Reboot, force restart or reset your Mac

What each button does, how long it takes and the daily limits.

All three are on your Mac’s page in My Macs.

• Reboot asks macOS to restart. Your files stay. Back in a few minutes.
• Force restart cuts and restores power, for a Mac that doesn’t answer. Your files stay, but unsaved work is lost. It appears only on Macs with remote power control.
• Reset to clean macOS erases everything and rebuilds the Mac with your SSH key in about 20 minutes. Your lease and paid-until date don’t change. Type ERASE to confirm.

Limits per Mac per day: 10 reboots, 3 force restarts, 2 resets.

Don’t shut it down. Shut Down is hidden on your Mac; use Restart (from macOS or the Reboot button), which brings it back by itself. A Mac that’s shut down stays off until we power it on again, which can take until the next business day (Sydney time). The Mac is also kept from sleeping, restarts after a power cut and wakes for network access; if those settings are changed, they’re put back within a few minutes.

After a reset the Mac has a new SSH fingerprint, so your computer will warn you once; see SSH troubleshooting.