topic Re: Re-setting older MacBook Air in Electronics

Re-setting older MacBook Air

Mom2Dogs — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 14:20:36 GMT

Resetting might not be the correct word....I mean taking back to factory settings to increase speed, etc.

MacBook Air 10.11.6 it cannot be updated, I have tried.

It is about 8 years old.

This is my stand by laptop, I have a new one that I use daily but my DH could use this older one if I can 'reset' it.

When resetting back to factory settings will I lose all my bookmarked items? I have already transferred my photos to the new MacBook the only other things that I would like to keep are some of the bookmarked sites...cooking sites, and other things of interest to me.

Any advise is appreciated...and is this a difficult thing to do....truly I am a novice at the interworkings of the machine. Thank you

Re: Re-setting older MacBook Air

Lilysmom — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 15:00:12 GMT

@Mom2Dogs, I will give a call out to @glb613. She is our resident expert on this subject. Good luck! LM

Re: Re-setting older MacBook Air

Mom2Dogs — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 15:11:28 GMT

@Lilysmom thanks....I can't hurt it....it's slower than molasses and the track pad no longer works....I see this as a challenge....If I can at least make it run faster, that would be great.

Re: Re-setting older MacBook Air

Lilysmom — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 15:15:47 GMT

@Mom2Dogs, glb613 does this all the time. She’s just what you need! LM

Re: Re-setting older MacBook Air

Icegoddess — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 15:21:50 GMT

When you reset it, you will lose everything. It would be like you just bought it from the store. You should be able to export your bookmarks to a file and then move that over to your other computer.

Re: Re-setting older MacBook Air

Mom2Dogs — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 15:49:12 GMT

@Icegoddess.....hmmm, I use this particular laptop for printing to my home computer...guess I will lose that as well. I think I have the book and software for the printer so that I can reinstall once I reset the laptop.

Re: Re-setting older MacBook Air

Sooner — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 15:52:25 GMT

@Mom2Dogs Before you do anything drastic, see if it has any residual value to apple or some other place as a trade in. You never know!

Re: Re-setting older MacBook Air

Mom2Dogs — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 16:19:58 GMT

@Sooner...when I purchased the new one....the price offered was $75.00..so I decided to keep it....it works, just painfully slow and I have to use a mouse because the trackpad no longer works.

Re: Re-setting older MacBook Air

Mz iMac — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 21:04:36 GMT

@Mom2Dogs

You do not need to go back to factory settings to speed up a Mac. That should be a "last resort" option. Also, I am assumming you are NOT using Time Machine or some other backup disk?

First things first.....

1 - How much storage do you have AND how much is left? If you are running out of storage space, you can do manual housekeeping yourself. If you do not know how, let me know & I will provide quite a few suggestions of what to trash.

Hint: Get rid of everything inside your DOWNLOAD folder you do not need or want.

2 - How much RAM do you have? If not already done, max it out. Download Mactracker - copy/paste--> mactracker.ca/. This app will have your model MBP listed & will tell you the max amt your model can take.

3 - For the record, you need to know which model as well as the year of your MBA. You stated 8 yrs old. There are 4 model MBA for the year 2011. Apple>About This Mac will tell you which model you have as well as Apple's website: Copy/Paste-->support.apple.com/en-us/HT201862

4 - Run Disk Utilitiy First Aid. Run it a few times.

Not sure about how old your MBA is, the "older" Macs, you could "repair permissions" ~~which in my personal opinion is way better that DUFA~~.

Re: Re-setting older MacBook Air

glb613 — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 23:12:02 GMT

@Mom2Dogs wrote:
Resetting might not be the correct word....I mean taking back to factory settings to increase speed, etc.
MacBook Air 10.11.6 it cannot be updated, I have tried.
It is about 8 years old.

This is my stand by laptop, I have a new one that I use daily but my DH could use this older one if I can 'reset' it.

When resetting back to factory settings will I lose all my bookmarked items? I have already transferred my photos to the new MacBook the only other things that I would like to keep are some of the bookmarked sites...cooking sites, and other things of interest to me.

Any advise is appreciated...and is this a difficult thing to do....truly I am a novice at the interworkings of the machine. Thank you

You can save your bookmarks and import them to your browser after the reset is complete. Depending on the browser (which is a term for the program you use to access the internet) vaires slightly depending on the program.

Despite what others have posted, I reset my MacBook Pro because the hard drive was almost full with "other" files I couldn't remove. It was really easy, I was able to update the operating syste. When I set up my e-mail accounts, all of the mail I had before I reset it was there after I signed in.

Some will advise to only do this as a last resort. A computer which is running sub par that doesn't respond to normal maintenance and is becoming a pain to use is a last resort situation for me.

Re: Re-setting older MacBook Air

Mom2Dogs — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 23:30:26 GMT

@Mz iMac...I keep nothing stored on the MacBook.....except photos, and I have moved them already. It was used mostly for work...transferring emailed job work to me....and I emailed a lot.....I did not watch movies, down load any apps.

The only thing left is the bookmarks and the printer that I use for the laptop.

I have trashed all old emails and documents. Download folder is empty.

I have 5.32 GB free of a total of 59.81GB. 60.7 GM Flash Storage

Re: Re-setting older MacBook Air

Mom2Dogs — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 23:32:01 GMT

Thank you @glb613...can you tell me how to "save" my bookmarks...I put all my photos on a thumb drive is that how I save the bookmarks?

