I need to reset my Mac to factory settings, can I do this without losing my data?
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 11.2
No, it will completely wipe your Mac. You need to:
use an external storage device to back up your files, or use Migration Assistant to move your files to your new Mac
as in the article.
Won’t my data be backed up in the cloud? I’m not very computer savvy. During Covid we had to work remote, our group was using a Google Suite account, in order for me to be able to present and join discussions, changes were made to my computer. I had to go into settings and enable and disable things…my computer has not been the same since. Have tried on two different occasions to have this remedied by Apple! This computer is basically a paper weight, I feel a factory reset is my best option.
Only if you have up-to-the-minute backups to restore your data . Erase is erase ... all gone!
It's up to you if you want to rely on iCloud (which isn't even a backup service, but a syncing service). If something goes wrong you need all your data on an external storage device to restore from.
I need to reset my Mac to factory settings, can I do this without losing my data?
