Resetting Mac to factory settings offers a simple and effective way to counter MacOS problems. It is an easy way to wipe the Macbook of unwanted data and gives it a new life. Also if you are considering selling or giving away your device you should always Wipe your Macbook so that no one can access your data.

If you have installed macOS Big Sur, but then your Mac gets stuck on the 'Setting Up Your Mac' message, you'll need to force a reboot of your Mac or MacBook. Don't worry, the 'Setting Up Your Mac. In summary – yes, Flashback remains a threat. But for most of us, it’s a threat that we don’t have to worry about. If you know someone who has an older Mac, or who is not likely to be doing a good job at keeping their computer protected with the latest patches and security software, be a good friend and offer them some help.

Are you wondering how to clean my Mac utilities app? Our guide here will discuss some of the efficient methods to reset Mac to factory settings. Read ahead to learn more about how to factory reset Mac and wipe away all your data from it.

Security Alerts

Before performing a factory reset for your Mac device ensure that you have a proper backup so that no personal information is compromised and it avoids you from suffering any data losses. Also ensure that you sign out from iMessage, iCloud and other accounts before you factory reset your Mac device.

How To Completely Wipe A Mac Methods To Factory Reset Mac

Resetting Mac to factory settings is an efficient way to give your old PC a new life and also offers an easy way to erase data and deep clear Mac devices to remove any leftover traces.

So, without wasting any more time, let’s learn from scratch how to erase everything from the Mac laptop.

1. Restart Your Mac Device

If you are trying to restore Mac to factory settings then restarting your device is the first step towards it. Doing this is exceptionally easy, just hold the power button until a dialogue box appears on your Mac screen, choose the Restart button from the list of options displayed.

Alternatively, you can also click on the Apple button located on the top left corner of your device screen and then choose restart from the drop-down list.

To reset Mac to factory settings you can also use keyboard shortcuts. Simultaneously press Control + Command + Eject button.

2. Open In Recovery Mode

Yet another useful method to reset Mac to factory settings. Open your device in Recovery Mode by pressing the Command + R key on the keyboard until the Apple sign appears on the screen. Doing this will boot your device in Recovery mode. Now enter the set user id and password to access the device. Here you can access help documentations, erase data, create Time Machine backup, install new OS and also repair all the damaged and problematic disks.

Read Also: Best App for Removing Duplicate Photos on Mac

3. Erase your Data

Wondering how to reset Mac to factory settings, follow simple steps to get the job done. So, once you are finished restarting your device, it’s time to clear your Macbook along with the data stored on it.

  • Under the Internal Headings pick the relevant startup disk.
  • Now from the Disk Utility Window click on the Erase button.
  • A new dialog box will appear on your Mac screen.
  • To Wipe your Macbook, set the format to Journaled.
  • Now click on the Erase button.
  • Wait for the process to complete, Once it is done choose The Quit Disk Utility option from the top left corner of your device screen.

These simple steps provide an easy way on how to completely wipe a Mac device, but an important point to remember here is that once you erase your data you cannot recover it under any circumstances. So we recommend you to have a proper backup to avoid any data losses before you wipe your Macbooks.

Read Also: What is The Best Antivirus Software for Mac

4. Reinstall MacOS

If you are considering selling your Mac device you should be well aware of how to reset Mac to factory settings to avoid giving unwanted access to your private data to anyone else. The next step to factory reset Mac is to reinstall macOS on your device. For this follow simple steps as mentioned below:

  • Launch the Mac Utilities Screen.
  • Then select the Reinstall option and follow the steps as described.
  • Doing this will install a clear version of the operating system on your Mac device.

5. Restore From Backup

So, once you are through following the above steps, now is the time to restore the backup to created before resetting Mac to factory settings.

Important Things to Do Before You Restore Mac To Factory Settings

Now that you have learned how to completely wipe a Mac, here are a few important points to remember. There are greater chances that you might suffer data loss while Wiping your Macbook, so if you don’t want to lose any important data here are a few recommended actions that you should be well aware of.

