A factory reset can be useful for erasing all data and settings on your Mac and restoring it to the original factory settings. This can be handy if you’re selling or giving away your Mac, experiencing performance issues, or want to start fresh.
Resetting your Mac to factory settings is quite easy to do without needing to reinstall macOS. All it takes is restarting your Mac and pressing a few keyboard combinations during startup.
In this article, we’ll walk through the steps for factory resetting a Mac using just the onboard keyboard buttons. We’ll cover:
- When you may want to reset your Mac to factory settings
- How to backup your data before resetting
- The step-by-step process for factory resetting with keyboard buttons
- What to expect after resetting your Mac
Follow along below and we’ll have your Mac erased and restored in no time.
When to Factory Reset Your Mac
Here are some of the most common reasons for resetting your Mac to the original factory settings:
- You’re selling or giving away your Mac – Resetting removes all your personal data and settings to protect your privacy.
- Fixing software issues or crashes – A clean reset can resolve bugs, instability, and performance problems.
- Removing malware or viruses – Resetting erases any harmful programs lurking on your Mac.
- Fixing casualty issues – If your Mac is acting up or has issues starting up, a reset may help.
- Erase everything and start fresh – Factory resetting wipes your Mac and allows you to reconfigure it however you like.
Basically, if your Mac is acting up or you want to give it a clean slate, performing a factory reset can help.
Backing Up Your Data
Before factory resetting your Mac, it’s crucial to backup your important files. A factory reset will permanently erase everything on your Mac’s hard drive.
To safely backup your data:
- Use Time Machine to backup to an external hard drive. Connect an external hard drive and go to System Preferences > Time Machine to configure automatic backups.
- Manually copy important files to an external drive, cloud storage like iCloud or Dropbox, or another computer.
- Make sure you backup any encrypted or Time Machine backup drives separately.
Double check that your photos, documents, videos, music, and other personal files are safely backed up before proceeding. Losing data is never fun.
Factory Resetting Your Mac with Buttons
Now we’re ready to reset this Mac back to the factory fresh settings it came with.
Resetting involves restarting your Mac and holding down a few specific keys when you hear the startup chime. This initiates the factory reset process.
Here are the step-by-step instructions:
- Fully shutdown your Mac
- Restart your Mac and immediately hold down these three keys: Command + R + Option
- Keep holding the keys until you see the Apple logo or boot up screen appear
- After a few moments, you’ll be presented with the macOS Utilities window
- Select “Disk Utility” and click Continue
- Select your main hard drive on the left side
- Click “Erase” at the top
- Choose “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” for Format
- Click Erase to confirm and delete all data
- After it completes, quit Disk Utility
- Next click Reinstall macOS and follow the prompts to reinstall the OS
- Complete the setup assistant process as if your Mac was brand new
It will take some time to complete, but this will fully erase your Mac, reinstall a fresh copy of macOS, and reset everything back to factory default settings.
What to Expect After Resetting
Once the reset process finishes, your Mac will be back to the state it was when you first unboxed it:
- The OS will be freshly installed
- Apps, files, settings will be gone
- You’ll set up your accounts and preferences from scratch
- Performance and stability issues should be resolved
- If you restored from a Time Machine backup, your files will repopulate
Be prepared to reconfigure settings, reinstall apps, and set up accounts just like setting up a brand new Mac. But now you get the benefit of a clean slate.
Alternative Factory Reset Methods
While using the key commands at startup is the easiest way to reset a Mac, there are a couple other options:
- Recovery mode – Hold Command + R while booting to enter recovery mode, then select “Erase Mac”
- Internet recovery – Hold Command + Option + R while booting to download recovery files from Apple and erase your Mac
- macOS installer – You can boot from a USB macOS installer and use Disk Utility to erase your Mac from there before installing a fresh OS copy
The keyboard shortcut method tends to be quicker and easier, but these give you some alternatives if needed.
Conclusion
Factory resetting your Mac using just the onboard keyboard buttons is super simple and only takes a few minutes.
To recap the process:
- Backup your data
- Restart your Mac while holding Command + R + Option
- Select Disk Utility and erase your hard drive
- Reinstall macOS
- Complete the setup assistant
Following those steps will take your Mac back to a like-new state with the original software and settings.
Just be absolutely sure your files are backed up first! Once erased, recovery is difficult to impossible. But otherwise a factory reset is a handy trick to fix many Mac issues and give you a fresh start.