Anyone know how to reset Lion to the factory default ?

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Level 1

148 points

Anyone know how to reset Lion to the factory default ?

Dear Forum,

Up to Snow Leopard, there was a (inofficial) procedure to reset the operating system to its factory default with resetting the setup DB and removing all users entries. Unfortunately this procedure does not work anymore on Lion as the "com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist" doesn't exist anymore!

Anyone having an idea how to modify the procedure and to reset Lion?

Thanks a lot!

Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, MacBook, Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Jul 22, 2011 4:51 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 22, 2011 4:53 AM in response to aladdin

Is restore deafults in some apps like system preferences in some panels but the one you say like a general one i don't know if is in lion.

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Answer 2

aladdin Author

Level 1

148 points

Jul 22, 2011 5:04 AM in response to Thebestplacehere

The procedure in question would basically reset your system to the state when you bought your computer from the Store. This was very handy if one wanted to sell the computer without having to reinstall from scratch.

Of course all licensed software needs to be removed first, but the Apple software and system updates remain at their latest version.

Is not really a must have but was very helpful!

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Answer 3

Jul 22, 2011 3:21 PM in response to aladdin

I have been able to accomplish this via the following method. I may not be the best idea given it deletes the account while logged in, but worked for me.

1) Do all of the necessary installations, etc. just as under Snow Leopard, using your setupacctname account.

2) Once that is done, BEFORE restarting in single user mode:

sudo su

dscl . -delete /Groups/admin GroupMembership setupacctname

dscl . -delete /Users/setupacctname

3) Reboot into single user mode (Hold Command-s at startup)

4) Check the filesystem: /sbin/fsck -fy

5) Mount the filesystem: /sbin/mount -uw /

6) Remove the setupacctname directory: rm -R /Users/setupacctname

7) Remove or rename .AppleSetupDone so you get the language choice

cd /var/db/

mv .AppleSetupDone .RunLanguageChooserToo

or

rm .AppleSetupDone

8) Delete miscellaneous files (unnecessary, but useful if you're imaging the drive):

rm -R /Library/Caches/*

rm -R /System/Library/Caches/*

rm -R /var/vm/swapfile*

9) Shutdown or restart

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Answer 4

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Jul 22, 2011 4:47 PM in response to aladdin

Start up from the Recovery HD (See Using the Recovery HD) and click Get Help Online.

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Answer 5

Aug 12, 2011 6:05 AM in response to markbjohnson

I might point out this apple kbase article:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4749

Specifically on how to run dscl in Single User. It says it's for Lion Server, but I had success with it on Lion Client as well. It simplifies your process so you can do the entire process from single user instead of having to do part of it logged in.

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Answer 6

doystin

Level 1

0 points

Jan 27, 2012 4:05 PM in response to aladdin

another/easier way of doing it is:

restart in single user mode

mount -uw /

rm var/db/dslocal/nodes/default/users/<shortname>.plist

rm -r users/<shortname>

rm var/db/.AppleSetupDone

reboot

i've been using that on multiple OS's for years.

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Answer 7

Feb 8, 2012 4:59 PM in response to doystin

dude, your fix ruled. thanks for helping out.

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Answer 8

Feb 8, 2012 4:59 PM in response to tonyfromraleigh

thanks for the link.

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Answer 9

Mar 27, 2014 10:34 AM in response to markbjohnson

Thanks for the info Mark. Worked like a charm!

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Answer 10

Apr 3, 2014 5:50 AM in response to doystin

Hi doystin,

Thanks for this worked a treat!

On my system the 'default' had a capital 'D' otherwise worked great.

restart in single user mode

mount -uw /

rm var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/users/<shortname>.plist

rm -r users/<shortname>

rm var/db/.AppleSetupDone

reboot

D

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Anyone know how to reset Lion to the factory default ?