I just bought a second hand macbook, it arrived and I set it up like a brand new MacBook and I want to transfer all my photos to it, I’m just worried the previous owner can remotely access my photos or see my files etc? Is this possible? thanks!
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Can previous owner access my MacBook
- Thread starter EdShort
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No. If you set up the MacBook as a brand new MacBook you should be fine. You can go to Settings and check users and make sure your account is the only user account on the Mac.
First thing I'd do if I bought a second hand MacBook is reinstall the OS from scratch.
thanks you! I should reinstall but I’ve already transferred a big project to this MacBook, I might still do. But definitely only my user account on the Mac, so I should be good? Thanks again
what MacBook did you buy?
i scored an mac mini by chance late december.
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It’s a MacBook Pro touchbar , got it for a really good price. Also thanks for your help!
Something entirely irrelevant to your situation. It lets you block inbound connections from/to certain ports and IP addresses. Unless you know precisely how someone is going to be accessing your Macbook, and from where, then there's very little point in turning on a firewall. There's even less point in arbitrarily turning it on and not configuring it at all. Oh and it doesn't block outbound connections so if someone HAS installed something malicious on your computer that can 'phone home' then even if you block ALL inbound connections on your firewall they'll probably still be able to access you Mac.
The best thing it would let you do is block port 5900 which is what VNC uses (something that could potentially allow remote access to your Mac). But then other Remote Desktop solutions (like Chrome Remote Desktop) use all sorts of other random ports including 443 which is needed for a lot of Apple's services to work (like Find My).
As others have suggested, just reinstall MacOS and you'll be sorted. Apple have a guide for that -> here.
If you did a clean install of macOS, then you have nothing to worry about.
"can I reinstall mac OS without loosing data?"
Yes, if you do it correctly.
Just wondering...
Have you created an iCloud account?
Can you sign into it?
Why I asked that:
I don't use iCloud (at all), but seems to me if the previous owner didn't remove his iCloud account (assuming he had one), you wouldn't be able to sign into YOUR account, as I believe an iCloud account is associated with a particular Mac. I could be wrong about this, others please correct me.
Yes, if you do it correctly.
Just wondering...
Have you created an iCloud account?
Can you sign into it?
Why I asked that:
I don't use iCloud (at all), but seems to me if the previous owner didn't remove his iCloud account (assuming he had one), you wouldn't be able to sign into YOUR account, as I believe an iCloud account is associated with a particular Mac. I could be wrong about this, others please correct me.
Hi! i don’t have an iCloud I want to use on this macbook, but it doesn’t look as though an icloud account is logged into this iMac, how do I do a clean install and not risk losing my data? Thanks
When you got the laptop, was the OS already installed? Or did you have to go through the initial setup?
This has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with their situation.
Did you set the computer up as new? Such as in picking your language at the setup screen and going through the set up process? Or did it have an account that was already set up? If it's the first, you are fine.
Hey, when I set the computer up I had to set it up with my name and choose a password and it asked me if I want to share with Apple etc. Thank you for your help