Factory Reset is a way to erase all your data from your Mac. People factory reset their Mac for various purposes. If you want to sell your Mac or find the Mac too slow due to the usage of many years, you have to factory reset your Mac. But factory reset might cause problems if you didn’t ensure that you have backed-up all the data. However, you don’t have to worry because a great number of ways are available all around you to recover data after factory reset Mac. In this article, we are introducing you 3 different ways to recover data after factory reset Mac for free and introducing a useful Mac data recovery software.
Method 1. Restore Mac with Time Machine Backups
To keep an up-to-date copy of all of the files on your Mac, Time Machine is a built-in backup application. Among most backup applications, it is unique because it captures exactly what was on your Mac on any day in the past. This app also makes it easy to recover files, emails or media that may have been inadvertently deleted. It will back up all your files on your Mac hourly, daily or weekly when enabled. The oldest backups will be deleted once the storage device runs out of space. For new, changed and deleted files, it will check your computer every hour to make new backups. Using this built-in application is quite easy.
Steps to restore Mac with Time Machine backup files:
Step 1: At first, you have to ensure that your Time Machine backup disk is connected to your PC. Once you have done ensuring it, restart your Mac.
Step 2: Hold down the “Command + R” keys while the system is turning on. In this way, your Mac will start in recovery mode. When you see the Apple logo on your screen, release the keys and wait for the computer to boot into recovery mode. You will see the disk utility menu when it is done.
Step 3: After that from Time Machine backup, choose “Restore” and to process, click “Continue”.
Step 4: Tap on the “Continue” option on the Restore from Time Machine page. Then click “Continue” after selecting your Time Machine backup disk as the restore source. A prompt will appear to unlock it if your disk is encrypted. When setting up Time Machine, enter the administrator password and click “Continue”.
Step 5: Then click “Continue” once you choose a backup by date.
Step 6: Tap on “Restore” after selecting the hard disk on your Mac that will receive the backup contents. You’ll be asked to unlock the disk if your Mac has FileVault turned on. Enter the administrator password and click “Restore” to do this.
Step 7: Restart your Mac when you are done.
Method 2. Restore Mac with iCloud Backup Files
If your iPhone, iPad or Mac ever gets reset for any reason, storing backups in iCloud is a fantastic idea. As long as the device is connected to Wi-Fi, turned on, locked and connected to a power source, iCloud automatically backs up all of the data on your iPhone or iPad every day. You can easily set up a new device or restore information on one you already have when your device is backed up in iCloud. iTunes purchase history, ringtones, app data, device settings, photos and videos, health data etc. can easily get backed up to iCloud.
Steps to Restore Mac with iCloud backup files:
Step 1: First of all, you have to open the iCloud desktop app on your Mac. Then by typing the unmistakable Apple ID and passcode, log in to the iCloud control panel.
Step 2: You can select the data you want to restore like email, photos, calendars, contacts, tasks and bookmarks.
Step 3: To download iCloud backup without the device easily and successfully, hit on the “Apply” button.
N.B: You can’t preview the iCloud backup data selectively before restoration which is the sole disadvantage of this way.
Method 3. Recover Factory Reset Mac Lost Data with Data Recovery Software
You can use Time Machine and iCloud Backup to restore all data from the backup. But if you factory reset your Mac or reinstall macOS, there will be no available iCloud or Time Machine backup file. So how to reset Mac to factory settings without losing data? In this situation, the only way will remain is to use data recovery to scan Mac hard drive for lost data. iBeesoft Data Recovery for Mac is one of the best software to restore all your lost data from Mac internal disk and external hard drive. To completely recover deleted or lost files from Mac/desktops and other storage devices, you can depend on this software. It supports 2000+ storage devices, 1000+ file formats and 500+ scenarios to retrieve lost data. To quickly find your photos, documents, videos, music and other files, you can free download this software. The free version of Mac lets you retrieve up to 500MB for free. You can also get the full version for $59.95 (Personal License/1 Mac) and $89.95 (Family License/2-5 Mac).
Features:
- Specific locations can be scanned to find lost data.
- This tool works well on external drives like USB drives, SD cards and external hard disks to recover data.
- 1000+ file types including images, videos, archives, documents etc. are supported to retrieve.
- Before scanning, you are allowed to preview files.
- With a large amount of data, you can recover folders.
Steps to Recover Factory Reset Mac Lost Data:
Step 1: The first thing you have to do is to download and install iBeesoft Data Recovery for Mac on your Mac.
Step 2: You need to select file types to scan to save you time. You can see the file types in the main window after launching it. All the types are checked by default. Please make sure to uncheck the unwanted ones. It will take longer the more file types you choose to scan. To recover files on Mac OS X, click “Start”.
Step 3: You will see the volumes of your Mac as well as external hard drives available to scan in the next window. From where you have lost your files, please select the right one. To let the software scanning for your lost files, click the little “Scan” button.
N.B: Please connect the drive to a healthy Mac computer if you’re recovering files from an external hard drive on Mac. Save the recovered files to your Mac after the scanning process. You will lose them again if you don’t save them again to the external hard drive.
Step 4: For the scanning, it will take you a few minutes. In the result window, all the found files are displayed. To preview the corresponding files, you can click the directory on the left side. To save the selected files on your Mac, click “Recover” after selecting the needed files.
Conclusion:
Factory reset has both good and bad sides. It is good when you backed up all your data. But if you forget to back up and factory reset your Mac, you will lose all your important data. In this article, we have suggested 3 different ways to recover data after factory reset Mac. Among all the ways, we would highly recommend you to use iBeesoft Data Recovery for Mac. In iCloud and Time Machine, you can only restore data from backup. But with iBeesoft Data Recovery, you can deep scan and get all the lost data after factory reset even if you don’t have any backup. It supports 2000+ storage devices to get all lost data. This software has also a Windows version where you will get 2GB of files to recover for free.
