How to wipe a Mac and set it up as new, even without the password

Before wiping your device, consider whether there is any data you need, particularly any files you haven’t backed up.

If so, consider recovering the password instead of resetting the device. We have a How to Recover a Forgotten Mac Password tutorial for this very purpose.

Before you begin this process, you may later discover that you need a USB-C drive to start macOS if, once the recovery process has begun, you don’t have Internet access on the Mac in question.

We have a guide on how to reinstall macOS on a Mac that should help with this.

Whether you need to wipe your Mac to move it to a new user or you forgot your password, you need to boot into recovery mode. We’ll cover how to use Mac Recovery Mode in a separate article, but we’ll quickly go over the process here:

The method depends on whether you have an Intel-powered Mac or one with an Apple M-series chip.

On an M series Mac:

1. Shut down the Mac.
2. Press the power button and hold it down.
3. Eventually, the Apple logo will appear with some text below it informing that if you continue to hold the power button, you will be able to access the startup options. Keep pressing that button.
4. Eventually, you’ll be able to select Options > Continue and this will open Recovery, as shown in the image below (sorry for the quality when it’s not possible to take a screenshot).

On a Mac with Intel:

1. Shut down the Mac.
2. Turn it back on while holding down the Command and R keys simultaneously until you see the Apple logo or hear a chime. Release the keys at this point.
3. The macOS Utilities screen will display a series of options.

This is where it erases everything on the Mac, so if you’re not sure what to do, you can try using Target Disk Mode, now renamed Mac Disk Sharing, so you can copy files. We discuss how to do that here: How to share a Mac’s drive with another Mac, though you may still need a password.

Assuming it’s okay to go ahead and delete, follow these steps:

1. Click on Disk Utility and Continue.
2. Once inside the Disk Utility app, all of your drives are listed in the left column.
3. Select the internal drive, traditionally called the Macintosh HD. You’ll need to select the parent drive, rather than any aliases under it; see the screenshot for a clearer example.
4. With the drive highlighted, click Erase.
5. Name your drive in the popup box.
6. The format dropdown and Scheme should be set to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and GUID Partition Map, respectively.
7. Click Delete.

Erasing the drive can take a few minutes, but once you’re done, go back to the macOS Utilities menu and select Reinstall macOS. We will see how to reinstall macOS, separately, but we will explain the steps below.

Now you need to reinstall macOS via Recovery. The process, again, depends on whether you have an Intel-powered Mac or one with Apple Silicon (an M1, M2, or later).

You should be able to install macOS over the Internet, but you may prefer to use the USB drive you prepared earlier with the macOS installer (which might be faster).

1. Select Reinstall macOS in Disk Utilities.
2. Click Continue.
3. Enter your Apple ID if necessary and wait while macOS reinstalls.

If your Mac won’t connect to the Internet to download macOS, click the Wi-Fi menu in the upper right corner of the screen, select the Wi-Fi network, and enter your Wi-Fi password. If that still doesn’t work, use the bootable USB drive.

Once macOS is installed, why not check out our list of the best free Mac apps to get the most out of your new (old) machine?