Formatting my MBP - is there a way to 'save' my system preferences?

[Odysee]

I haven't formatted my MBP since I bought it in 2018, I think it's time for a refresh.

I have a lot of personalisation in the system preferences and wondering if there is a way (or an app), that I am able to 'save' the system preferences so that I don't have to go through the task of spending hours of getting them back to what they used to be?

Formatting isn't the problem, it's getting the system preferences back to how you want them that's the issue


Thanks,

 

[Fishrrman]

Do you have a backup drive?

My suggestion:
First, use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to create a cloned backup of the internal drive.
Both CCC and SD are FREE to download and use for 30 days, this will cost you nothing.

Then, boot to INTERNET recovery (DO NOT use "the recovery partition"):
Command-OPTION-R
at boot

Open disk utility and -- VERY IMPORTANT -- go to the view menu and choose "show all devices".

Click on the TOPMOST item in "the list on the left" that represents the internal drive. Then erase it to APFS with GUID partition format.

Quit disk utility and open the OS installer. Start clicking through. The Mac will restart one or more times, and the screen may go dark for a minute or more with no other indications of activity. Just be patient.

When done, you should see the initial setup screen (choose your language).

At this point:
If you are selling the MBP, just press and hold the power button until the display goes dark. When the new owner boots up, he/she will see the initial setup screen.

If you are doing a "wipe and restore", connect your backup BEFORE starting setup. At the appropriate moment, setup assistant will ask if you wish to migrate.
YES, you do, so "point the way" to the backup and give setup assistant time to "digest it all".

SA will present you with a list of stuff to migrate. I suggest you migrate everything. "Settings" is one of the things that gets migrated...

 

[Odysee]

Thank you very much for your recommendation, I'll give this a whirl.

And no, I don't have a backup drive, I keep sensitive files within iCloud and not my machine.

 

[Basic75]

First, iCloud does not replace a backup. Second, if you are going to the lengths of installing your Mac from scratch then I wouldn't try to carry over preference files that might have accumulated some cruft over multiple versions of the operating system. I mean, the whole purpose of the exercise is to start with a clean slate?