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It’s less dramatic, but perhaps more practical on a day to day basis. It should be noted this is not a reasonable approach to simply formatting a Mac hard drive, which is best done locally with the Disk Utility application.įor more remote control fun, remember that you can sleep a Mac remotely through email or SSH too.
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This rates up there with some of the best anti-theft software available, and considering that iCloud and Find My Mac is completely free to use, there is no reason to not have this setup in case of emergency. The Mac will be wiped clear of personal data and become essentially useless until the passcode has been entered. Eventually the Apple logo will appear with text below it informing that if you continue holding the power button you will be able to. Enter a message to be shown on the Mac after it has been wiped, putting a “Property of Bill Gates, if found please contact 1-88” message is a good idea.Enter a passcode twice for recovery, this will be necessary to know if the Mac is recovered so that it can be unlocked.At the Info screen, click on “Remote Wipe”.Locate the Mac on the map, and click the “i” next to the computers name.Go to and click on “Find My iPhone”, or launch the Find My iPhone app in iOS.If you meet the requirements, here is how to use the remote wipe feature. Access to a web browser and, or the Find My iPhone iOS app (free).OS X Lion 10.7.2 or later installed on the Mac.A new window will show up, waiting for you to enter a command. iCloud configured on the Mac in question With your Mac now in Recovery Mode, click on Utilities in the menu bar followed by Terminal.(If you happen to be doing this on an Apple Silicon machine, instead hold the power button and choose "options" from the menu screen. Turn on your Mac, and hold Command ⌘ and R until the Apple logo pops up. To erase your MacBook this way, you'll need to go into macOS Recovery and proceed from there. Wait for the macOS Utilities screen to appear, then click Disk Utility.
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Since most Apple Silicon Macs can upgrade to Ventura or later, this is primarily for older Intel Macs without either Apple's processors or T2 security chips. Hold down the Command and R keys as soon as you hear the Mac tone indicating a reboot. To reset a MacBook without the "Erase All Content and Settings" option, you'll have to take more drastic steps. But if your Mac doesn't have the Erase All Content and Settings Option (particularly if it's not on macOS Monterey or newer, or is an older Intel Mac), you may have to resort to the nuclear option. If you're ready to hand it down, sell it, or trade it in, you can just turn it off.įor most people, this will be enough.
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When this is done, your Mac will activate and restart.Īt this point, you'll be able to set up your MacBook like new, as if you were turning it on for the first time.
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