Format a Mac it’s a process that’s less and less necessary as Apple’s systems and computers themselves have become more efficient, but there are still instances when it’s best to do it. For example, when you want to sell a Mac and you need to make sure you delete all your personal data before handing it over. If you find yourself in this situation and you don’t know how to format your Mac, we are going to tell you how to do it.
If you have macOS Monterey and a modern Mac, it’s very simple
In 2022, we have a very simple process to be able to erase your Mac without complications and leave it like new. For it you must have macOS Monterey installed on a Mac with an Apple Silicon chip or an Intel chip with the T2 security chip added.
Once you’ve saved the data from this Mac that you need to keep on another computer or external drive, all you have to do is open System Preferences and in its menu of the same name, click “Delete Content and Settings “:
Once you click, a wizard will appear informing you that all your data, apps and settings will be deleted, along with your Apple ID will be unlinked from the computer:
If you click on ‘Continue’ the Mac will ask you for confirmation (and several times) to erase all the data and configurations you have made over time. For practical reasons, the Mac it will be like fresh out of the box, so, and although it is not a normal format, you should be satisfied. If you can, this is the method we recommend you do.
How to format your Mac “the old fashioned way”
If you prefer the option format entire drive mac For some reason, you can follow the traditional guide to do so by booting into computer recovery and completely reinstalling macOS. In the video above you explained it step by step, but here is a summary:
- Make sure you’ve saved all your important data on your Mac somewhere else, because you’ll be deleting it.
- Shut down the Mac.
- Restart the Mac so that boot with recovery partition. On Apple Silicon Macs you do this by holding down the power key, on Intel Macs you can do this by holding down ⌘ + R while booting.
- Once the Mac shows you the recovery options on the screen, go to the Utilities menu and click on ‘disk utility‘. Depending on the age of your Mac, you may encounter the option right on the main screen, without having to access the menu.
- Select the Mac drive, then select “Erase”. The Mac itself will surely already select the APFS file format to reformat the disk. This is the one macOS needs in order to be able to reinstall.
- Click on ‘Delete’ and confirm the operation. The disk will be formatted in a minute or two. Probably less if the Mac is modern and the drive is an SSD.
- Once you’re done, all you have to do is close Disk Utility and click ‘Reinstall macOS‘. Select the Mac drive as the install point (you don’t have any other options, so you won’t be confused) and wait for the installation to complete. The process can take a long time depending on the speed of your Mac and the bandwidth of your Internet connection.
Whatever you do, your Mac will be clean and free of “waste” for the next person to use. Keep in mind that formatting a Mac is a very occasional operation, so we recommend that you don’t get obsessed with cleaning up your computer. On a regular level, you still have the option of being able to use tools like CleanMyMacX.
