What to do with your old MacBook when you upgrade

When you upgrade, an old MacBook has four sensible futures: trade it in with Apple for credit, sell it yourself, hand it down to someone, or keep it. Trading in is the least effort, and Apple raised its Mac trade-in values in the US on 26 October 2026, just before the new MacBook Pros went on sale. Selling it yourself is more work but leaves the price to you. Handing it down or keeping it asks nothing of you but a little setup.

Whichever you choose, the order is the same. Don't touch the old Mac until the new one is set up and checked. Then back up, turn off Find My, and erase it with Erase All Content and Settings, which also signs you out of Apple services such as iCloud. The steps below are Apple's own, from its support pages.

First, wait

It is tempting to wipe the old MacBook the moment the new one arrives. Don't. Until you have moved everything across and spent a day or two on the new Mac, the old one is your safety net. If a folder didn't come over, or an app needs a setting you forgot to note down, you can still go and look.

Apple's online trade-in leaves room for this: it needs to receive your old device within 14 days of when you receive your new one. That is plenty for a careful move. Moving to a new MacBook with Migration Assistant has the steps.

Option 1: trade it in with Apple

How Apple Trade In works, from Apple's trade-in page:

• You can trade in online or at an Apple Store, and take the value as credit toward a purchase or as an Apple Gift Card.
• The value depends on the device, the model and its condition. For a Mac, Apple needs the serial number to give an accurate estimate. You'll find it in Apple menu > About This Mac.
• Online, Apple either sends you a prepaid trade-in kit or emails drop-off instructions. The whole process generally takes 2 to 3 weeks.
• If the Mac arrives in a different condition from the one you described, Apple sends a revised value, which you can accept or reject.
• If your Mac isn't eligible for credit, Apple will recycle it at no charge, along with chargers, cables and other accessories you no longer use.

MacRumors and 9to5Mac both reported the October increase. Whatever the headlines say, Apple's page is clear that the offer depends on the device, the model and its condition, so check yours with the serial number before you count on a figure.

Trade-in suits you if you are buying from Apple anyway and would rather not deal with strangers.

Option 2: sell it yourself

Selling privately takes more effort: photos, a listing, questions, and then meeting a buyer or shipping. In return, you set the price. A few things make it go smoothly:

• Have the details ready. System Settings > General > About lists the chip, the memory and the serial number, which covers most of what a buyer asks.
• Find the charger and cable. A MacBook with its own charger is an easier sale.
• Turn off Find My before it changes hands. Apple says that turning off Find My on a Mac automatically removes Activation Lock. A Mac still tied to your account is a problem for whoever gets it next.
• Offer the AppleCare plan, if there is one. Apple lets you transfer a plan to the new owner, which can help the sale.
• Erase it before you hand it over, using the steps further down, and leave it at the setup screen so the buyer starts as if it were new.

Option 3: hand it down

An older MacBook can still be plenty for someone who mostly browses, writes and joins video calls. Treat it exactly like a sale: erase it, and let them set it up as their own Mac with their own Apple Account. That way their messages, photos and passwords never mix with yours, and nothing of yours is left behind on it.

Before you pass it on, check that it still gets macOS updates. Apple's compatibility list for the current version of macOS shows which models it supports.

Option 4: keep it

Keeping it is fine, as long as it is a choice. A working spare is handy while the new Mac is away for a repair, or as a second machine in another room. If you keep it, keep it up to date. And remember that a Mac in a drawer still holds a full copy of your files, so if it is going to sit unused for good, erase it now, while you still remember the passwords.

Whatever you pick, find the charger first. If Honk, the goose who looks after Movement, is your Notchpals host, it has its own theory about missing cables:

HonkYou're back. Good. I ate a cable while you were gone. Kidding. Maybe.

Before it goes: Apple's steps

These come from Apple's support articles "What to do before you sell, give away, trade in, or recycle your Mac" and "Erase your Mac and reset it to factory settings".

1. Back up. Make one last Time Machine backup, or be sure Migration Assistant has already moved everything. Set up Time Machine backups covers the backup.
2. Turn off Find My. Choose Apple menu > System Settings, click your name at the top of the sidebar, then click iCloud. In macOS Sequoia and later, click See All next to Saved to iCloud, click Find My Mac, then click Turn Off. In earlier versions, click Find My Mac, then Turn Off.
3. Cancel or transfer AppleCare, if the Mac has a plan.
4. Erase All Content and Settings. Choose Apple menu > System Settings, click General, then Transfer or Reset, then Erase All Content and Settings. Follow the prompts, which ask for the password you use to log in to the Mac and for your Apple Account password.
5. Ignore the sign-in prompt. Because erasing signs you out of Apple services, you might be asked whether you want to sign back in to your Apple Account or iCloud. Ignore it and click Erase All Content & Settings.
6. Stop at the setup assistant. The Mac erases everything, restarts, activates and restarts again into the setup assistant. If it is going to someone else, don't go through setup or reconnect your Bluetooth accessories. Press and hold the power button until it turns off.

Two extra notes from Apple. If you are keeping a Bluetooth keyboard or mouse that will stay in range of the old Mac, you can unpair it first (in Bluetooth settings, Control-click its name and choose Forget), so it doesn't type into the old Mac by accident. And on a Mac with Apple silicon running macOS Tahoe or later that has been repaired, or if you aren't sure, Apple asks you to use Repair Assistant to check for an unfinished repair before erasing.

If your MacBook can't use Erase All Content and Settings

Erase All Content and Settings needs macOS Monterey or later on a Mac with Apple silicon or the Apple T2 Security Chip. Every MacBook with a notch has Apple silicon and came with Monterey or later, so on those it is always there. It is missing on Intel MacBooks without the T2 chip, and on any Mac still running a version of macOS older than Monterey. For those, Apple's longer route is:

• Sign out of iCloud. In macOS Ventura or later, choose System Settings, click your name in the sidebar, scroll down and click Sign Out. In Monterey, Big Sur and Catalina, it is System Preferences > Apple ID > Overview > Sign Out.
• Sign out of iMessage. In Messages, choose Messages > Settings (or Preferences), click iMessage, then Sign Out.
• On macOS Mojave or earlier, deauthorize iTunes. In iTunes, choose Account > Authorizations > Deauthorize This Computer.
• Erase and reinstall. Start up from macOS Recovery, erase the Mac with Disk Utility, then reinstall macOS from Recovery. When it restarts to the setup assistant, press Command-Q to shut down instead.
• Reset NVRAM on an Intel Mac, then shut down again at the setup assistant.

If you forgot Find My

If the Mac has already gone and Find My was still on, Apple says you can remove the device from your account with Find My on iCloud.com.

Notchpals and the old Mac

If Notchpals was on the old Mac, there is no account to sign out of, and what it read to time its reminders never left that Mac. Erase All Content and Settings removes it along with everything else, so it needs no step of its own.

That is the whole job: wait until the new Mac is settled, pick the future that suits you, then back up, turn off Find My and erase. Done in that order, the old MacBook leaves with none of you on it.