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I am planning to reset my Mac. After researching the best way to reset the Mac, I noticed two ways on the Apple website. One way is via the Mac's settings, using the “Erase All Content and Settings” button (https://support.apple.com/en-us/102664), and the other way is via the Mac's boot options, by holding down the “Power” button and going to the start menu, where you can reset the Mac using the Disk Utility (https://support.apple.com/en-us/102506).

My question now is, what is the difference between these two options, does it do anything different?

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    The first method leaves macOS and apps intact; the second wipes the disk clean, necessitating a reinstall of macOS and apps.
    – IconDaemon
    Commented Sep 14 at 13:11

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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It's basically explained in the first paragraphs of both documents:

  • "Use Erase All Content and Settings to quickly and securely erase all settings, data, and apps, while maintaining the operating system currently installed."
  • Use Disk Utility to erase a Mac: "How to erase (format) the built-in startup disk of a Mac with Apple silicon."

With SSV (which locks macOS in place and makes it unmuteable by users), there is hardly ever a need to reformat the startup disk to "cleanup" everything.

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