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Erasing a Mac that won’t turn on

My old MacBook Air took a bit of water damage and now won’t turn on. I had a back-up, but as far as I know, it’s still signed in to my accounts, and since it won’t turn on, I can’t log out of everything, erase the hard drive, or do any of the other things I’m supposed to do before sending it in. What can I do to make sure my data aren’t compromised? How can I properly prepare the machine for recycling?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 11.2

Posted on Aug 27, 2021 4:17 AM

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Question marked as Apple recommended

If you had enabled Filevault prior to the failure you could be sure your data is encrypted so that no one would have access to any data on the drive as long as you did provide them with a password. If the laptop won't power on, then there is nothing you can do at this point but hope the people handling your laptop are honest & respectful.


FYI, if you have a 2018+ model, then your data is safe due to the default hardware encryption used by the 2018+ Macs (again as long as you don't provide them with your password). These days Apple will no longer ask for a user's account password when servicing a Mac.

Posted on Aug 27, 2021 5:39 PM

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Question marked as Apple recommended

Aug 27, 2021 5:39 PM in response to hooverb

If you had enabled Filevault prior to the failure you could be sure your data is encrypted so that no one would have access to any data on the drive as long as you did provide them with a password. If the laptop won't power on, then there is nothing you can do at this point but hope the people handling your laptop are honest & respectful.


FYI, if you have a 2018+ model, then your data is safe due to the default hardware encryption used by the 2018+ Macs (again as long as you don't provide them with your password). These days Apple will no longer ask for a user's account password when servicing a Mac.

Erasing a Mac that won’t turn on

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