Sold iMac-Wiped HD-Reinstall Question

1. Yes.

2. You need to load the computer's original OS and not Yosemite.

3. All Intel iMacs have built-in 802.11.

(120599)

Yes it will affect the new owner:. Even though Yosemite is free, its still licensed to your Apple ID, and you are not legally allowed to simply give that license to the new owner. They must get a license of their own by downloading Yosemite with their own Apple ID. Otherwise any time they want to update the Os they would require your Apple Id and password to do it. And the Mac would be eternally linked to you.

You'll need to follow these steps before giving the iMac away.

What to do before selling or giving away your Mac - Apple Support

You need to re-install the Original OS the iMac shipped with.

It either came with Snow Leopard or Lion. Most Likely Lion.

Mac OS X versions (builds) for computers - Apple Support

You'll need to use Internet Recovery To install the Original OSx.

Restart the computer and press and hold: Command+Option+r until you see a Spinning Globe.

Follow the onscreen prompts to reinstall.

OS X: About OS X Recovery - Apple Support

You should be able to reboot the computer, and hold Command + Option + R when it starts up, and get Internet Recovery That way.

You will need to boot into Internet recovery (Command + Option + R); once in the Utilities window, erase the drive, then choose to reinstall OS X. If it came with Lion, it should install Lion. If it came with Snow leopard, all bets are off because I've tested such a machine several times and the results differed. It can't download Snow Leopard because that has never been available for download from the servers, so it will either download Lion or simply tell you it can't do anything or download Yosemite again. In any of these cases, you will need to call Apple to obtain the original install disks for a nominal charge.

If you sell the machine with any OS obtained from the app store, it will be tied to your Apple ID and the new owner will never be able to reinstall or update any apps (aside from the fact that they'll be running pirated software at that point).

You used Internet Recovery (Command + Option + R)? And erased your drive first? Then you should be good to go..

Those apps are no longer included unless it is a new Mac. The buyer needs to obtain them from the app store (purchase them). If you were to leave them, the buyer would never be able to update them (or reinstall).

If it is a new Mac, they are generally not installed, but sitting in the Purchases section at the app store - you have to "accept" them which means they will be associated with your Apple ID; after that you can download them. I just did that with a new iMac. And, as the license for anything obtained at the app store is not transferable, I will have to wipe them if I want to sell this one.

That's quite alright - I don't care for it either. The problem with the new app store versions is that you must "accept" it; doing that will associate it with your Apple ID and it becomes non-transferable. Here are a couple of excerpts from the iPhoto SLA (I picked iPhoto, but they're pretty much the same) - this is for the app store version:

Both of those are from here:

http://images.apple.com/legal/sla/docs/iPhoto.pdf

Not quite confused enough? This is from the iLife licensing agreement (which was what you got on install disks: iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, etc):

From here:

http://images.apple.com/legal/sla/docs/iLife11.pdf

As you can see, they are quite different. So, if you have separate iLife disks, you can either keep them or give them to a buyer (I still have and use mine!). If you don't have them and accept the apps in the app store, they become yours only and you can't transfer them.

Unfortunately, they no longer come on disks and Apple no longer supports or sells them; the last one was ilife 11 about a couple of years ago and they're still available on ebay. What year(s)/models are your iMacs? If they came preinstalled on yours, then you should be able to re-download them.