Returning my iMac to factory settings?

[Hansi R]

Hi Guys...

I know, this topic has probably been covered many times before but just in case I get it wrong, can you please tell me how to erase and reinstall to factory settings? I have a late 2013 iMac running OSX Yosemite, when I bought it I made the mistake of transferring everything over from my old iMac, including but unknown at the time, some problems that the old one had. The new iMac has never been right and I had to change over to Chrome to get it to function. Anyway, as I said, it has never run as it should so I have finally reached the point where I just want to return it to its factory settings and start again, this time setting it up manually to avoid any problems! I have had a look at a number of clips on YouTube on how to erase and reinstall but they say conflicting things, so I don't really trust following any of them. One thing, I'm not sure if I have a CD that might have come with the new iMac, can I erase and reinstall to factory settings without a disc and, if so, can you tell me how, preferably in easy to follow steps? Your help would be very much appreciated...
Cheers, John

 

[Hansi R]

Is there nobody who can help me restore my iMac as described above... I need some help?!

 

[Hansi R]

Is there nobody who can help me restore my iMac as described above... I need some help?!

Still nobody that can help me...?

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Hello Hansi R,

I apologise for the amount of time it's taken for your post to be answered. We are a very small volunteer force here at Mac Help, only a few folk giving up time to help others so we sometimes don't get to everyone.

Hopefully we'll get you sorted now.

If you are certain you wish to restore to factory settings I suggest that first you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.

I have to tell you this even though you likely already knew it.

The links below contain all the info you need to know & I draw attention to the section at the 1st link where depending on the key combination used you can:

The Reinstall macOS utility installs different versions of macOS depending on the key combination you used while starting up. For details, see How to reinstall macOS.

About macOS Recovery

How to reinstall macOS

I have had a look at a number of clips on YouTube on how to erase and reinstall but they say conflicting things, so I don't really trust following any of them.

It's always best when you google for help to look for support.apple pages as the info there will be the most help.

If you have any problems let us know.

 

[Hansi R]

Thank you so much for your reply! This is exactly what I need... yes, I will definitely back everything up to an external drive and then choose very carefully what I want to re-install. I think that something was contaminated on my old iMac that I then installed onto the new one, so I don't want to make that mistake again! My biggest problem last time was setting up Mail again... is there an easy way to do this? Do I take screen shots of the Mail settings and then simply copy everything back into the cleared boxes after the re-install?
Cheers, John

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Can I ask exactly what you found difficult about Mail? I take it this is the default Mail.app?

Unless you drag the mail folders onto an external drive then import them there is a chance you may lose some emails. In my case Mail.app will automatically redownload all mail from my ISP & Google as I never delete them from the server. Also I have iCloud back up my mail so when I sign in with my AppleID then there is also a safety net there.

Mail.app should automatically "talk" to your email provider, it's much better these days where you don't necessarily need to input server info etc before Mail.app will communicate with the suppliers server.

 

[Hansi R]

I had Mail set up on my old iMac but it didn't transfer across to the new iMac, and I always suspected that something was amiss with it anyway, so I was faced with empty settings' boxes to fill out... I really messed things up with incoming and outgoing servers, etc. etc. I have never used iCloud, probably because I don't really understand it. If you say that the Mail app is better these days and should automatically talk to my email provider, it could be plain sailing without any problems, at least I'm hoping that will be the case! One of my very old posts was me trying to sort out that old iMac... I had all sorts of problems, the biggest being that as soon as I used Safari all of my memory disappeared within 30 seconds and nothing would function. As soon as I shut safari down the memory came back. I contacted apple and they carried out tests to try and fix it and failed, eventually I bought this late 2013 model, but as mentioned before, I think I must have transferred the same problem over to this new one and in the end, I switched over to Google Chrome and everything seemed to be okay. Now I have all sorts of problems, at least 50% of websites I visit will not open, even sites that I have saved in my favourites that I used to visit all the time now will not open, or now and then there is a delay and then a site might open. It's become so frustrating that I now think that I should wipe everything off and then reinstall the same OSX Yosemite that the iMac came with. I've read too many horror stories about upgrading so I'll stick to what I have. It will be good to be able to go back to Safari when I set up again...