Hi chaps, I have an iMac, iPad and iPhone and have just acquired a used MacBook Air, plugged it in and it’s now full of all the junk off my iMac including all the stuff on the desktop and applications that I never use. I had intended to try and keep this machine clean and use it for photography (simple post production) I guess the basics would be useful like email, safari, contacts … so my question… can I wipe it clean and start again without iCloud loading everything on it (I don’t need the kitchen sink).
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Clean install new MacBook air
- Thread starter rogertb
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While you can wipe and start from scratch, somehow faster and less destructive would be to create a new user, setup the new user as you want it and then delete the old user. Make sure you keep at least one admin account, so if old user was admin, create new admin user or - even better - create special admin account and new standard user.
Deleting the old user (sign out of iCloud first) will delete all user data, but would not touch the system and Applications. I think this is what you really want as all iCloud "stuff" is user specific.
If you have system problems, wiping out and installing fresh may be good way to try to fix them, but if this is only user stuff, switching users may be easier.
Deleting the old user (sign out of iCloud first) will delete all user data, but would not touch the system and Applications. I think this is what you really want as all iCloud "stuff" is user specific.
If you have system problems, wiping out and installing fresh may be good way to try to fix them, but if this is only user stuff, switching users may be easier.
I think I’d like to be a Mac virgin, at 70, ignore my shady profligate past and have a clean computer as if I walked home from the store and plugged it in without the cloud taking over so I can choose what I want, is that so hard ? Of course when I’m pushing the car down the road I wish the cloud was aiding me, sorry I’ve wandered off somewhere, a beer at lunchtime has taken over, I’ll vist again tomorrow … cheers.
Well, I think I understand - it happened to me also, that iCloud jumped in and "helpfully" downloaded ton of content during setup, in my case in virtual machine I was setting up. The trouble is, that there always needs to be one default behavior.
If you would not log into iCloud when setting up the machine, you would not get in troubles. You can always log into iCloud later and setup syncing on what you need ONLY. But Apple has to make some assumption on what you want when you log into iCloud during setup, and syncing everything is, likely, what most people want.
While not 70, I agree that things are getting more and more complicated and assume we (as users) understand everything. And, in general, "understand everything" is surely not true...
If you would not log into iCloud when setting up the machine, you would not get in troubles. You can always log into iCloud later and setup syncing on what you need ONLY. But Apple has to make some assumption on what you want when you log into iCloud during setup, and syncing everything is, likely, what most people want.
While not 70, I agree that things are getting more and more complicated and assume we (as users) understand everything. And, in general, "understand everything" is surely not true...
Thanks Honza1 good of you. Yes I’ve using Macs for broadcast graphics for 30 years but at the pointy end, any problems and a friendly chap would appear and sort them so, sadly, I never got my hands dirty.