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de-personalizing a Mac before trade-in

The process lists 7 things to do before selling, giving away, or trading in a Mac.


The 7th item on the list is to erase the hard drive and re-install Mac OSX. But why bother going through all the other steps if you're just going to erase the hard drive and re-install the OSX?

It seems like a lot of time wasted just to erase everything and re-install.

Mac mini 2018 or later

Posted on May 1, 2021 5:47 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 1, 2021 5:52 AM

Hey there!


The steps before the hard drive erase are critical for the sake of your iCloud account and the new owner. If you don't remove the device from your iCloud account and disable Find My, it will likely prevent new owners from activating and using the device at all.


Signing out of iTunes will help ensure that you have an adequate number of authorised computers for future since each iCloud account can only authorise a set number of devices for iTunes.


Resetting NVRAM is a good idea to help restore the factory functionality of security functions in your MacBook for the new owners.


They are all steps that are there to help you and the new owner ensure the handoff and set up process for the new owner runs smoothly.



2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 1, 2021 5:52 AM in response to glen_slo

Hey there!


The steps before the hard drive erase are critical for the sake of your iCloud account and the new owner. If you don't remove the device from your iCloud account and disable Find My, it will likely prevent new owners from activating and using the device at all.


Signing out of iTunes will help ensure that you have an adequate number of authorised computers for future since each iCloud account can only authorise a set number of devices for iTunes.


Resetting NVRAM is a good idea to help restore the factory functionality of security functions in your MacBook for the new owners.


They are all steps that are there to help you and the new owner ensure the handoff and set up process for the new owner runs smoothly.



de-personalizing a Mac before trade-in

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