Reinstalling macos high sierra how to#

This way, if anything goes wrong during the reinstall process, you will still have all your data. Step 4: If your current macOS version is Catalina, Mojave, Big Sur, or (in most cases) High Sierra, select the format APFS.

However, we do recommend taking a backup using an external drive and using the Time Machine backup feature. Wrapping upĪs you can see, it’s fairly simple to reinstall macOS without losing any files, data, or documents. You can also choose to restore data from a Time Machine backup. The process can take some time and your Mac will restart a couple of times before booting into the login screen. As mentioned in the beginning, it’ll only replace the system files and settings. The utility will now start to reinstall macOS on your Mac, and will not erase any files or data on your drive. A reinstall will only touch the system files and settings, while keeping all your data safe.ġ) Restart your Mac into Recovery mode by pressing the Command + R keys while it restarts.Ģ) You should see a macOS Utilities window with several options.ģ) Click on the Reinstall macOS option to start the process.Ĥ) Press Continue to start the reinstall.ĥ) Select the main drive on your Mac when asked where you want to reinstall macOS. When you reinstall macOS from Recovery, you will not lose any data if you don’t erase your main drive. Follow these guidelines during installation: If the installer asks to unlock your disk, enter the password you use to log in to your Mac.

Reinstalling macos high sierra how to#

In this article, we will show you how to reinstall macOS on a Mac without losing any data.Īlso see: How to find out when macOS was last reinstalled on your Mac Reinstall macOS without losing data To begin installation, select Reinstall macOS from the utilities window in macOS Recovery, then click Continue and follow the onscreen instructions. However, some people don’t do it worrying that they will lose all their, files, documents, or data in the reinstall process. There could be several other reasons why you may want to reinstall macOS on your Mac. If your Mac is not performing as expected, or is showing signs of slowing down, you could reinstall macOS to improve things.