Re: Re-setting older MacBook Air

Mz iMac — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 01:33:14 GMT

@Mom2Dogs"I have 5.32 GB free of a total of 59.81GB. 60.7 GM Flash Storage"

Your comp is slow because it's running out of "storage" space. You need to do some serious housekeeping.

I gather from your question to glb613 you definently want to restore instead of manual housekeeping which I will not go into.

If you want to save your browser's bookmarks you will need to move the "Bookmarks.plis or Bookmarks.html file" to your flash drive. These files depend on which browser you have which you did not mention.

If you do not know how to locate the above mentioned file, you will need to advise which browser(s) you are using?

You can also do a Google, YouTube tutorials and/or Binge research for detailed/step by step instructions on how to transfer browser bookmarks to another computer as well as an external drive.

Re: Re-setting older MacBook Air

Mom2Dogs — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 01:39:58 GMT

@Mz iMac....Wow....I wonder what is taking up the storage space? I have never downloaded an app, don't watch movies...really just emailed with customers. I transferred files from the Macbook to my IMac at work.......I do have the mentioned bookmarks....

Re: Re-setting older MacBook Air

Mz iMac — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 01:59:53 GMT

@Mom2Dogs

Bookmarks & "apps" take up very little space. The following are what does:

Videos

Movies - You can burn onto DVDs to save space

Music - You can burn onto CDs directly from iTunes to save space.

Garage Band loops

gifs

photos-you can burn onto CDs/DVDs to save space

duplicate fonts

duplicate files

font caches

printer drivers (Macs store "other printer" drivers).

Languages - you only need the language you speak. Unless you speak other language(s), those you can keep.

These utilities can help you "see" what files are hogging up your storage space:

Disk Inventory X - derlien.com

OmniDiskSweeper - omnigroup.com/applications/omnidisksweeper/download

This website: macworld.com/weblogs/mac911/2006/08/slimharddrive/index.php?lsrc=mwrss>

Re: Re-setting older MacBook Air

Mom2Dogs — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 02:23:44 GMT

@Mz iMac...thank you for the assistance.....still pondering what is taking up so much space....I will look over what you suggested.

Re: Re-setting older MacBook Air

glb613 — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 12:32:17 GMT

@Mom2Dogs wrote:
Thank you @glb613...can you tell me how to "save" my bookmarks...I put all my photos on a thumb drive is that how I save the bookmarks?

It's easy. If using Safari, click on bookmarks at the top of the page. Select edit bookmarks and a new page will pop up. Click on file then export bookmarks and select your flash drive as the destination.

Before you do the reset, make sure you have saved everything you can't afford to lose. That includes documents, photos, movies, music, e-mail, etc. If you have programs you purchased from the App store, you can reinstall them from the App store once the reset is completed. If you have programs from other vendors, make sure you have the activation key so you can reinstall them. If you can't find the original installation file or disk, e-mail the company and request the information.

If you don't have the disks to reinstall your printer, you can go to the website and download the file. I'd download everything prior to proceeding. I know it sounds like a lot but, most of the saving should be part of your maintenance protocol on a regular basis. I have absolutely no regrets resetting my Macbook Pro. It was so sluggish, it was a pain to use. Once the reset was completed, it ran like new. Good luck.

Re: Re-setting older MacBook Air

dooBdoo — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 23:19:27 GMT

@Mom2Dogs, There's more than enough information on this thread about looking at the storage on your device, so I won't try to add to that. (Unfortunately, El Capitan doesn't have the "manage storage" in the Apple menu that was introduced with Sierra.) It sounds like you know how you used the older device, so unless you feel you might have something there you forgot about, investing substantial time in researching the storage is probably more about curiosity than a need to know -- but that's a personal and subjective issue. I agree with @glb613 about resetting the Mac (or iPads and iPhones, for that matter) -- as long as we're sure we have a good backup of anything we don't want to lose, it's a great way to optimize the device and something I've done many, many times.

Regarding your bookmarks: You can sync browser bookmarks from one device to another (some use iCloud or Handoff). You don't mention the specific browser, and the instructions vary from one browser to another, so do an internet search for something like "sync [nameofbrowser] bookmarks across devices" to read about this. Also, there's a very old-school, sort of "sneakernet"🙃 method if you don't have an enormous number of bookmarks -- copy and paste the URL of each one into an email message, mail it to yourself. Then, open mail on the new device, click each URL, and add the bookmarks to your browser. Happy computing, my friend!😊

Re: Re-setting older MacBook Air

Mom2Dogs — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 21:16:40 GMT

@dooBdoo...thank you..and all others that assist those of us that don't 'get it 'when trying to work with our computers.....it is appreciated.

Work has been a zoo today, so no time to play around with the old device but when I have time I will....and will let you know when I have succeeded with my project!

Re: Re-setting older MacBook Air

glb613 — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 23:09:19 GMT

@Mom2Dogs wrote:
@dooBdoo...thank you..and all others that assist those of us that don't 'get it 'when trying to work with our computers.....it is appreciated.

Work has been a zoo today, so no time to play around with the old device but when I have time I will....and will let you know when I have succeeded with my project!

If it helps, we have had other posters with similar problems, did perform a reset and were surprised how easy it was. They also reported back their devices worked like new.