  • Create Backup: Before your clear Mac ensure that you have created a proper backup of all your important files and data. Usually, people tend to underestimate this step but regret later on as once you factory reset your Mac device there is no chance that you can recover your data.
  • Sign out of iCloud: Another important point to remember before you reset Mac to factory settings is to sign out of your iCloud account. To do so, open the Apple menu, then choose Apple ID from the System Preferences option. In the next step choose iCloud and deactivate the Find My Mac option. To finish, open the Overview section and click on the Sign Out button. Remember doing this before you device to reset Mac to factory settings.
  • Sign Out of iTunes: This step does not hold any relevance for users who are working on macOS Catalina, but for others, it is an important step to remember while resetting mac to factory settings. Follow the steps to sign out of iTunes, Account > Authorizations > Deauthorize your device.
  • Sign out of iMessage: Doing this is fairly simple, just launch the Messages app on your device, then choose the Messages option followed by the Preferences button. Select the iMessage button and finally click on the Sign Out button.
  • Unpair Bluetooth: Another recommender step to consider before you Wipe your Macbook is to unpair Bluetooth connection. Apple menu> System Preferences > Bluetooth > Unpair all the connected devices.

Read Also: Best Free App Uninstaller For Mac

Final Words: Factory Reset Mac Wipe Macbook Completely

We hope our guide on how to completely wipe a Mac has been of great assistance to you and has been able to clear all your doubts around it. The above-mentioned step will help you reset your Mac to factory settings with utmost perfection and ease.

As announced late yesterday during Apple's fiscal 2011 third quarter earnings call. OS X 10.7 released today. It's yours for 30 bucks, if your Mac has Snow Leopard and Mac App Store installed. Otherwise, you're buying something more first, either OS X 10.6 or a new Mac.

Concurrent with Lion's release, Apple also updated MacBook Air with Intel Sandy bridge processors and Thunderbolt ports. Lion ships on all new Macs from today. Lion requires a Mac with OS X 10.6.8 to install and a Core 2 duo processor or later. If your Mac is Core duo, you're out of luck.

Never have I experienced a major operating system update as easy as this -- on a personal computer, anyway. I went to Mac App Store, stopped at the Lion page and clicked purchase. The software downloaded, prompted for password to install and did its thing (meanwhile I took a short shower). Lion was ready when I returned. It might have taken longer for Apple Mail to upgrade content and accounts than for Lion to install. I'll offer a full review later, but for now my initial first impressions are negative.

Apple imposes fundamental usability changes with regards to the user interface that you'll either like or despise. I started out writing a simple news story about Lion's release but lost so much time writing -- thanks to all these changes -- that my post is late and its content changed. This is the first OS X upgrade ever for which my first impressions are negative rather than glowingly positive.

Frappey

New mail may shock you, likely. Frequent users of Apple Mail via MobileMe will find the interface mostly familiar. Others will be surprised at how different is the user interface. Don't worry, you can return to the old familiar motif -- and some people might want to. It's a matter of whether you're a 'sink or swim' personality or someone who goes a toe at a time.

Other changes are subtle at first. Lion has a new auto-save feature that looks handy, but will require some people (me among them) to adapt behavior. For apps supporting Lion's new auto-save feature there no longer is a 'save as' option. Apple has replaced it with 'save a version', while some applications, like Pages, offer 'save' but no longer 'save as'. However the 'duplicate' option has been moved to the File menu where it can replace 'save as'.

The Big One

There are plenty of other tweaks and features that require users to change their habits. For the rest of this post, I'll focus on one and put it in broader context.

Most of the usability changes are philosophical and support an Apple worldview about computers and mobile devices: The company is driving users to full-screen apps and trying to mimic the touchscreen experience of iOS devices. From that perspective, Lion radically differs from all other modern operating systems, with exception of Chrome OS, which only functions in full-screen mode. There is no desktop with Chrome OS. The two objectives are intertwined with respect to certain decisions Apple has made regarding how some very basic UI elements function differently. To that end, Apple takes something away: The scrollbar.

