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Clean Install - Amazing

N

NYCVB

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 7, 2016
52
32
I've been using a 2013 MacBook Pro that, over the past few years, has had many serious performance issues including terrible battery life, fans constantly running, and lots of issues with software freezing. Essentially unusable.

A few weeks ago, I bought a 2017 13" MacBook Touch Bar to start using as my main computer and two days ago decided yesterday to do a full backup and clean install on my 2013 laptop.

Amazing, my 2013 laptop now feels like a new computer and I'm very tempted to get rid of my replacement since I prefer the keyboard and trackpad of the older models.

The reinstall of my apps and downloading of all my important data from iCloud made the entire process pretty painless. One day of work to get it pretty much all wrapped up.

Just wanted to post in case anyone else is experiencing the same issues. I know it's pretty common to do a clean install but I never realized the difference it could make.
 
radiologyman said:
I think I should try it with my 2015 MacBook. Did you restore from the backup?
Click to expand...
No! I backed up my laptop using Super Duper to an external SSD and then wiped my laptop hard drive and did a new install of Mac OS. Most of my data was on iCloud so the SSD was mostly just a precaution.
 
hi

thanks very much for this.

i use iCloud for all apps to sync Contacts, Notes, Calendar, etc.
additionally i used iCloud for all my files as well, so iCloud syncs my Desktop and Documents to the Cloud as well.
i also decided to not use Optimize My Mac "feature", so full versions are always available on my mac locally.

question:
if i completely wipe my MacBook Air disk, and then just download and install the latest OS to it, logging into iCloud, i think the following will happen:

1 iCloud will populate my mac os apps such as Contacts, Notes, Calendar, etc when i log into iCloud with my apple ID

2 apple Music and apple Photos will be also populated to my my mac os disk as well, simply by logging with my apple ID

3 but, iCloud will NOT download automatically all the files located in that are located on iCloud Drive's Desktop and Documents folders (but which are now missing from my newly wiped MacBook Air disk)

4 as well, those files located in iCloud's Desktop and Document folders will NOT be considered "deleted" even though they dont appear on my MacBook Air disk anymore. but rather, simply still be able to downloaded locally at will.

is the above correct?
 
Last edited:
niji said:
hi

thanks very much for this.

i use iCloud for all apps to sync Contacts, Notes, Calendar, etc.
additionally i used iCloud for all my files as well, so iCloud syncs my Desktop and Documents to the Cloud as well.
i also decided to not use Optimize My Mac "feature", so full versions are always available on my mac locally.

question:
if i completely wipe my MacBook Air disk, and then just download and install the latest OS to it, logging into iCloud, i think the following will happen:

1 iCloud will populate my mac os apps such as Contacts, Notes, Calendar, etc when i log into iCloud with my apple ID

2 apple Music and apple Photos will be also populated to my my mac os disk as well, simply by logging with my apple ID

3 but, iCloud will NOT download automatically all the files located in that are located on iCloud Drive's Desktop and Documents folders (but which are now missing from my newly wiped MacBook Air disk)

4 as well, those files located in iCloud's Desktop and Document folders will NO be considered "deleted" even though they dont appear on my MacBook Air disk anymore. but rather, simply still be able to downloaded locally at will.

is the above correct?
Click to expand...
I don't know about 3 and 4 but I would assume it would download them and that they are backed up on iCloud that purpose. However definitely worth a quick call to Apple to confirm. Dropbox was also very helpful with data from a few apps that I used that didn't sync to iCloud.
 
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When I got my 2018 MacBook Pro I restored my backup from my 2013 MacBook Pro, and I've encountered a few problems like standby power drain, high CPU usage just from typing and glitched up graphics when waking up from standby.
I just wiped my system and installed a fresh system, now everything works perfectly.
 
NYCVB said:
I don't know about 3 and 4 but I would assume it would download them and that they are backed up on iCloud that purpose. However definitely worth a quick call to Apple to confirm. Dropbox was also very helpful with data from a few apps that I used that didn't sync to iCloud.
Click to expand...

thanks.
to be sure i do need to find out before doing this...

but your assumption (that the files located on iCloud) would be downloaded automatically to this new device needs to be checked.
when i add a new iPhone to my account the files are not downloaded automatically, they only become downloadable.
 
1096bimu said:
When I got my 2018 MacBook Pro I restored my backup from my 2013 MacBook Pro, and I've encountered a few problems like standby power drain, high CPU usage just from typing and glitched up graphics when waking up from standby.
I just wiped my system and installed a fresh system, now everything works perfectly.
Click to expand...


Did you use MA to move your data over? Or manual?
 
Howard2k said:
Did you use MA to move your data over? Or manual?
Click to expand...
Everything manual, meaning once I logged into iCloud and synced what was there, I manually installed my apps (in many cases copying over the files was enough to copy over all the data - for example PDF Expert copying over the file also copied over my signatures).
 
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