I sold my Mac without erasing it!

Hello, I sold my Mac mini without erasing it. I erased remotely on find my iPhone but it says it wants a password to get back into it. Once that password is put in will all my info still be there or will it be cleared.


Mac mini, macOS 10.14

Posted on May 2, 2020 9:15 PM

Reply
Question marked as ⚠️ Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 2, 2020 9:39 PM

If Mac has not been connected to the internet, it will never have received the erase command, and If you give the buyer the password, the buyer could boot it (maybe from an external drive) and read the internal drive.

8 replies
Sort By: 
Question marked as ⚠️ Top-ranking reply

May 2, 2020 9:39 PM in response to Malcolm J. Rayfield

If Mac has not been connected to the internet, it will never have received the erase command, and If you give the buyer the password, the buyer could boot it (maybe from an external drive) and read the internal drive.

Reply

May 2, 2020 9:31 PM in response to Aman1233

Use Find My to Locate you Mac, as well as erase it. When the buyer connects it to the internet and turns it on you should get a location message and it should erase. Once that happens, you can unlock it on:

https://icloud.com/


See:

If your Mac is lost or stolen - Apple Support

Reply

May 4, 2020 4:06 AM in response to Aman1233

The possible problem you may run into, the buyer turns on the Mac

without connecting to the internet and collects what ever data is on it

and then does his own erase and install. So, setting automatic erase

now would be like closing the barn door after the horses ran out.


This is a distinct possibility and you must consider what information was

on the Mac, how important it was, and act accordingly.



Reply

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

I sold my Mac without erasing it!

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.