How to factory reset a MacBook or Mac: Reset a Mac to factory settings

I remember one there was simple way. Now it seems ever generation of MacBook had its own way. Nothing like easy consistent methods I guess. 😒

@ProTruckDriver Sure hope I never have to Reset my IMac to default settings as I haven't the patience to do that anymore! 😉

Having worked at Apple, the hardest machine to reset to Factory is the iMac. When I was leaving Apple, I could not make the proper procedure work, and ended up bricking the machine and it would not boot. A friend in the Mac group showed me how to connect another Mac to the iMac, and then run a bunch of commands that restored it to factory. Only problem, they were “inside Apple only” tools. SIGH

OM-Gosh....Bricking an iMac? What a absolute nightmare! Thanks for sharing. Now I am surely going to be careful! Sorry to hear about the ending..."inside Apple only" tools! 🤭

I’m wondering if I ever had to reset my iMac to Factory settings (knock on wood that I don’t have too), would it be advisable to take the iMac to the Apple Store and have them do it? I wonder if they would charge me for the reset?

Given what it took to reset mine, maybe so. I had the last version of the i9 27” iMac. It may be different for others. According to the person who helped me, it has a small processor that runs the display. That is what he had to connect to. 

Way back in 2014 I had a crash with my IMac running  Maverick I believe and had issues with Webroot not letting my system reboot...long story with technicalsupport. So I asked Bestbuy GeekSquad to save my info/ photos and asked if they would just install a new hard drive which they did. They reinstalled the OS as well. Apple was way to much money to accomplish what I needed. I started getting involved with the Webroot Community shortly after.  But I was charged to reinstall the OS. That iMac is still running to this day. (2009) 🤣 or 2007...I would have to turn it on to check to be sure. Yikes 🤣🤭

Good to hear @Ssherjj  the old Mac is still running. I just looked at my iMac invoice dated April 2016. That puts my iMac at 8 ½ years old. Still running good with macOS Catalina. Maybe some day I’ll upgrade to macOS Monterey. I’m reading horror stories with people upgrading to Monterey with Fusion Drive slowing their Mac down to non usable. That’s what I have, Fusion Drive / HD. I wish I would have got the SSD on the Mac but that wasn’t offered  in the greatly discounted price I paid from my friends at Apple. I can’t complain, the iMac is still fast and running great.

Hmmm, love them “old” Macs. Not counting my M2 MacBookPro or my 2018 15” MacBook Pro as old, I have a MacSE still running. I have a PowerBook 170 still running. My 2012 MacBookPro mostly still runs, but the graphic chip is desoldering so it crashes if bumped. (They get too hot and desolder from the motherboard.) I also have a IIfx running AUX, a PowerBook5300 (worst PowerBook ever), and the last blue/gray G4 tower (runs OS9 and OSX, so I keep this one), all working. I have an old white iMacG5 but it died out recently. Most likely the power supply caps which are easy to replace. They seem to die regularly for some reason. 
 

Wow, I have way too many Mac.  (I have Windows and RedHat machines too!) Sigh 

@MajorHavoc yowza  ..mercy me, you have a whole bunch of computer toys don't you? Sounds fun! Good thing @ProTruckDriver started this IMac article. It's been great fun reading everybodys posts. Computer geeks we all are.🤣🤣🤣🤭

@ProTruckDriver hahaha An Apple a Day keeps Microsoft Away!!! I have 2 IMacs and two iPads AND 5 Microsoft Windows Computers...Funny guy you are!!!!😜🤣

It helped that I spent 10+ total years at Apple.  And  did not count my many Arduino and Raspberry Pi computers or my few iPads  .   😀

Long gone are the days you could just build your custom .dmg image and deploy a clone to any Mac. I used to work as an Apple Trainer and deploying a pre-configured image to all the Macs in the class was a god send!