[rsfinn]

Can I make a suggestion?

1) Before sending your Mac in for repair, use Carbon Copy Cloner [1] or SuperDuper! [2] to make a clone of your system drive to a spare SSD.

2) When your Mac is returned to you, if the system drive has been wiped, then use the same software to restore your backup.

Both these programs are free (gratis) for the described use, and have a reputation for reliability. The spare SSD drive will cost about $80 (how much is your time worth?).

[1] https://bombich.com [2] https://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescriptio...

[013a]

I'll definitely do something like this the next time. This one just caught me by surprise; I should have done the research, or listened to him when he asked if I'd backed up my data (they always ask that, even if there's little chance of an SSD wipe), but apparently the SSD encryption module (touchid) and keyboard are all the same unit, so replacing the known defective 2016-2018 keyboards wipes everything. True world class engineering from Apple, but what can you do, there's plenty of blame on my side as well.