forget the user password for iMac?

[Applesuckswow]

So I have an iMac 2013, which is left unused for several years. Yesterday I suddenly want to upgrade it by installing ram and ssd blablabla, but I found I forget the user password so I can't log in. How can I fix this? Will re-installing macOS help?

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[Brian33]

IF you don't care about whatever files are on the boot disk, you should be able to boot into Recovery mode (hold Cmd-R during boot). From there, you can use the Utilities menu to open Disk Utility, and use it to "erase" (i.e., format) the boot drive. Then reinstall macOS. During the installation you will be prompted to create a new admin user account. You'll end up with a totally fresh new macOS.

Again, note that this will make it impossible to recover any data/apps/pictures or whatever you've got on the machine. If you need to copy files off first, I think there are possible ways to do that before erasing and re-installing...

 

[MacUser2525]

IF you don't care about whatever files are on the boot disk, you should be able to boot into Recovery mode (hold Cmd-R during boot). From there, you can use the Utilities menu to open Disk Utility, and use it to "erase" (i.e., format) the boot drive. Then reinstall macOS. During the installation you will be prompted to create a new admin user account. You'll end up with a totally fresh new macOS.

Again, note that this will make it impossible to recover any data/apps/pictures or whatever you've got on the machine. If you need to copy files off first, I think there are possible ways to do that before erasing and re-installing...

Why would he do that? There is a password reset option in there I think I remember seeing. And if not unless it is disabled you can boot single user mode and set the password anyways from there.

 

[Brian33]

Why would he do that? There is a password reset option in there I think I remember seeing. And if not unless it is disabled you can boot single user mode and set the password anyways from there.

Well, yeah, that sounds a lot easier! I didn't know about the password reset option. I guess that's available from the menu bar when booted into Recovery mode?

 

[Weaselboy]

Why would he do that? There is a password reset option in there I think I remember seeing. And if not unless it is disabled you can boot single user mode and set the password anyways from there.

How to Reset a macOS Sierra Password

Need to reset the password on macOS Sierra? Maybe you forgot your primary admin user account password or maybe you’re working on someone elses Mac and you need to gain access to it. We’ll show you …

osxdaily.com

You can run resetpassword from Terminal in recovery to do a PW reset. You will lose access to the old Keychain though.