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Forgot password to open Mac
- Thread starter 420benz
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Do you want to change your account password?
1. Boot to your recovery system.
2. Open terminal, from the Utilities menu.
3. Type resetpassword, press enter.
4. Follow the steps to change the password for your user account.
4a. Reboot, login using your new password
5. (optional) Don't forget your new password (just sayin')
(edit) This doesn't apply after Catalina - there's other protections in place on newer systems.
1. Boot to your recovery system.
2. Open terminal, from the Utilities menu.
3. Type resetpassword, press enter.
4. Follow the steps to change the password for your user account.
4a. Reboot, login using your new password
5. (optional) Don't forget your new password (just sayin')
(edit) This doesn't apply after Catalina - there's other protections in place on newer systems.
Last edited:
Can you boot to Recovery without knowing the User password? (Away from my mac at present so can't check....also might be different for M1/T2 macs)
If so and it is this easy to reset the user password, it seems like a security flaw?
If you are trying to get the "Change forgotten password", and that choice does not appear after 3 wrong password tries, you want to make sure you are actually on the account login screen: Force a shutoff by holding the power button for 5 seconds or so, then press and release the power button to boot again.
I did that and got the same Enter Password option.I don’t know how to boot to recovery mode.
You won't get the choice for changing password, until you try a wrong login 3 times.
More here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202860
This will show you how to boot to your recovery partition (If you still want to do that)
support.apple.com
More here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202860
This will show you how to boot to your recovery partition (If you still want to do that)
How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support
You can use macOS Recovery, your computer's built-in recovery system, to reinstall the Mac operating system. Reinstalling macOS doesn't remove your personal data.
OK, that's not your account password. It's asking for the FileVault passkey to unlock the drive.
Nothing to do with your account.
Nothing to do with your account.
If you don't remember your FileVault unlock password, so you can't unlock the drive, that basically means that you have to erase the drive, reinstall your system, restore from your backup.
There is no way in to your now-encrypted drive without that passsword. There's no choice to change it, without turning FileVault off, and you need the unlock password to turn FileVault off.
You do have a backup, don't you?
There is no way in to your now-encrypted drive without that passsword. There's no choice to change it, without turning FileVault off, and you need the unlock password to turn FileVault off.
You do have a backup, don't you?
Yes...
If you can't unlock your encrypted drive, then your account is effectively locked.
What happened with your Mac since you were last able to login? Did you just update to Monterey?
"I don't know". What is that answering? That you don't know if you have a backup??
Tell me what you know about that backup...
If you can't unlock your encrypted drive, then your account is effectively locked.
What happened with your Mac since you were last able to login? Did you just update to Monterey?
"I don't know". What is that answering? That you don't know if you have a backup??
Tell me what you know about that backup...
If I am not mistaken, when setting up FileVault, the admin is given the option to use the Apple ID password to recover the drive. If you didn’t tick that box when turning on FV, Delta is correct. You will have to erase the drive and restore from backup, if you have one. If you don’t, all the information on the drive is lost forever and you will need to start over.
Here's how you can "start over": https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211873
Since it sounds like you have just received/started using this unit, I would restore to factory, "start over", as Delta stated...
