factory settings
So before getting started, there are a few things we’d recommend you do first:
- Back up your Mac – before you wipe anything you later regret, it’s a good idea to back up anything you want to keep. Either, move your files to an external storage device or use Apple’s Time Machine feature – which will back up your whole MacBook set up. Just go to System Preferences and choose Time Machine. Then follow the steps.
- Find out your Mac OS and age – all Macs from 2018 and newer come with a feature on macOS Monterey called Erase Assistant, which is like a factory reset wizard.
If you’ve completed steps 1 and 2 and you have a newer MacBook running on macOS Monterey, you’re all set. Just click the Apple logo, go to System Preferences and look for Erase Assistant. Then just follow the steps. Easy!
But what if you have an Apple MacBook Pro or Apple MacBook Air that’s from 2017 or before and runs an older macOS? Ok. It’s tougher, but we’ll run you through the process to restore your mac to factory settings for both models.
How to factory reset Macbook Air and MacBook Pro
Older MacBook? No problem. Reset your Mac to factory settings in 4 steps…
Sign out of iCloud – From the Apple menu, select System Preferences and then pick the Apple iD icon. From the sidebar, select Overview and then Sign Out from the bottom.
Sign out of iMessage – Open the messages app, select Messages, then Preferences, iMessage from the pop up window and finally Sign Out.
Reboot your Mac – Restart your Macbook and as it starts up, holds down Option, Command, P and R. You’ll get the Recovery menu. From there, pick Disk Utility and hit the continue button.
Finally…erase – You’ll then get the option to erase your drive. Select Macintosh HD, leave the format as it is and click the erase button.
If you've done all this to give it to someone else, you’re all done. But if you’re keeping it and want to start with a clean slate, all you need to do now is power on your MacBook and follow the steps to reinstall macOS. For more detail on this, keep reading!
How to factory reset MacBook without password
To factory reset your MacBook, you don’t actually need a password. Just bear in mind that any files and data will be wiped. So if you’re ok with that, just take these steps.
Shut down the Mac and then press the power button to turn it on.
Hold down Command and R until you see the Apple logo or spinning globe and then release.
From there, pick Disk Utility from the Recovery menu.
Select the main hard drive – which is Macintosh HD from the menu and click the Erase button.
Once the process is complete, close Disk Utility.
Now you’ll have the option to Reinstall MacOS (or OS X), so select and continue.
After a little wait, your MacBook factory reset is complete! Now you can set up your MacBook.
If you need help with any of this, don’t be shy about reaching out. Our tech experts are here to help you with computer maintenance whenever you need it.
