Calling Mac experts

[Ray Singh]

Hi All. I am an avid windows user - yes one of the three in the world :-) and have recently had a Apple Mac book pro returned by one of my staff. We had offered him the chance to buy this, but he refused and posted it back to me.

It has arrived (without charger - grrrr) and it seems that he has performed some sort of reset. I have tried to turn this on and it just goes straight to some sort of internet recovery. It seems to ask for an apple ID and I cannot get in touch with the ex employee now.

Is there anyway of just clearing the whole machine so i can give this to one of this years interns who needs this?

As i type the mac has run out of battery, so i cannot tell you the exact things it is asking for, but fro memory, it seems to ask you to connect it to a WiFi network then runs through a internet recovery and then asks for appleID.

Any help much appreciated.

[tog]

If it's a modern machine it should charge off any USB-C charger.

[stewies_minion]

Should reverse follow this at a stab https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201065

I'm not sure about OSx but in iOS you HAVE to sign out of iCloud else the device is a paper weight.

[Dave Hedgehog]

stewies_minion said:

Should reverse follow this at a stab https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201065

I'm not sure about OSx but in iOS you HAVE to sign out of iCloud else the device is a paper weight.

from apple:


If you still can't reset your password, erase your Mac

If no other solution is successful, you have the option to reset your password by erasing your Mac.

Shut down your Mac, then start up from macOS recovery as described previously.
When you're asked to select an admin user you know the password for, choose Erase Mac from the Recovery Assistant menu in the menu bar.
From the Erase Mac window, click Erase Mac, then click Erase Mac to confirm.
If your Mac restarts to a flashing question mark, press and hold the power button for a few seconds until your Mac turns off.
Start up from macOS Recovery again, then reinstall macOS. For details, see How to reinstall macOS.

If you can't reinstall macOS because the installer doesn't see a hard disk on which to install, you might need to change the format of the disk:

Press Command (?)-Q to quit the installer.
When you see the utilities window, select Disk Utility, then click Continue.
Select the first item listed in the sidebar of the Disk Utility window. This is your built-in hard disk.
Click the Erase button or tab on the right side of the window, then enter these details:
Name: Macintosh HD
Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Scheme (if shown): GUID Partition Map
Click Erase, then click Erase to confirm.
When the erase is complete, press Command-Q to quit Disk Utility and return to the utilities window. You should now be able to reinstall macOS successfully.


https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212190

Edited by Dave Hedgehog on Friday 19th August 22:22

[somouk]

if they didn’t reset it properly and log out of their Apple ID before resetting then you may be stuck.

The feature is designed to stop people stealing a laptop and just resetting it.

[stemll]

As the OP is the actual owner (or his company/employer is) then Apple can unlock it if you can show them proof of purchase. Will need a trip to an Apple store though.

Then get it set up through Apple Business Manager before you give it to anyone else then it will be using a company-owned Apple ID

[wyson]

My firm uses JAMF.

Its not best practice giving individual users total control over their machines like that.