A factory reset takes the Mac back to its out-of-the-box state, and there's no soft version of that: every file, photo, app and setting goes. So the reset is never the first task. First comes rescuing whatever you care about — copy it to an external drive, complete a full Time Machine run, or verify iCloud has genuinely finished syncing (an eternal 'Uploading…' does not count as finished). Modern Macs solder the storage to the logic board and encrypt it, which leaves wipe-now-regret-later without a remedy. Back up while the choice still exists.
Then sever the ties to your Apple identity. In System Settings, click your name, open iCloud and switch Find My Mac off; sign out of iMessage inside the Messages app; and deauthorise the computer in the Music and TV apps so an authorisation slot isn't wasted. Turning Find My off also releases Activation Lock — skip that step and the next owner meets a sign-in wall they can't get past.
On Apple Silicon Macs (every M-series MacBook Air and Pro, iMac, Mac mini and Mac Studio) and Intel Macs carrying the T2 chip, running macOS Monterey or later, the reset is a single built-in switch: System Settings → General → Transfer or Reset → Erase All Content and Settings (found under the System Preferences menu on Monterey itself). Password in, let it sign you out of everything, confirm.
The speed is the clever part: nothing is laboriously overwritten. The disk was already encrypted at rest, so the Mac simply destroys the encryption keys — at which point every byte of the old contents becomes permanent gibberish — then lays down a fresh macOS and boots to the 'Hello' screen. It's the method Apple points sellers and gifters towards, and for nearly everyone it's the only reset they'll ever perform.
Pre-T2 Intel Macs lack that switch, so the wipe is manual, via Recovery Mode. Power off, then boot holding Command-R, releasing once the Apple logo shows. (Apple Silicon owners who need Recovery for other reasons: keep the power button pressed until 'Loading startup options' appears, then take Options.) Either way you arrive at the macOS Utilities window.
From there: open Disk Utility, select the internal disk ('Macintosh HD' as a rule), click Erase, choosing APFS as the format on any recent macOS, then quit and pick Reinstall macOS so a clean system goes onto the now-empty disk. Worth decoding one symptom that brings people here: a flashing question-mark folder at startup means no bootable system can be found. Recovery Mode is the right place to erase and reinstall — and, if the files still matter, the right moment to stop and image the drive before wiping anything.
Not every reset equals a secure erase. Where the data is encrypted — every Apple Silicon and T2 Mac, plus any Mac running FileVault — discarding the key (exactly what Erase All Content does) is the genuine article: the old contents cannot be reconstructed by anyone. But an older Intel Mac on a plain hard drive with FileVault off gets only an index wipe from a standard Disk Utility erase, and determined forensics could still lift fragments. Passing such a machine on? Enable FileVault first, or run the full erase rather than the quick one.
And the mirror-image point matters just as much: a proper reset is engineered so your old data can't come back, which means it preserves nothing and restores nothing. No hidden partition, no surviving bin. On a modern Mac, whatever wasn't backed up before the wipe is gone — the whole reason this guide put the backup at the top.
If you're here because the reset already happened — yours or a previous owner's — or because the Mac refuses to start and it's the files you need rather than a fresh system, this has stopped being a reset question and become data recovery. The distinction matters: a Mac that won't boot but has healthy storage is frequently very recoverable, while a drive that was genuinely erased is a hard and often impossible one — which is exactly why this guide keeps repeating the word backup. Either way, stop using the machine, because new writes bury whatever remains.
Our Apple work is described on MacBook data recovery and iMac data recovery, and what data recovery actually costs explains the pricing straight. One boundary stated plainly: we recover from Mac hard drives and blade SSDs that can be removed from the machine — storage soldered to the logic board (T2 and Apple Silicon Macs) is outside what we take on, which makes the backup you keep before trouble the only real insurance on those machines. In trouble now? The free online diagnostic will get you a straight answer on what's possible.
The backup comes before the reset, always. Erase All Content and a Recovery-Mode wipe are both permanent, and the encrypted, soldered storage in Apple Silicon and T2 Macs offers no undo. Copy off what you need first.
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