Should you be scared of ‘bricking’ your Mac? Just what does it mean, and what could you do about it? Don’t panic: it’s not a dragon to be slayed.
T2
In less than 5 years, Macs have gone from unsecured firmware and booting to a fully secure process to deliver, install and run firmware which can’t be exploited.
Maybe you’ve just forgotten the password, or perhaps the owner/user of the Mac is no longer able to enter it. How to restore access to different models.
Passing your Mac on to a new owner has got much easier and more reliable in Monterey – so long as it has got a T2 or M1 series chip.
On Intel Macs, resetting the SMC was a universal panacea until the T2 came along. What can we do instead with an M1 Mac?
What is FileVault encryption? Is it the same as that on an M1 Mac’s internal SSD, or something different? How can you use it instead of overwriting an SSD? Which boot volumes are encrypted?
What do you need to do before selling or giving away your Mac to someone else? Here’s a summary, covering all from Intel to M1 models.
A strange volume named xART or xarts, secure memory management, and long random numbers: how they fit together to protect against replay attacks.
How useful is the traditional panacea of re-installing macOS in Big Sur? And is it worth maintaining an external recovery disk to deal with problems?
What would happen to a Mac’s firmware if you installed Monterey beta to its internal or external disk? Could that be reversed?
The Eclectic Light Company 