Once you’ve backed up your important data, signed out of iTunes, iCloud and any other services you use on your Mac, it’s finally time to wipe the drive.
You’ll be asked whether you want to keep a copy of your iCloud data on your Mac - as you’ll be wiping the hard drive anyway, you can click Keep a Copy to speed the process up.įinally, it’s time to sign out from the Messages app.On macOS Mojave or earlier, simply click Sign Out from within the iCloud menu.Then select Overview in the side panel and click Sign Out. On macOS Catalina, select iCloud in the side panel and uncheck Find My Mac if enabled.Click the Apple icon in the top left and select System Preferences.Next comes iCloud, removing access to your photos, videos and other files stored in the cloud. Click Store > Deauthorise This Computer.Click Deauthorise to complete the process.Click Account > Authorisations > Deauthorise This Computer.
#Wiping mac hard drive and reinstalling mac os#
Though it’s no longer a part of macOS with the release of Catalina, iTunes is still an integral part of older versions of macOS and Mac OS X. It also helps to keep things tidier in iCloud, as even though you’ll be resetting your Mac, there’s no way to ‘tell’ Apple and other service providers that this is the case, and they’ll likely still count the existing machine as a device, even if it has been reset and sold. Once you’ve created your backup, the next step is to sign out of the various Apple (and third-party) services you use on your Mac, especially if there’s a limit on how many devices can access the service at any one time - iTunes can only be used on up to five machines per account, for example. Step 2: Sign out of iTunes, iCloud and Messages Once complete, you’ll have a comprehensive back up of your entire Mac, including not only documents and data but all installed apps and system preferences too. It’ll likely take a while the first time around, so we’d recommend going for a cuppa while it does its thing. Once set up, your Mac will start the Time Machine backup process - if it doesn’t automatically, click Back Up Now in the Time Machine menu.You’ll then be asked to reformat your hard drive, deleting any existing data.Click Select Backup Disk, and select the drive you just plugged in. If the prompt didn’t appear, click the Apple logo in the top left and select System Preferences > Time Machine.Note: you won’t be able to use the drive for anything else while it’s used as a backup drive. You should see a prompt appear, asking if you want to use the drive as a backup drive - click Use as Backup Disk.There are paid apps that’ll clone your drive, but if you’re not looking to part with any cash, Apple’s built-in Time Machine functionality should do the job - you just need an external drive to get started. Resetting your Mac will delete all your documents, data and settings, so it’s a good idea to back up your Mac before resetting - especially if you want to continue to use macOS on another machine. We take you through the process of resetting a Mac right here, from backing up your data and signing out of services like iCloud to wiping your hard drive and reinstalling a clean version of macOS. It’s not a simple one-click solution, but where there’s a will, there’s a way. It’s a relatively simple process to reset an iPhone or iPad, but the same can’t be said for Mac. The other benefit, of course, is that you can sell on your Mac without the worry of somebody accessing your data. Resetting a Mac will remove all your photos, videos, apps and just about everything else you’ve saved on your machine, allowing the new user to set it up as a brand-new machine. Whether you’re giving your old Mac to a friend or family member or selling it online for a bit of extra cash, you’ll want to reset your Mac before you get rid of it.
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