Thinking of selling your Mac? Or maybe youβre planning to do a good deed and pass your old Mac along to a friend or family member?
Regardless of whether youβre gifting or selling your Mac, no oneβs going to be thrilled to find that their new computer is packed with someone elseβs content and data, and you definitely donβt want to sell your Mac to a stranger while itβs still logged into your iCloud account β or even worse, your PayPal!
Even if youβre not planning on getting rid of your Mac, there may still be times when you want to wipe your computer. Maybe your Mac is clogged with yearsβ of content and youβve decided itβll be far easier to just start from scratch rather than trying to sort this mess out manually; or perhaps youβve tried to customise your Mac and itβs gone terribly wrong, and you need a quick way of restoring its original settings.
In this article, Iβm going to show you how to revert your Mac to a pristine, fresh-out-the-box state. Iβll show you how to remove all your login information, deauthorise your iTunes and, finally, how to restore factory settings by wiping your hard drive and installing a fresh copy of macOS.
Before we begin: Backup your Mac
Before you remove anything from your Mac, youβll need to make sure youβve backed up all the files, documents and any other content you want to keep.
If you only need to backup a handful of items, then you may want to just move this content to an external storage device, such as a USB stick, or copy it to an online hosting service such as DropBox, iCloud or Google Docs. However, if you have lots of content that you want to hang onto, then it may be easier to simply clone the entire contents of your hard drive to an external drive.
When you clone your hard drive, not only are you copyingΒ all its application and user files, but youβre also copying the entire operating system, essentially creating a perfect copy of your Mac that you can access at any time. This is a good way of ensuring that you wonβt lose anything when you wipe your Macβs hard drive. You can even create a clone and then hang onto it until youβre certain that you didnβt forget to copy anything important to your new Mac.
A cloned drive can also be a great way of setting up a new Mac, as you can use it as a bootable copy that you attach to your new machine and then use to boot into your original Mac, effectively turning your new computer into a perfect copy of your old one.
Thereβs various apps that you can use to clone your Mac, but for this tutorial Iβm going to use SuperDuper.
To create your clone, youβll need an external hard drive thatβs at least the same size as your Macβs main drive. Youβll also need to configure this drive:
- Plug the external drive into your Mac.
- Open a βFinderβ window and navigate to Applications/Utilities. Launch the Disk Utility app.
- Select your backup drive from Disk Utilityβs left-hand menu.

- Select the βPartitionβ tab.
- Give the drive a descriptive name and select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) from the βFormatβ dropdown.
- Click βApply.β
To clone your Mac:
- Download and install the SuperDuper app.
- Launch SuperDuper.
- Open its βCopyβ dropdown and select your main hard drive.

- Open SuperDuperβs βToβ dropdown and select your backup drive.
- Open the βUsingβ dropdown and select βBackup β all files.β
- Click βCopy Now.β
You now have a complete clone of your Macβs hard drive that you can access from any Mac. Restoring individual items from this clone is easy β simply attach the external hard drive and drag the item(s) in question to their new home.
Alternatively, you can restore the entire contents of your cloned drive, effectively transforming your new Mac into a carbon copy of your old one:
- Download and install SuperDuper on your new Mac.
- Launch SuperDuper.
- Open the βCopyβ dropdown and select your backup drive.
- Open the βToβ dropdown and select your main hard drive.
- Open the βUsingβ dropdown and select βRestore β all files.β
- Click βCopy Now.β
- Restart your Mac, then while itβs restarting hold down the βOptionβ key to boot into the Startup Manager.
- Select your newly-restored main hard drive, and thatβs it! Once your Mac restarts, itβll be as though youβre accessing your previous Mac.
Whether you decide to clone your entire Mac, or simply copy your most important files to DropBox, once youβve backed up the content that matters to you, itβs time to start clearing out your Mac.
Deauthorise your computer
When you deauthorise a Mac, that Mac will no longer have access to any of the content you purchased from iTunes, iBooks or the App Store. Chances are that even if youβre gifting your Mac to another person you wonβt want to pass along all your songs, movies and other purchases as well, so youβll generally want to deauthorise your computer. Plus, when you purchase content through iTunes, you can only access that content on a maximum of five devices, so why waste content on a computer that you no longer have access to?
To deauthorise your Mac, open iTunes and select βAccount > Authorizations > Deauthorize This Computer.β

