What To Watch Out For When Buying a Used Mac

Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Let me show you what to look out for when buying a used Mac. 

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So in general I don't like the idea of buying a used Mac. You don't get the most value over the years by buying used because used Macs tend to be pretty expensive. You're better off buying a new one in the long run, in my opinion. But if you do want to buy an older used Mac there are several things you need to look out for. A lot of people don't check for these when buying a used Mac and they end up getting a bad deal. If you're buying one of the MacBook models you want to make sure you check the battery condition and cycle count. It could seem like you're getting a bargain in a used Mac until you find out that less than a year later you need a new battery. 

It's very fairly easy to check to see the condition of the battery. All you have to do is go to the Apple menu, About This Mac, and then System Report. Then look for Power and look then for two things. Condition, which should say Normal and Cycle Count. But you want to check Apple's website and it shows you the expected cycle counts for the battery. You can see how far along the battery is. So you have to factor that in. If it's a $200 battery and it's halfway through its life you have to think, well it should be worth $100 less than if it had a new battery.

You also want to check the Model number and Serial number. The Model number, if you search for it online, you'll find information about that model and what year it really came out. A lot of time listings online, or in classifies, give the wrong year. So it may be, for instance, a 2015 MacBook but the seller says it's 2017. I've heard that you should check the serial number that's on the case with the serial number that comes up in About This Mac to make sure they match. I don't know how they would not match but I guess if they don't match then that's a big red flag right there. You can also use that serial number to check to see if that machine is still under warranty or something. But chances are that if you are buying a used Mac it's not. So is doesn't matter. 

Now hopefully you're seeing this Mac in person so you can test out some things. One of the first things you want to do is run a hardware test. Instructions for doing so can be found at Apple's website. The second URL is for 2013 and newer Macs so it's probably the one you want. Run the hardware diagnostic and see if anything comes up. Then you want to check the hard drive. This is pretty easy to do. You want to run Disk Utility , select the hard drive, get info on it, and then look for the S.M.A.R.T status. It should say Verified.

Now you want to run some of your own tests. The first thing you want to do is look at the screen and look for any dead pixels. It's hard to tell if you're looking at a color image like the desktop background so maybe bring up Safari and a blank or mostly white browser window and look around to see if there are any dead pixels. Then you want to check the keyboard. Make sure every key works. Nothing seems to stick. Nothing seems to give double key presses. Use the sentence, the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog, which includes all 26 characters of the keyboard and then remember to check the number keys and everything else in there. Be pretty thorough.

Also test out the trackpad as much as you can. Try moving the cursor around. Try clicking. All of that just to make sure that trackpad seems to be fine. You want to test out the Camera by either launching PhotoBooth or FaceTime to make sure that the camera works. Test out the speakers by playing music or something at a pretty loud volume to see how they sound. Also checkout the headphone jack.

This is a little more difficult to do but you want to checkout the ports. So if you've got a bunch of USB ports, for instance, you want to make sure each one works. So maybe bring along a flash drive or a USB mouse or something that you could use to test each port one by one.

Also checkout wifi and bluetooth.

Okay, so now here's a really important one. You want to make sure there's no firmware password set. A lot of people buy a used Mac, they go to reset it or do something important with it, and they find out it has been locked with a firmware password and there's no way to get in touch with the seller again so the Mac, kind of, becomes useless. To do this all you need to do is restart the Mac in Recovery Mode. So restart it holding Command R down. It'll go into Recovery Mode. At that point if a firmware password is set it's going to prompt you for it. If you can boot up into Recovery Mode fine then no firmware password has been set.

Also if the seller still has their user account setup there you want to make sure they are not logged into iCloud. So go into System Preferences and iCloud and make sure they are not logged in. Because if they are logged into iCloud they can have the ability to lock the Mac after they sell it. Here's another thing though. It's possible that you can be looking at only one user account on that machine. So you want to go to System Preferences, Users and Groups and see if there are any other users. Then have the seller log into each of those accounts and make sure that iCloud isn't turned on for any of those as well. Ideally the seller should be selling you a Mac that has been completely wiped and has none of their information or accounts on there.

So there are a lot to be concerned about. Now where are the best places to buy a used Mac. Well, probably the best place is Apple itself. Apple has a section on its site on refurbished Macs. So these are kind of like used Macs. They probably are the most expensive used Macs but you do get the full Apple warranty and support with them. Now there are some websites out there that sell used Macs. I've never bought used Macs from any of these but these are places that have been around for years so if I had to buy a used Mac I probably would go to them first. So checkout Smalldog Electronics, checkout OWC, and checkout MacofAllTrades. Another place to buy a used Mac is your local used Mac store. If you think you don't have one in your city then you're probably wrong because there are used Mac stores hidden around all over the place. So ask around. Do some searches. You'll probably find out there's a shop that's been around for years selling used Macs not too far from you. If the place has been around for a long time and has a good reputation it's certainly a better place to buy a used Mac than from some random person posting online.

Now probably the most popular place to buy a used Mac is on eBay. So from another individual or somebody that resells lots of things. If you're going to buy from eBay first take the time to read up on all the different scams and things you should look out for when buying anything expensive on eBay. Make sure you're really well educated before you even go in. Look out for all the red flags especially if the seller tries to change the method of payment or something like that. You should only pay on eBay through the official eBay payment system. Look out for deals that are too good to be true. You can read about all sorts of people getting scammed by trying to buy expensive items like computers on eBay.

Craig's List is another place to go and buy. Of course that's only for buying local so you should be able to meet the person and see the Mac in person and test it out. Follow all the safety procedures. Make sure you meet in a public place, etc. 

Now all those things I told you to look out before if you're buying a used Mac in person, any one of those should be a sign that you should walk away. Don't be afraid to walk away. Too often we get attached to wanting a specific item, even when we find a little this or that is wrong, we go for it anyway. Chances are you're interested in a Mac because the price is just good enough and any tiny little thing like a port not working or a dead pixel, or an older battery should be enough for you to just walk away and keep looking.

Now once you get your used Mac the first thing you should do before you do anything else with it is do a complete reset. Even if the seller has already done so. You should boot into Recovery Mode and completely wipe the drive and reinstall the operating system from the internet so you starting completely from scratch. You should absolutely do this every time. I'd say the only exception to that rule is if you're buying a refurbished Mac directly from Apple.