Reset PRAM on a Mac? Not on Apple Silicon at All

Something on your Mac is behaving oddly, and the advice you found says to hold four keys at startup. You have tried it twice and nothing seems to happen.

Nothing is happening, and on most Macs sold in the last few years nothing can. Apple says so on its own page, in one sentence that almost no guide repeats.

I could not run this on a Mac to show you. So everything documented below is Apple's own wording rather than mine. The sentence that matters is quoted in full.

The sentence that ends it for most Macs

One line from Apple, and it applies to every Mac with its own chip.

⚡ Documented by Apple on its NVRAM page: "The steps to reset NVRAM don't apply to Mac computers with Apple silicon, and aren't needed on those computers."

⭐ Not "are less useful". Not "rarely help". They do not apply, and they are not needed.

⛔ Apple silicon means the M series chips, which arrived in late 2020 and cover almost everything sold since.

⚠️ So the four key trick is an Intel era instruction. It is still being passed along years after the hardware it belonged to stopped shipping.

Which Mac you have, in two clicks

Settle this before you try anything at all.

⭐ Open the Apple menu. Choose About This Mac. One line on that screen names the chip.

⚡ Anything reading M1, M2, M3, M4 or later is Apple silicon. Nothing in this article's key combination applies to you.

⚠️ Anything reading Intel Core is the older kind. For those, the reset below is genuinely available.

⛔ If you are being told to do this by a guide that never asked which Mac you have, stop reading that guide. It is describing hardware you may not own.

What NVRAM actually holds

Smaller than the reputation, and Apple lists it.

⚡ Apple says: "NVRAM (or PRAM) is a small amount of memory that your Mac uses to store and quickly access certain system settings such as sound volume, display resolution, startup-disk selection, and time zone."

⭐ That is the whole list of what a reset would touch. Volume, resolution, which disk it starts from, and the clock.

⚠️ Nothing in there is your files, your apps or your account. A reset is safe, which is why it was recommended so freely.

⚡ And Apple points you somewhere simpler first. In its words, "Normally you can manage these settings in System Settings (or System Preferences), without resetting NVRAM."

⛔ And nothing in there explains a slow Mac, a crashing app or a full disk. Those have their own causes and their own readings.

The Intel route, in Apple's own words

If your Mac is the older kind, this is the whole procedure.

⭐ Apple states the condition first. The reset "might help" only "if one or more settings stored in NVRAM don't work as expected on an Intel-based Mac".

⚡ Then the keys: "press and hold these four keys together: Option, Command, P, R." You start holding them immediately after turning the Mac on.

⚠️ And the timing, which is the part people get wrong: "Release the keys after about 20 seconds, during which your Mac might appear to restart."

⛔ Twenty seconds is much longer than it feels. Count it out, because letting go at five does nothing at all.

⭐ Apple names one more occasion, and it is not a fault. Resetting NVRAM "is also recommended as the final step before you sell, give away, trade in, or recycle an Intel-based Mac".

⚡ A Windows laptop needs the same care for different reasons. What a reset does and does not remove is worth reading first.

Why it appeared to work so often

Ours, and it explains twenty years of advice.

⭐ The procedure includes a restart. A great many faults clear on a restart on their own.

⚡ So the keys got the credit. The reboot did the work, over and over, for a very long time.

⚠️ That is worth knowing before you spend an evening on it. Restart the machine on its own first and see whether the fault survives.

⛔ If a plain restart fixes it, the four keys were never the reason. Same trap as a hundred other rituals.

What to do instead on an Apple silicon Mac

Four things, in the order worth trying.

⚡ Restart it properly. Shut down, wait ten seconds, start it again. Not a Sleep and wake.

⭐ Then check the setting itself. A wrong startup disk, a wrong volume or a wrong time zone is a setting you can simply correct.

⚠️ If the Mac will not start normally, use recovery. Apple silicon uses a long press of the power button rather than any key combination.

⛔ And if it is stuck during an update rather than misbehaving afterwards, that is a different problem. Read the progress bar before you interrupt anything.

The one case that is not a reset at all

Apple names it in a single line, and it is a repair rather than a ritual.

⭐ If your settings reset every single time you unplug a desktop Mac, Apple says you "might need to have your Mac serviced to replace the small battery that NVRAM uses to retain settings".

⚡ That is a physical battery on the board, not the one that runs a laptop, and no key combination touches it.

⚠️ The tell is the pattern rather than the symptom. Settings that come back wrong after every unplug, every time, rather than once after an update.

⛔ Resetting NVRAM on that machine will appear to work and then fail again tomorrow. That is the loop worth stepping out of.

What this page could not do here

Stated plainly rather than left implied.

⛔ There was no Mac available to run any of this on. No key combination was tested and no timing was measured.

⚠️ Everything documented above is Apple's own wording, quoted from its page rather than summarized from a guide.

⭐ The reasoning about why the trick appeared to work, and the ordering of what to try instead, are ours and are marked as such.

Status: read against Apple's own NVRAM documentation, 28 August 2026. ⛔ No Mac was available here, so nothing was tested and no timing is claimed from one.

Can I reset PRAM on an M1 or M2 Mac?

No, and you do not need to. Apple states that the steps to reset NVRAM do not apply to Mac computers with Apple silicon and are not needed on them. Holding Option, Command, P and R on one of those machines does nothing, which is why the trick appears to fail.

What does resetting NVRAM actually fix?

Only the small set of settings it stores. Apple lists those as sound volume, display resolution, startup disk selection and time zone. It has nothing to do with speed, storage, crashing apps or your files, so it will not help with any of those.

How long do I hold Option Command P R?

About 20 seconds on an Intel Mac, and Apple notes that the Mac might appear to restart during that time. Most people let go far too early. That is one reason the procedure gets reported as not working even where it applies.

Is resetting NVRAM safe?

Yes. It clears a small block of settings: volume, resolution, startup disk and time zone. It does not touch your files, apps or account. The risk is not damage, it is wasting an evening on something that was never the cause.

The Short Version

• Apple says the NVRAM reset does not apply to Apple silicon Macs.
• Check About This Mac first. M series means the trick is not for you.
• NVRAM holds volume, resolution, startup disk and time zone. That is all.
• On an Intel Mac, hold Option, Command, P and R for about 20 seconds.
• The Mac may appear to restart while you are still holding them.
• The procedure includes a restart, which is what fixed most of these.
• Restart the Mac on its own first and see whether the fault survives.
• Nothing in NVRAM explains a slow Mac, a full disk or a crashing app.

Where to Next

Open About This Mac before anything else. The chip name on that screen decides whether the rest of this even applies to you.

If it says M anything, put the keyboard down. Apple has said in writing that the reset is neither applicable nor needed on your machine.

If it says Intel, do a plain restart first and see whether the fault comes back. That single step gets the credit for a great many NVRAM successes.

Then, if it survives, hold the four keys for a full twenty seconds rather than the five most people manage.

And if you are on Apple silicon and somebody told you to do this recently, tell me where you read it in the comments. That instruction is still being repeated years after Apple retired it.