TrailSift- Back up what you want to keep. Use Time Machine with an external disk, or copy your files elsewhere. Migration Assistant can move a Time Machine backup to your next Mac.
- Deauthorise the Mac for your purchases. In Music, choose Account > Authorisations > Deauthorise This Computer. An Apple Account can authorise five computers, and this frees this one's place.
- Sign out of Messages and FaceTime, in each app's Settings, so messages and calls stop arriving on it.
- Sign out of your Apple Account. In System Settings, click your name, then Sign Out. This turns off Find My and Activation Lock, so the next owner can use the Mac.
- Unpair Bluetooth devices you're keeping, such as a keyboard, mouse or headphones, in Bluetooth settings.
- Erase All Content and Settings. In System Settings, open General > Transfer or Reset. It removes your account, data and apps and leaves macOS ready to set up. Intel Macs without Apple's T2 chip don't have it; erase those from macOS Recovery instead.
- Remove the Mac from your account. Afterwards, sign in at account.apple.com and remove it from your devices.
Handing it on without erasing?
If the Mac is staying in your household on the same account, you may not want to erase it. Then the traces of where you've been stay behind: browser histories, the download log, remembered networks, addresses Mail suggests, old iPhone backups and more. TrailSift's audit finds them, and Pro clears what you choose.
A checklist that ticks itself
TrailSift has these steps built in, under Hand Over This Mac. It checks what it can by itself (whether you're still signed in, how many Bluetooth devices are paired, whether Time Machine has a disk), opens the right place for each step, and opens Erase Assistant when you're ready. The checklist is free.
Updated 13 October 2026. More guides: all TrailSift guides.