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Will Deactivate Mac Erase Data? What Does Deactivate Mean?

I get a screen prompting me to 'deactivate' my Mac. There is no description of what this means. I completed the deactivation and reset my password. Will it erase all my data?

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Brithny· Answered on Apr 16, 2024

Will deactivate Mac erase data? Don't worry. Deactivating your Mac will not erase your data. This warning occurs if you forget your Mac's administrator password and need to reset it.

At this time, it will warn you to deactivate your Mac, throwing away the existing passwords keychain and creating new owner identity keys. And the deactivation process will not affect your data.

In summary, this option appears when you forget your Mac login passwords, and you should reset Mac password with three steps:

Step 1. Click 'Deactivate Mac'.

Step 2. Click 'Deactivate' to confirm this process.

Step 3. Reset your administrator passwords.

After it is finished, restart your Mac, your passwords may disappear, and in most cases, your data will not be affected. In this case, you can get your password back with your iCloud keychain, which contains your passwords from different websites and applications.

However, if you can't find some essential files after deactivating your Mac, you can restore them using data recovery software, such as EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac.

It supports data recovery of various file types under numerous situations, including recovering deleted files without Time Machine. Follow the steps below:

Step 1. Install and open the EaseUS software on your Mac, and select the partition your lost data is stored.

Step 2. Click 'Scan' to view all the files and data on the selected partition, including deleted, lost, and existing files.

Step 3. Select the files you need, click 'Recover' to get them back, and save them at a new location.

Use EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard to recover deleted or lost files easily and quickly.

Tutorials on how to recover lost, deleted, or formatted data from HDD, SSD, USB, SD card, or other storage media on Windows and Mac.

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