MacFormat UK – June 2019

44 | MACFORMAT | JUNE 2019 macformat.com @macformat

Clean your Mac to sell it

Deauthorise, sanitise and initialise your Mac ready for its new owner

IT WILL TAKE

1 hour or more

YOU WILL LEARN

How to clear your

Mac to sell it on

YOU’LL NEED

Your Apple ID’s

password, external

drives for backups

When you sell your Mac, it’s

wise to back up everything

from it so that you don’t lose

important documents or apps.

You should also clean it to ensure its new

owner doesn’t get handed any sensitive

information, such as your passwords and data.

Before following these steps, remove any

firmware password you may have set (see

bit.ly/mffwpwd), re-enable System Integrity

Protection if you turned it off (bit.ly/mfsipen),

and remember to make that backup!

Then check through any apps which are

licensed by serial numbers or authorisation

schemes, and deauthorise the copy on that

Mac. You may need to consult the vendor’s

support site for info. This is now simpler with

products from Adobe and Microsoft, which

normally only require you to log out of your

online account. Apps from the Mac App Store

are covered by the process below.

Ideally, have a fast internet connection

available, as your Mac will download a full

macOS installer at the end. Howard Oakley

HOW TO Reset your Mac before selling it

1

Deauthorise iTunes

In iTunes, go to Account > Authorisations >

Deauthorise This Computer. Enter your

Apple ID’s password and allow the process to

complete. If you forget to do this, you can only

deauthorise all computers later (bit.ly/deauitu).

2

Sign out of iCloud

Open System Preferences’ iCloud pane

and click the Sign Out button. Although this

isn’t essential, it makes it harder for anyone

to try to access your account once your Mac

is no longer in your possession.

Genius tip!

Before erasing internal

storage, clone the drive

with SuperDuper (shirt-

pocket.com). It’s then

easy to recover any file,

even months later.

APPLE SKILLS Mac software