Handing back a work Mac: what to take, what to remove, what not to touch

A work Mac usually goes back to an IT team who will erase it, which changes what you should do. Your job is to take what is yours and remove your personal accounts. Wiping the machine yourself is often the wrong move, because it can remove management enrolment they need.

Check the policy first

If the Mac is managed, your IT team may want it returned as is, or may want it erased using a specific process. Ask before doing anything irreversible. Erasing a managed Mac incorrectly can leave it in a state that takes them longer to sort out than an untouched one.

Find what is yours

du -xh -d 2 ~ 2>/dev/null | sort -h | tail -25
ls ~/Desktop ~/Documents ~/Downloads ~/Pictures ~/Movies

Two categories get forgotten every time: files inside application containers, such as notes, message history and mail attachments, and anything in a personal cloud account that is set to online only, since that is already elsewhere and needs no action.

Sign out of personal accounts

1. Your personal Apple Account, in System Settings, and turn off Find My if it is your account rather than the company's.
2. Browser profiles signed into personal accounts, and any password manager.
3. Messaging apps, which keep local history: linked devices should be unlinked from your phone.
4. Any personal licence tied to the machine, deauthorised so you can use it elsewhere.

What to leave alone

The personal data that is easy to miss

Messages and mail attachments are the two that surprise people, because both keep years of content in places Finder does not show. Where Messages keeps attachments and what Mail stores cover both, and the same commands work for taking a copy as for deleting one.

If the machine is genuinely yours to erase, the ordered process is in cleaning a Mac before selling it, where signing out comes before erasing for a specific reason.