How To Prepare Your Mac For Service

Nosotros all hope that information technology will never happen, simply even Macs sometimes suspension. This commodity explains what you should do – when possible – before your Mac goes for service or repair, so that when it returns you can become upwardly and running equally rapidly equally possible. Apple tree's advice is brief, but makes the two nigh important points:
"Before you return your Mac to us, be sure to enable FileVault and back up your data. You may need the fill-in if your Mac needs to be reformatted during the repair process. Apple isn't responsible for lost data."

Preparation

If your Mac is going in for service or repair, be prepared for it to return with its internal storage wiped or replaced with new. Even if the repair shouldn't result in logic board replacement, that may prove necessary, and in many cases that will bring with it a replacement SSD.

If your Mac has a severe fault, you'll probably not have fourth dimension to make special preparations. Merely if y'all tin, information technology's worth taking precautions before you lot have or send your Mac off as they volition make life and then much easier when it comes back. Ensure that you have a current Time Machine backup merely before shutting it downward, and/or make a bootable clone of its internal storage to an external drive.

If your Mac is anything like mine, and total of lots of documents which would take a long time to replace, you'll surely want to practice both. Time Machine backups are invaluable, but sometimes don't work perfectly. A clone copy made using Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper gives you added flexibility, and a second copy of everything on your Mac.

If you store information on your Mac's internal storage which needs to be protected, you lot should besides think carefully how best to ensure that information technology remains safety while your Mac is in the care of others. If the boot deejay is already protected using FileVault, you shouldn't need to exercise annihilation more. If your Mac has a T2 chip, turning FileVault on is instantly effective, equally all the information stored on its boot deejay is already encrypted; it's still worth turning it on, though, equally that requires your password before the encrypted files can be accessed.

If your Mac doesn't have a T2 and FileVault isn't turned on, encrypting your whole boot volume can take a very long time. Consider creating another APFS volume using Disk Utility, making that encrypted, and moving the sensitive files to that. Don't forget to delete the originals, though.

The best sequence to follow is this:

1. When yous're ready, close all applications including Mail and social network browsers, set up to shut your Mac down.
2. Make 1 last Fourth dimension Machine backup, using the Support Now control in Time Machine's menubar entry, and/or clone its internal storage to make a bootable backup on an external drive.
3. Turn FileVault on, encrypt or remove all sensitive files.
4. Close your Mac downward using the Apple tree carte du jour command, if yous tin.

Pack your Mac carefully using its original packaging, if possible, and accept or transport it to Apple tree or Apple's Authorised Service Provider. I by and large avert sending whatever cables, input devices, or annihilation else when the work is to exist washed on the Mac itself. That way, there's nothing else to go missing.

Return

When your Mac returns, connect it to a minimum of essential peripherals and try starting it up ordinarily. If it goes directly into the macOS setup sequence, restart into Recovery Style and open Deejay Utility. If almost everything on your boot volume has vanished, you know that its internal storage has been wiped or replaced.

If your Mac has a T2 chip and you want to employ a bootable clone to restore its contents, now is the time to open Startup Security Utility and enable it to kick from an external bulldoze (see below).

If yous need to restore your Mac's internal storage, you at present have a choice of routes for that journeying, which include:

• If your Mac boots into setting upwards macOS, yous can follow the setup, and opt to drift from the external clone or your Time Machine fill-in.
• Whatever happens, you tin can choose a bootable external clone as your startup disk, and apply Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper to clone that dorsum to your internal storage. Remember to utilize the Startup Security Utility in Recovery Mode to allow this for a Mac with a T2 chip, if you want that option.
• Yous tin can gear up macOS up as a new user, and drift using Migration Banana later, or migrate manually if you lot actually desire to.

Whichever yous choose, yous'll want to ensure that your Time Car backup or clone is connected past the fastest possible method, such every bit Thunderbolt 3, to brand the process equally rapid as possible.

T2 chips

A lot of users seem worried nearly trying to do any of this on a Mac with a T2 chip. In fact, those newer models accept ane cracking advantage: the ease and speed with which y'all tin plow FileVault on prior to sending your Mac away. Try this on an older model with a well-loaded SSD, and it could be many hours before the volume is encrypted.

The just real complication with a T2 is when it comes to letting it kick from an external disk, if that is how you have decided to restore your internal storage when the Mac returns. So long as y'all're using a electric current version of the cloning tool, you don't have to turn Secure Kicking off at all. All you practise need to do is enable your Mac to boot from an external disk, something which is past default disabled on T2 models.

If you do allow a T2 Mac to boot from an external disk, don't forget to restart in Recovery Mode, open up Startup Security Utility, and render its settings to normal, once you're happy that your migration is complete and your Mac boots properly from its internal storage.

Could Apple make this easier?

Aye and no. If no boot volumes were encrypted, Apple and its Authorised Service Providers could automatically clone every internal disk on receipt, and restore those they needed to prior to despatch of the repaired Mac.

There are several snags with this, near obviously the fact that it would adventure giving service technicians access to all your files. No matter how careful Apple tree and its providers may be, that puts a groovy bargain of trust in technicians never existence tempted to access sensitive information. It is also impossible to make such a process error-costless, and the merest risk of someone else getting all your files past fault wouldn't be expert.

As it is, to protect the privacy of what is on your internal storage, Apple recommends that it is encrypted, which in turn makes it incommunicable to verify that a disk has been properly restored and is fully functional. Thus you couldn't trust such cloning to accept been performed correctly, and it would offer no existent improvement to the user.

How To Prepare Your Mac For Service,

Source: https://eclecticlight.co/2018/12/13/prepare-your-mac-for-service-repair-and-restore-it-later/

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