macOS Monterey will let users erase their Macs without needing a full reinstall

The developer beta of macOS Monterey is out in the wild now and we are discovering new features every day.

And one of the most interesting features that have been uncovered is the ability to erase your Mac without requiring a full reinstall.

According to users who have been playing around with the developer beta, there’s an “ Erase All Content and Settings ” option in macOS Monterey – just like in iOS and iPadOS.

And if we look closely at the macOS Monterey features page on Apple, it says right there:

"Erase all contents and settings

System Preferences now offers an option to erase all user data and user-installed apps from the system, while maintaining the operating system currently installed. Because storage is always encrypted on Mac systems with Apple silicon or the T2 chip, the system is instantly and securely “erased” by destroying the encryption keys."

For users who want to restore their Mac to factory settings, this new feature will save them a lot of time.

Right now, erasing a Mac requires you to go into macOS Recovery, formatting the startup disk with Disk Utility, and then reinstalling macOS. This new option will make things a lot quicker and simpler.

This article was first published in Hardware Zone.