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lamphorn Author

Level 1

9 points

Sign Out of iCloud on MacBook Pro won't work, just endless spinning wheel.

I'm trading in my 2013 MacBook Pro 15" Retina with Catalina and only have a couple hours left (borrowing a friend's power cable because mine broke), and the last thing I need to do is sign out of iCloud and restore the MacBook to factory settings. However when I click on Sign Out in the Overview section, the little gray wheel just spins endlessly and never finishes signing me out.

I've force-quit, tried again, rebooted, uninstalled Sophos, and even turned off Screen Time (another forum suggested that), but nothing.

Can I simply skip this step and tell the MacBook to erase all data and restore to factory or MUST I finish this broken Sign Out process? Is this a known issue with Catalina?

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Nov 25, 2021 1:49 PM

Top-ranking reply

TheLittles

Level 10

195,156 points

Posted on Nov 25, 2021 2:07 PM

lamphorn Said:

"Sign Out of iCloud on MacBook Pro won't work, just endless spinning wheel.: [...]Can I simply skip this step and tell the MacBook to erase all data and restore to factory or MUST I finish this broken Sign Out process? Is this a known issue with Catalina?"

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No. I have not come across this issue being commonly reported. But, yes, you must sign out of your iCloud account on it (not doing so, it will be useless to the buyer). So, try two things:

What to Try:

Try a New Admin User:

Create a new administrator and use that user to log out.

Try Safe Mode:

Boot in Safe Mode [Hod Down: the shift key, upon boot]. In Safe Mode, login item do not open at login, certain System Preferences are set aside, and damaged system files (i.e. caches) are intentionally fixed. If no success while in Safe Mode, restart the Mac normally, and try this once more.

Important:

Be certain to use this link: What to do Before you Sell, Give Away, or Trade in your Mac - Apple Support
Be certain you create a backup, so that you can migrate items.

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Sign Out of iCloud on MacBook Pro won't work, just endless spinning wheel.

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