How to protect data on a laptop being serviced?

Hey all, I am going to drop my laptop off for some repairs and I want to protect the data that is on it from being accessed by whomever is doing the repair. I cannot seem to find a viable solution. It is a MacBook pro. Outside of completely wiping it I cant seem to find a way to keep the service tech from having access to my files. Any suggestions?

C

 

Probably depends on the nature of the repair and whether you need to provide your password or not.

If it's something obviously hardware, they might argue for your password or not. (depends on what's needed to complete the repair, and the "definition" of complete may vary)

You can create another user just for the service tech to access functions. (I'd start with this, ensure your things are encrypted with FileVault)

If it's Apple or authorized repair, they might have some service mode that lets them access diagnostics and stuff without touching user data.

Worth asking and seeing what the shop says. I'm sure you're not the first customer with that concern.

You can create a backup of them and delete them too. It's good to have a backup anyway in case anything goes wrong during repair. Lot of shops don't guarantee your data (and include a waiver) since starting fresh could be a troubleshooting step.

 

^^ This person computers.