The 5-step manual to buy a used Mac
Some people do not understand why you should test before buy
Now that the Mac Mini M4 has landed and disrupted the market, it also has become good season to hunt for second-hand older models. By every generation that comes, prior generations come down in price, especially after Black Friday (and Cyber Monday).
Whatever model you’re looking into, for any reason, for whatever price, I always recommend a five-step check for everyone. It mostly resumes in “test before you buy”. I’m tired to tell the same thing every time someone asks me if a given model looks good, so that’s why this article now exists.
I’m not going to discuss pricing in extent, because that will depend on the model and its state. Just know that retailers and Apple Shop Refurbished section are great avenues to have an idea of how much cheap or costly an offer is.
1. No more Intel Mac
Avoid all Intel Macs. Every single one of them. Not even the most powerful Intel Mac can handle a candle against any Apple Silicon Mac, let alone the Mac Mini M4, which is the current cheapest Mac you can get.
You can find legacy Intel Macs for cheap, as long these are cheaper than the cheapest Apple Silicon model. Even the old MacBook Air M1 and Mac Mini M1 from four years ago are no competition for Intel machines.a
Aside from that, every new macOS version comes with features that are not available for Intel macs. Every year, there is always a fear that Apple sunsets their Intel support forever, closing a chapter and software support for the whole ecosystem.
2. iCloud Unlocked / Without MDM
First and foremost, always check if the device you’re buying is iCloud Unlocked and without any Mobile Device Management (MDM), also called System Profile or Remote Management.
Do not compromise, these are deal breakers.
When devices get stolen or lost, the rightful owners can lock the device remotely, which is known as “iCloud Activation Lock”. This means the device is locked down completely — absolutely nothing will work — until the owner inputs its password on the screen.
Devices without iCloud Lock can come with Mobile Device Management (MDM) active, or having Remote Managements. This means a company/school manages the device remotely and has full ownership of it. Nor the seller or you will own it, ever.
Before buying, check if the Mac has one installed. If you find one with permissions to control the device, bail out. The Mac may be stolen or sold without the MDM being removed. You may have a chance by contacting the rightful owner, as some companies or schools may sell old devices forgetting to remove the System Profile.
Why this happens? There are people who don’t know all of this and buy what appears like a good deal on the street or online. Some may have been scammed already and decided to recoup their losses by selling it again feigning ignorance.
3. Apple Diagnostics
After you know the device owner is legit, check the Apple Diagnostics. This utility runs at startup and makes some software checks to the hardware.
You should get a result saying: “No issues found”. If there is anything suspicious, bail out immediately. The Reference Code may show some insight on what’s happening, but most of the time this means the mac has been tampered with — usually aftermarket or non-genuine parts — or there is a hardware problem. Anyway, you will have to appoint a repair, and sometimes the price of the repair will balloon out of control.
If you really want the device even if the diagnostics warns you about the state of the device, make a round to your local repair shop and get a quote. Sometimes the repair is cheap, sometimes can be worse than the diagnostic advertises.
Odds are, you won’t be buying it anyway.
4. SSD Health
One clear indication the device has its days counted is the health of the SSD. You can use apps like DriveDx to get an understandable view of the state of the storage chips.
If there are problems, bail out immediately. SSD do not fail unless it’s on its last days of life. The same goes for HDD.
If there are no problems, then you have to check how much life it has left. As a rule of thumb, check how much years of usage the device has and just calculate how much it would last. If in one year it has 20% wear, then it has four years of longevity.
Off course, that rule is not the best, but consider it’s safer and easier than trying to calculate how much usage the storage has left for your workload. Created Tech has an excellent video about why you should (and should not) worry.
SSD have a finite life. Once these die, your whole device is unusable, and you will need to buy a new one. Some Mac Studio and Mac Pro have replaceable SSD, but the replacement price may deter many people (but not companies).
5. Physical state
Finally, check how the device is physically. You may test all ports with flash drives or dongles, check how it connects to your phone Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and the state of the screen, keyboard, touchpad and mouse.
Sometimes devices may show wear on their ports making them unusable or very instable. It’s difficult to repair busted ports (due to usage), but it’s not impossible as long you don’t mind paying the repair shop a visit for a quote before pulling the trigger.
For the case of the MacBook and iMac, internal connection problems may manifest as weird screen artifacts, unresponsive input sometimes or even system hangs. Sometimes, the problem is solved by soldering things. Again, don’t buy.
Of course, never buy a device with signs of liquid drops, slightly broken screens or evident bents. There is no warranty the inner motherboard is straight and pristine, or that the device has been subject of high G (like a traffic accident).
It’s surprising how many people I’ve found buying second hand on impulse because the offer is too good to be true, only to find themselves with a paperweight or a device that work with compromises.
There is always the possibility of repairing. Never trust what the seller says, unless you can double check by yourself. Sometimes they will say “it’s a tiny problem here”, and then the repair shop quotes you a full motherboard replacement, also known has “Put $100 more and buy a new device”.
I’ll encourage you to always buy something that is working at 100%.
