how to restore a MacBook Pro to factory settings
I have a 3 month old MacBook Pro and want to reboot it to factory settings because strangely it isn't working properly. How do I reboot?
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.0
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Hi leonn22,
To restore your MacBook Pro to factory settings (and erase all data), you'll need to do the following:
- Update your Mac to the latest version of macOS. The current version at the time of writing is macOS Big Sur 11.1. (For some reason, M1 Macs with 11.0 encountered strange errors related to factory reset. This resolves those problems.)
- Follow steps 1-5 of this article (skip step 5 if your Mac has the M1 chip): What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your Mac - Apple Support
- If you want to protect the data on your Mac from being recovered from the internal drive, turn on FileVault (System Preferences -> Security and Privacy -> FileVault) and wait for encryption to complete.
At this point, you'll need to erase and reinstall macOS. The below steps should be safe, regardless if your Mac has the Apple M1 chip or an Intel processor.
- Start up from macOS Recovery. If prompted, enter your admin password to continue.
- Select Disk Utility and click Continue.
- Select Macintosh HD (or whatever your Mac's system volume is named) in the sidebar, and click Erase. Format with these options, then click Erase Volume Group:
- Name: Macintosh HD
- Format: APFS
- When the erase is finished, quit Disk Utility.
- Select Install macOS and follow the onscreen instructions. Make sure you're connected to Wi-Fi before continuing.
