Erasing all data and resetting a Mac has never been an overly simple procedure. However, things have changed: here's how to do it
With the launch of M1 chips in 2020, Apple has brought the world of Macs a lot closer to that of iPhones. It couldn't be otherwise with a chip like M1 that has been developed from those, very powerful, that have been equipping iPhones for years, and many concrete benefits are starting to be seen.
For a long time (too long, according to some) deleting all the data and resetting a Mac has been an inexplicably complex operation. Nothing to do, for example, compared to what is necessary on the iPhone, just to stay in the Apple environment, where you just open the settings, go to General and Transfer or initialize iPhone and the reset is done. But evidently Apple has taken note of the difficulties and with the Mac M1 has worked on the simple deletion of data and subsequent reset, and now the procedure is very simple. Here is a simple step-by-step guide to understand how to erase all data and reset a Mac.
How to verify that you can proceed
To take advantage of the new procedure you must first verify that you have a Mac updated to the latest version of the operating system, ie macOS Monterey, and equipped with chip M1. To do this just click on the apple icon in the upper left corner of any screen, and a second on About this Mac. If it says macOS Monterey inside the window, and just below that, next to the model of the Mac, the abbreviation M1, then you can take advantage of this simple method to erase data and reset the Mac.
How to erase data and reset the Mac
At this point you have to once again pull up the apple icon in the top left corner and call up this time the System Preferences item. Alternatively, you can take advantage of Spotlight's search by typing, precisely, "system preferences" or open the Applications folder and launch System Preferences from there. The first method is the quickest, but all three lead to the same result.
Once the window is open, you have to go with the mouse pointer to the item just next to the apple - always that one, top left corner - System Preferences and then locate the item Initialize contents and settings... After clicking, the system will ask you to enter the administrator password, to make sure that it is really our intention to open this "delicate" menu.
After identifying ourselves as administrators through the password, the next window presents a series of options. The one we are interested in for erasing data and resetting the Mac is in the bottom right corner of the same window, namely the Continue button. At this point the interface asks you to enter another password, this time that of the iCloud account, the same one you use to authorize the download of any application.
This is the last step, because after entering the correct password a final warning informs you about the consequences of the action: if you really want to erase data and reset the Mac you have to confirm to start the process, which is automatic. At the end, you are greeted by the configuration wizard, the one you find, to be clear, on any newly purchased Mac.