Don't Worry Have A Frappe Mac Os Catalina

Well, the scrollbar isn't gone completely, it's just no longer persistent. It disappears. If the scrollbar reappeared when I moved my cursor -- say, across the screen -- I wouldn't have stumbled so badly over the UI changes. You may, too. What Apple wants you to do is change behavior: Scroll two fingers across trackpad or an Apple touch mouse to make the scrollbar appear.

Betanews founder Nate Mook and I got into a debate about this behavior. He likes the screen real estate gained by removing the scrollbar and sees the touch behavior as similar to iPhone, where there is no scrollbar. I disagree. On the iPhone I'm touching the display. It's a very different user experience, because the interaction is directly with the content. Here, I must look down and away to use the touchpad -- well, until there is muscle memory, I guess. Your eye is on the screen with iPhone -- or iPad or iPod touch.

'I haven't touched a scrollbar probably since 2006', Nate says. 'You're just an old man'. He's sadly right about that. 'Kids these days mostly use iOS, so this is a smart approach, I think. Kids will be more familiar with iOS than OS X'.

Anyone with a Mac laptop with trackpad that supports touch gestures -- and has been using them -- shouldn't have quite the trouble I did this morning. (Well, if they can get used to reverse scrolling, which lest I'm mistaken is new with Lion.) They'll be accustomed to two-finger scrolling, which brings back the scrollbar. But that's not everyone, and there are plenty of iMac users who either don't have Apple's touch mouse or don't use the touch features. By the way, the scrollbar is diminutive compared to previous Mac OS X versions, which is another reason to question hiding it. The scrollbar looks pretty much like it does on iOS 4.x.

App-Centrism

That brings me to full-screen mode, which is another reason for Apple doing away with the scrollbar. On iOS devices, there is only full-screen mode. Users never see the desktop unless they exit an app. But unlike iOS, users can slide fingers across the trackpad to move between full-screen apps, which definitely is handy. Again, this somewhat comes back to Nate's point about iOS familiarity and better unifying the user experience across devices. Maybe, but Apple also is asking Mac OS X users who might not have an iOS device -- surely that is many -- to change their behavior. I'll adapt, after cooling down from my initial reaction.

Don't Worry Have A Frappe Mac Os X

But I'll rightly grumble, while observing something else. Apple's approach here has yet another philosophical element worth observing. The modern Internet is about the browser and consuming content and services there -- and the latter includes applications. Apple doesn't want people using browsers, even though it offers a pretty good one. Applications sustain the iOS and Mac OS X ecosystems. As I explained in April 2010 post 'Clash of the titans: Apple, Google battle for the mobile Web', Apple and Google have clashing worldviews where for the one applications matter more and for the other the browser does: 'Apple and Google mobile device worldviews differ in two fundamental ways: Closed/tightly controlled versus more open/loosely controled and applications versus browser centricity'.

The hidden-scrollbar subtlety supports the application-centric approach, particularly in full-screen mode. The scrollbar is fundamental to browser functionality. It's a longstanding motif that supports how most websites present content. People reading content will find much of it below the fold. Many applications don't need scrollbars. Lion is more like one giant app, with respect to fundamental UI attributes. Where Microsoft incorporated Internet Explorer into Windows and Google made Chrome OS core operating system, Apple has fundamentally backed away from the browser motif as part of Lion's main presentation.

Perhaps my biggest surprise this morning came from switching to full-screen mode and getting stuck. I use Google Chrome and not Apple Safari. I got into full-screen mode but couldn't get out. The exit button doesn't appear in the upper right-hand corner and the escape key does nothing. So I tried some other third-party apps -- Firefox and Skype, among them -- in full-screen mode, but they don't support it at all. I guess that's better than getting locked into full-screen. Hey, but I did have persistent scrollbars in Chrome while writing this post. Well, what ya know.