Enter your username and password when prompted, and click βDeauthorise.β
You should also deauthorize any serialized apps, such as Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop, so you donβt find yourself unable to access a program youβve paid good money for, simply because the serial number is still tied to your previous Mac. For information on how to deactivate a particular third-party app, check out that appβs support documentation or website.
Delete your iCloud account
Next, make sure you delete your iCloud account from your Mac, along with all the content thatβs linked to that account:
- Open your βSystem preferencesβ¦β and select βiCloud.β
- Click the βSign outβ button.
- At this point youβll be presented with a list of all the apps that are associated with your iCloud account. Deselect all these apps, then click βContinue.β

- Your Mac will keep prompting you to keep a copy of all the data and content associated with each app β click βDelete from Macβ each time to make sure nothing is left behind. Note, none of this content will be deleted from the cloud, and youβll still be able to access it at any time, by logging into your iCloud account.
Sign out of Messages
If youβve been using the Messages app, then make sure you sign out of it.
Launch the Messages app, then select βMessages > Preferences.β Select the βAccountsβ tab, then select your account from the left-hand menu, followed by βSign Out.β
β¦..and sign out of everything else!
Make sure you sign out of all the other apps and programs youβve installed, particularly anything that has a license associated with it. Although weβll be wiping the hard drive in the next step, itβs always better to be safe than sorry!
Erase and reinstall macOS
Once youβre confident that youβve backed up all your important data and content, and youβve signed out of everything that might connect you to your old Mac, the final step is wiping your hard drive and installing a fresh copy of macOS. Note, this step will permanently erase everything on your hard drive, so youβll lose access to anything that you havenβt backed up.
Before you begin, make sure you Mac is connected to the Internet, as youβll need an active Internet connection in order to download a fresh copy of the operating system. You should also make sure your Mac is connected to a power source, because the last thing you want is to run out of juice halfway through wiping your hard drive, or reinstalling macOS.
To wipe your hard drive:
- Boot into Recovery Mode by restarting your Mac while holding down the βCommandβ and βRβ keys. Release these keys when you see the Apple logo.
- Once youβre in Recovery Mode, select βDisk Utility,β followed by βContinue.β
- Select your startup disk.
- Select the βEraseβ tab.
- Select βMac OS Extended (Journaled)β from the dropdown menu.
- Select βErase.β
- After this process is complete, select βDisk Utilityβ from the menu bar, followed by βQuit Disk Utility.β
After reformatting your hard drive, youβre ready to install a clean copy of the operating system. Select βReinstall macOSβ from the βmacOS Utilitiesβ window, then click βContinueβ and follow the onscreen instructions to download and install a blank copy of macOS.
Once the installation is complete, your Mac will launch into the Setup Assistant. If youβre passing your Mac along to a new user, then you should leave the setup process for them to complete, so press the βCommandβ and βQβ keys to shut down your Mac.
Clean your Mac
At this point you may be wondering: but havenβt I already cleaned my Mac?
After completing all these steps, the interior of your Mac will be clean, but what about the exterior? Computers get dirty, especially the keyboard, and most of us donβt clean our computers as often as we should.
Whether youβre selling or gifting your Mac to a new owner, no one is going to appreciate being handed a grubby computer, so consider this your reminder to spend a bit of time making sure the exterior of your Mac is every bit as clean as your newly-wiped hard drive.
Before you go
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Thanks thanks for the step buy step explanations that are detailed enough for almost all to understand. I am sure I will need your help in the future. Your work is appreciated Chris.