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Performing a factory reset on any technical device is often recommended to solve many issues and you can do it by yourself. Only a few devices need some technical factory reset such as MACBOOK. Today, I will guide you on how to factory Reset MacBook Air. The factory reset of any macbook is tricky but I will guide you with easy and understandable steps.
However, As a technical Engineer, I will share my own experience through which I reset my MacBook successfully and after that I found my system faster and updated. The factory reset of a MacBook Air will increase system performance, will remove bugs, viruses and restore the laptop to its previous brightness.
Moreover, If preferred to sell your MacBook Air to someone else, a factory reset will ensure that all private and personal information is deleted. Ensuring that another user can log in and begin using your previous MacBook Air is also very important to seller ratings. It reduces the one of having to remove your information after the transaction is completed.
By backing up the MacBook Air with Time Machine and performing a factory reset of MacBook Air, the machine will feel like it just unboxed for the first time.
If you are unknown with the process of performing a factory reset on MacBook Air, follow these steps below to ensure that all of the information is backed up and the reset is done correctly. I will describe these steps such as:
Backing Up Your Data with Time Machine
Factory Resetting MacBook Air
Reinstalling macOS on MacBook Air
Restoring a Time Machine Backup
Errors When Restoring
Conclusion
Table of Contents
Backing Up Your Data with Time Machine:
Apple makes it easy to backup data on MacBook Air. Time Machine and an external hard drive will back up all documents, applications, and other important information. If you don’t have a dedicated external hard drive, picking one up is a great time. Apple provided the AirPort Time Capsule, make specific for time Machine backups.
Otherwise, there are plenty of 1, and 2 terabyte drives on Amazon under $100. If you’re looking for a recommendation, check out the Western Digital My Passport drive, or the Seagate Backup Plus drive is designed to work with macOS directly out of the box.
Plug the external drive into the computer and open the Time Machine application on Mac. This is accessible either through Launchpad or in System Preferences.
- Click on Select Backup Disk and choose an external hard drive.
- Select Use Disk, which will save your hard drive as a time machine backup drive.
- Choose Back up Now from Time Machine menu.
If want to control what isn’t being backed up, hit the Options button inside System Preferences in the Time Machine menu. If this is the first time doing a Time Machine back up, it may take a while once finished backup, make sure to safely eject the drive from MacBook Air before unplugging the drive.
To properly eject an external hard drive: Open the Finder and tap on the device’s name.
Click on the ‘Eject’ icon, an arrow with a line underneath.
If MacBook won’t allow performing this task, it’s likely the backup isn’t complete or another application is still using an external hard drive.
Factory Resetting MacBook Air
Once backed up user data to either Time Machine or the backup application of choice, it’s time to factory reset Macbook Air. This process can help solve most bugs and problems with Macbook, including issues with slowdowns and freezing applications.
A reset will generally increase the speed of the machine back to what it was when it first got a device in its original state. A factory reset’s also important to retail MacBook Air to remove all user data left on the computer. MacOS has a built-in recovery disk utility to help erase and reinstall the operating system, which can red own load from inside the boot display on Mac.
Otherwise, can also choose to download macOS Mojave from the Mac App Store on device, creating a bootable USB drive from the download file. And can find instructions for that here. But For now, we’ll be looking at how to reset MacBook Air from the boot screen on that device. Please note that this does require an active internet connection.
Strike the Apple icon in the top-left corner of the MacBook’s display
Select Restart from the drop-down menu and be ready to press some keys on the keyboard
When the Apple logo reappears on MacBook Air’s display, press and holds down Command + R on the keyboard, don’t let go until seeing the macOS utility window appear on the display.
I want to reinstall macOS over the current file system, click Reinstall macOS factory reset device; however, click Disk Utility at the bottom of the list.
Once Disk Utility has opened, Locate and select MacBook Air’s Startup Disk on the left-hand side. For most users, this is the leading and only disk listed.
- Click the Erase button inside Disk Utility.
- Select the Format pop-up window and choose Mac OS Extended
- Give the reformatted disk a name and click Erase to confirm erasure.
Now see a display begin to erase MacBook Air’s drive and data. The disk is successfully wiped when this process is complete, but it does not do yet.
The computer no longer has an installed operating system on it, meaning no matter whether selling a laptop or simply reformatting the drive to improve the computer’s speed or performance, it still has to reinstall the operating system.
Reinstalling macOS On MacBook Air:
With the newly-reset MacBook Air, start by quitting from Disk Utility by selecting Disk Utility, then Quit. Select Reinstall macOS from the list of macOS Utilities and follow the prompts to reinstall the newest version of macOS.
When it asks to choose the disk you want to install, select as most MacBook Airs have only one storage drive built into their systems unless you have personally added another the default drive.
When tap Install, may be asked to allow some permissions, after which the computer will begin to download macOS. This download will take some time, especially on a slower internet connection. Be patient as the reinstall is completed. This may take a few hours, so be sure to allow time to reboot the system and get back to work.
When macOS has finished downloading, you may need to start the installation manually by accepting the install on the computer. Once the laptop has finished installing the operating system, it should automatically restart and boot into the macOS Welcome screen, publicize to start a new account on the design and to set up the system.
If planning on selling the laptop, can more or less power off the device here MacBook Air has been returned to its factory state and is safe to be shipped off ready for another user. This also wholly safe the purchaser from accessing any personal or private information.
Restoring a Time Machine Backup:
When finished setting up the reformatted Mac, need to restore the files saved onto an external hard drive using a Time Machine backup. Time Machine makes it easy to convert from any of the saved backups on the device, and this includes performing this action on newly-formatted computers.
Start by opening up Time Machine, either from the dock or, if removed, the shortcut from the port, by clicking the Apple icon in the menu bar on the top of the display, selecting System Preferences, and selecting Time Machine.
With an external hard drive plugged into MacBook Air, use Time Machine to browse through files to find what want to restore. The timeline on the right side of the MacBook’s display will show the date and time of everyone backup, allowing to slide through the list and find the correct or most recent backup to restore from.
Select the files that can hit the restore button to restore them to the device. To preview a file, select a specific file and tap on the spacebar key on the keyboard.
Alternatively, if want to restore everything from Time Machine backup, can use the same macOS recovery display used earlier in this guide to format and reinstall macOS.
Hit Restart on the device in the Apple logo, wait for the machine to power back on, and hold ‘Command + R’ on the keyboard when the Apple icon appears on display.
When back in the macOS ‘Utilities’ display, select “Restore from Disk Utility,” and follow the instructions on the screen to restore.
Backed-up apps and files to the computer.
Errors When Restoring:
While this isn’t something want to do regularly, it is somewhat surprising how a simple reinstall can make an aging Mac feel brand new again. To keep MacBook Air running smoothly, perform this reset every couple of years.
I run into any issues with restoral, contact Apple Support. Some users have reported a No Bag Entry error when restoring older software. If this happens, MacBook Air is having trouble connecting to the App Store and, therefore, cannot reinstall macOS. Suppose want to make sure that MacBook Air is connected to a vital wifi source. Users have reported that public wifi will not allow MacBook to perform the restoral.
Conclusion:
At the finalize of my article, I hope you have find the answer of How to Factory Reset MacBook Air? I described all the points step by step such as, Backing Up Your Data with Time Machine, Factory Resetting MacBook Air, Reinstalling macOS on MacBook Air, Restoring a Time Machine Backup, Errors When Restoring these points gives the Useful knowledge from it. Lastly, I hope you will enjoy my article, learn from them, and apply these top points and valuable tips. If you have any queries related to MacBook Air, please feel free to ask.