Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
macOS Monterey Allows You to Erase a Mac Without Needing to Reinstall the Operating System
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Nope. T1. All they are doing is deleting the encryption keys. Hardly an innovation.
Windows 8 had this in 2012.
But will we really trust it's really untainted?
It's been a few days since Apple announced macOS Monterey, and we continue to dig through new features that weren't mentioned during the WWDC keynote, including a much more convenient way of erasing a Mac.
Following in the footsteps of the iPhone and iPad, the Mac has gained an "Erase All Content and Settings" option on macOS Monterey. The option allows you to erase all user data and user-installed apps from your Mac without needing to reinstall the macOS operating system, making it far easier to restore a Mac to like-new factory settings.
From the macOS Monterey features page on Apple's website:In the macOS Monterey beta, the new option can be found by opening the System Preferences app, clicking on System Preferences in the menu bar at the top of the screen, and clicking on "Erase All Content and Settings" in the drop-down menu. An administrator password is required to proceed with restoring the Mac to factory settings.
Erasing a Mac running an earlier version of macOS requires formatting the startup disk and reinstalling macOS, so this new option will make it far more convenient to restore your Mac to factory settings, whether you simply want to start fresh with your Mac or are planning to sell or gift the Mac to another person. After erasing a Mac, it will display the Setup Assistant and be ready to be set up like new.
macOS Monterey is available now in beta for developers, with a public beta to follow in July.
Article Link: macOS Monterey Allows You to Erase a Mac Without Needing to Reinstall the Operating System
Awesome to hear this. It took me a minute to trust it on iOS but now I’m in the hook it up to my veins camp.
Yeah I saw this on the feature list on Apple's website. Pretty awesome. I immediately thought this would be extremely helpful if you're selling your Mac and just want to remove your stuff so the new owner will have a factory-clean system without going through a full reformat and install.
Without the decryption key, It is just garbage on the disk. There is no need to write over it.
Heh, one more step making macOS works and looks just like iPadOS, or even iOS. I don’t care how apple insists, macOS and iPadOS will eventually merge, and the only major difference is control.
My Mac is too old to support it (much less powerful too, long before Monterey), but I welcome this feature. I just want to see if apple will eventually pull the trigger to ban apps from outside App Store to run.
My Mac is too old to support it (much less powerful too, long before Monterey), but I welcome this feature. I just want to see if apple will eventually pull the trigger to ban apps from outside App Store to run.
If you make modification to the system, I don’t think this will. Old school formatting and installing is still the best way to truly reset the system back to factory setting. This new feature just cut out system reinstall part.
The better way would be use a power drill to kill the SSD and RAM.
Nope. This new feature erases the data partition (actually, it just loses the decryption key, making it un-readable.) The Signed System Volume, is retained. Since no one can write to the SSV during normal operation, erasing the data partition is the same as clearing everything ever written. I haven't tested, but I assume, on reboot, the SSV is just recreating the basic Data volume with all the firm links.
But until apple permanently removes the ability for user to disable SIP, if a user actually touches the system volume in any way (as part of their “normal operation”) then I doubt this feature will actually restore that. You can see if this feature works with just SIP disabled. I don’t have a new Mac so I couldn’t test.
Great method for reselling but for fixing issues if it's anything like iOS or iPadOS, a DFU restore with an .ipsw file or in the case of the Mac, a bootable USB is the ony acceptable method. Erase All Content And Settings is really more for data removal IMO. I've never had it work in a situation where I needed a reset for a problem, where as a DFU did work.
I haven't had to do it very often (usually when I'm being a beta tester on my main iPhone like an idiot) but when I do I don't even try the EACAS method. That's why this year I bought a refurbished iPhone X this week on Amazon just for iOS beta testing for 15 and 16 and 17 and the ones the X will get. I get tired of having to start from scratch on a main phone. But yet I'm a new features guy and I cannot resist temptation. This will fix that issue entirely so it's worth the $ and keeping my 12 Pro Max on something perfectly stable and not running the risk of being out and about with a crash.
I haven't had to do it very often (usually when I'm being a beta tester on my main iPhone like an idiot) but when I do I don't even try the EACAS method. That's why this year I bought a refurbished iPhone X this week on Amazon just for iOS beta testing for 15 and 16 and 17 and the ones the X will get. I get tired of having to start from scratch on a main phone. But yet I'm a new features guy and I cannot resist temptation. This will fix that issue entirely so it's worth the $ and keeping my 12 Pro Max on something perfectly stable and not running the risk of being out and about with a crash.
Very cool. But please don't take away my ability to wipe the drive and re-install the OS should I want to do a more invasive wipe and reinstall of the OS.
Apple will take this feature away when they determine user is no longer trustworthy to disable SIP. Not now, but I believe a few years down the line.
I understand they've put a lot of the os on a separate partition, but color me skeptical that this has absolutely no leakage.
Newsflash: Criminals can abuse good things. Does this mean we shouldn't have good things? No.
a-lot of these new features in Monterey are IOS features
Not that this is a bad feature. erasing user data and programs.
But once again. Every Year macOS is turning into IOS more and more.
I would not be surprised that when they are ready for Touch screens on Mac that macOS gets discarded in favor of IOS
Not that this is a bad feature. erasing user data and programs.
But once again. Every Year macOS is turning into IOS more and more.
I would not be surprised that when they are ready for Touch screens on Mac that macOS gets discarded in favor of IOS
Not having cameras in the private homes everyone, in every room (including bathrooms) is also very useful for criminals. Should we do that too? Should we ban passwords and encryption because those, too, are also useful for criminals?
Seriously... people sell Macs, sometimes MacOS flakes and you need to re-install... there's more legit reasons that illegit reasons.
But trying to write it off as helping criminals? Why not toss in "for the children" too somehow?
What if the user gives an app permission to load kernel extensions? Some of the apps I use continue to require them. Aren't kexts installed into the OS kernel itself and, if so, would merely wiping all user data be sufficient to restore the OS to a pristine state?
Using the Apple nomenclature mentioned by TriBruin: Are kexts installed into the Signed System Volume?
Using the Apple nomenclature mentioned by TriBruin: Are kexts installed into the Signed System Volume?
Last edited:
Until Apple provides a way to debug System preferences Panes, we still need the ability to disable SIP as otherwise there is no way to attach a debugger to the Panes running inside legacyloader.
