Prepare your Mac for service or repair

Over the last few years the way that Apple and its official authorised service providers handle your Mac has changed. When you take or send in your Mac for repair or service, they no longer start it up in the way that you would, so don’t need to log into it the way that you do. This is why there are hidden FieldService folders or volumes in /System/Volumes, as they will be used during its service. In the past, technicians often needed access to your user account, and you may have been asked to provide your password; now it’s the exact opposite.

Back up

The first and most essential step in preparing your Mac to go away, even for a brief battery replacement, is to ensure that you’ve got at least one full and complete backup on storage that will remain with you. If you use Time Machine, its backups should do fine, but you should check that they don’t exclude folders or volumes that you can’t readily restore. Open Time Machine settings and click on the Options… button to ensure that no significant data are excluded from your Mac’s final backup.

Some repairs will inevitably lead to all your documents and files being wiped. Any that requires the main logic board to be replaced is almost certain to do that, but so can other procedures that you wouldn’t expect to be as radical in effect. Technicians generally work on the assumption that you have already taken care of your own files, so if they do need to erase or replace internal storage, don’t be caught out and lose all your data.

Enable FileVault

Once you’ve backed your Mac up, if FileVault isn’t enabled, turn it on, if your Mac will cope with that. Intel Macs with a T2 chip and Apple silicon Macs don’t encrypt the contents of their internal storage when you do that, as the Data volume is always fully encrypted. All they do is use your password to protect the encryption key that’s already being used to encrypt your data. That’s more than sufficient to prevent anyone who doesn’t know your password from gaining access to anything on your Mac’s Data volume. Although it’s most unlikely that any technician might try to abuse that, FileVault ensures they can’t.

For Intel Macs without a T2 chip, enabling FileVault does require the entire contents of the Data volume to be encrypted, which can take many hours or even days. If you have sufficient advance notice, it’s still worth considering.

If your Mac has a T2 or Apple silicon chip and is going to have its internal storage, or its main logic board, replaced, then you can safely assume that you’ll be restoring it from your backup when that Mac has been repaired. For an extra touch of security, immediately before parting with it you can use the Erase All Content and Settings (EACAS) feature in System Settings > General > Transfer or Reset. That will destroy the encryption keys to its Data volume and ensure that no one will ever be able to access its contents.

Firmware password, Find My Mac

There are a couple of things that you need to do to help the technician:

If it’s an Intel Mac without a T2 chip and you have enabled the Firmware Password feature in Recovery Mode, disable that, or no one will be able to do anything with your Mac.
If it has a T2 or Apple silicon chip, disable Activation Lock by turning off Find My Mac. This control is buried away in Apple Account in System Settings: click on iCloud, then in the Saved to iCloud section near the top, click on the See All button. The Find My Mac control is about seventh from the top in that list. If you can’t find it, you should be able to remove that Mac from iCloud online in iCloud.com, but that’s more draconian in effect.

Final preparations

If you’re sending your Mac in, you’ll probably receive detailed instructions as how to prepare and package it ready. If you’re taking it in, then technicians normally appreciate it if you bring its power cable. Once it’s ready and shut down, give it a quick clean. That’s important if it’s being repaired under AppleCare+, when signs of neglect or abuse might count against you. Macs that have been used in smoky areas usually accumulate tar deposits that should be carefully removed from around their ports. In more serious cases a deep clean may be needed: a technician told me of an iMac that had been the perch for its owner’s parrot, and had become heavily soiled by the bird’s droppings.

When you’re taking your Mac in, remember to take evidence of its purchase in case that’s needed, and a written record of your user name and password, in case you’re asked to start it up. There’s nothing worse than struggling to remember them when under pressure.

These apply to Macs to be serviced or repaired by Apple technicians, or those of Apple Authorised Service Providers. If your Mac is being maintained by an independent repair shop, then they may require different, so ask them what they need you to do.

Summary

Back it up fully, as if the internal storage is going to be wiped or replaced.
Enable FileVault, if feasible.
Disable any firmware password.
Turn Find My Mac off.
Clean it.
Remember any receipt or other documents, and its power cable.