Maturecheese

Q: Inherited Imac

I have inherited an imac due to a bereavement and need to change the apple id to my own, how do I go about it.  I have all the original receipts as well as proof that I have legitimately come to own it  Do I need to reformat it and if so how.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Aug 29, 2015 4:48 AM

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Q: Inherited Imac

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  • by Rudegar,Helpful

    Rudegar Rudegar Aug 29, 2015 5:01 AM in response to Maturecheese
    Level 7 (28,904 points)
    Apple TV
    Aug 29, 2015 5:01 AM in response to Maturecheese

    appleID's are not as strongly tried to macs as they are ios devices

    you can just make a new user

    with computers it's a multiuser system so each member of the family can have each their users and they live separate lives

     

    so if you can login you can make a new user

     

    if you don't know the password

    Change or reset a user account password on your Mac - Apple Support

  • by Maturecheese,

    Maturecheese Maturecheese Aug 31, 2015 5:24 AM in response to Rudegar
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 31, 2015 5:24 AM in response to Rudegar

    Ok thanks for that info.  So if I create an account in my name I can go to the apple store and buy apps  using my apple ID and password from my other apple devices like my i pad.

  • by Paul_31,Helpful

    Paul_31 Paul_31 Aug 31, 2015 6:25 AM in response to Maturecheese
    Level 6 (13,925 points)
    Aug 31, 2015 6:25 AM in response to Maturecheese

    Maturecheese wrote:

    So if I create an account in my name I can go to the apple store and buy apps  using my apple ID and password from my other apple devices like my i pad.

    Yes you can. Just make sure that you are logged in to the App Store and iTunes App Store with the account you want to use.

  • by Maturecheese,

    Maturecheese Maturecheese Aug 31, 2015 9:30 AM in response to Paul_31
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 31, 2015 9:30 AM in response to Paul_31

    Once again thank you.  I will still want to get the mac reformatted at some point though and although I have done this loads of times on a pc I have never done it on a mac so I will probably have to take it to a shop to get done as It looks a bit more complicated than a pc reformat.

  • by Paul_31,Solvedanswer

    Paul_31 Paul_31 Aug 31, 2015 9:41 AM in response to Maturecheese
    Level 6 (13,925 points)
    Aug 31, 2015 9:41 AM in response to Maturecheese

    Reformatting and re-installing the OS is s simple process, but you will need a reliable (and preferably fast) connection to the internet.

    Here are some instructions for re-installing the OS:

    OS X: About OS X Recovery - Apple Support

     

    Internet Recovery will re-install the OS that shipped with the Mac when new, assuming it was OS X 10.7 (Lion) or later. Once installed, you can then upgrade for free to OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) using your own Apple ID via the Mac App Store.

  • by Maturecheese,

    Maturecheese Maturecheese Aug 31, 2015 10:05 AM in response to Paul_31
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 31, 2015 10:05 AM in response to Paul_31

    Thanks yet again  I will look into it in the near future although I did try updating to Yoshmite 2 days ago (after setting up a user account in my name) and it froze on 2 minutes left.  i took a chance and used cmd ctrl power button and luckily got away with it.   When I reformat I assume it will wipe the previous owner from the system completely and go back to the factory state.