Forgotten Password

[ds.]

I restarted my M2 MacBook Air last night, and when I went to login, it kept telling me my password was wrong. As far as I can remember, I entered what should have been my password, but maybe I did forget some letter or symbol I had put at the end. I ended up resetting it, but now when I go to my settings, it says I need to update my Apple ID settings to get access to all the services again. I go to do this, and it asks me for my password that I use to login to this Mac, and then my Apple ID password. After that, it asks me for the password for the MacBook Air again, except this time when I enter it, it says it's wrong and to use the password for the other MacBook Air. I don't have another MacBook Air though. In my iCloud devices only one MacBook Air is showing up there.

How do I fix this without having to reset my encrypted data?

 

[wchanley]

use the password for the other MacBook Air.

Did you have an older MBA that you've upgraded from, that you don't have access to, any more?

It seems like it's having issues re-encrypting your iCloud Keychain local data, since it may have been previously encrypted (up in iCloud) with your password from your older MBA.

You say your only device when you check in iCloud on the web is your current MBA. Do you have any other devices that are supposed to be there? (an iPhone, or an iPad, etc.?)

I think there may be a way to force your Mac to download your entire keychain from iCloud again, but from the wording of your post, I wonder if there's more weirdness happening in your iCloud account that we may need to account for, first.

 

[ds.]

It sounds like you're also using an incorrect iCloud password. Do you have any other devices you've used with iCloud previously? (an iPad, an iPhone, etc.) You said only your MBA is showing in your iCloud devices, when you check on the web. Did you previously have other iCloud devices that should be there?

My iCloud password is right. It doesn't give me any error when I enter that.

It asks for the iCloud password, then after that's entered, it asks for the password I use to login to my MacBook Air. After I enter that, it says to enter the password I use to unlock this MacBook Air. I enter the same password I entered previously (not my iCloud one), and then it says to enter the password for the other MacBook Air. It says Enter the password for "XXXXX's MacBook Air" which is not the password for this MacBook Air.

My other devices are showing up in my iCloud. There's one MacBook Air showing up there, which is the only one I have. But for some reason, I keep getting told to enter a password for my other MacBook Air, but I don't have any other one. This is the first MacBook I've had. Only had iPhones and iPads before this.

 

[wchanley]

It says Enter the password for "XXXXX's MacBook Air" which is not the password for this MacBook Air.

Then it sounds like it's probably trying to decrypt stored keychain items maybe using your old password, which you may not remember correctly. (Which is why you ended up resetting your Mac's login password in the first place, right?)

Do you have a Time Machine backup of your Mac? If so, grab a backup of your Mac, before I suggest something. I think there may be a way to force your Mac to re-download everything from iCloud Keychain rather than getting you stuck in this endless cycle trying to re-sync your existing passwords and keychain items, currently on your Mac.

Have you added any new passwords for anything (any new website accounts, etc.) since you reset your login password on that Mac? (Is there anything we'd need to try to preserve before we move forward?)

Edit: I just tried manually deleting my iCloud Keychain folder and I can get it to re-sync with iCloud after a restart, so I know what I'm thinking will work to get your Mac to re-download your passwords from iCloud.

I had to log back into a couple of accounts after a restart (iMessage and Gmail), but I know I can force my Mac to redownload iCloud Keychain items, if nothing else works.

That said, have you tried logging out of iCloud completely, and logging back in? If so, then we can try manually removing your iCloud Keychain folder, and forcing it to download it again, after you have a backup.

 

[ds.]

Then it sounds like it's probably trying to decrypt stored keychain items maybe using your old password, which you may not remember correctly. (Which is why you ended up resetting your Mac's login password in the first place, right?)

Do you have a Time Machine backup of your Mac? If so, grab a backup of your Mac, before I suggest something. I think there may be a way to force your Mac to re-download everything from iCloud Keychain rather than getting you stuck in this endless cycle trying to re-sync your existing passwords and keychain items, currently on your Mac.

Have you added any new passwords for anything (any new website accounts, etc.) since you reset your login password on that Mac? (Is there anything we'd need to try to preserve before we move forward?)

Edit: I just tried manually deleting my iCloud Keychain folder and I can get it to re-sync with iCloud after a restart, so I know what I'm thinking will work to get your Mac to re-download your passwords from iCloud.

I had to log back into a couple of accounts after a restart (iMessage and Gmail), but I know I can force my Mac to redownload iCloud Keychain items, if nothing else works.

That said, have you tried logging out of iCloud completely, and logging back in? If so, then we can try manually removing your iCloud Keychain folder, and forcing it to download it again, after you have a backup.

I don't use keychain, so unless Apple automatically stores anything in there, it should be empty.

I tried logging out and logging back in to my Apple ID, and that didn't change anything. When I try to log in, it asks for my Apple ID login, after that is asks for my Mac user password, and then after that it asks for the password for this macbook air again. The last one gives me an error and then says I can continue but I won't have access to my encrypted items.

I don't really have anything in terms of files that I can't lose on this, so resetting isn't a huge deal, but it would just be a hassle setting everything up again. I use BitWarden for my passwords but I would need to download programs, fix my settings, and just go through that process again.

 

[chabig]

I ended up resetting it...

What did you do here? What were you able to "reset" without a password?

 

[wchanley]

What did you do here? What were you able to "reset" without a password?

Initially, it sounds like they may have used passwordreset from recovery, but their subsequent explanations don't really make sense. If they're not using iCloud Keychain, I dunno what other "encrypted data" they may mean.

Everything they're saying sounds like the prompts you get when you're setting up iCloud Keychain, and the system encrypts your local keychain items with your Mac's login password.

 

[ds.]

Initially, it sounds like they may have used passwordreset from recovery, but their subsequent explanations don't really make sense. If they're not using iCloud Keychain, I dunno what other "encrypted data" they may mean.

Everything they're saying sounds like the prompts you get when you're setting up iCloud Keychain, and the system encrypts your local keychain items with your Mac's login password.

Yes, I used passwordreset from recovery to reset my login password.

After that, I noticed my touch ID wasn't set up anymore, so when I went to settings to do that, I saw that my Apple ID needed to be updated. I went to do that, it would ask me for my Apple ID password, which I would enter. Then it would ask me for my Mac User password, which I would enter. Lastly, it would ask me for the password used to unlock this macbook air, but when I would enter my Mac User password it said that password is for "XXXXX's MacBook Air" (which is what my device is called), and then said I need to enter the one used for this macbook air.

I tried to go through the process again right now, except take screenshots so I could share them, but this time after I entered my Mac User password, instead of asking for the third password again, it asked me for the pin I use to unlock my iPhone. I entered that, and now it seems to have logged in to my Apple ID fine.

Not sure what happened here, if it was just an issue with the password reset and it needed some time on the back end to refresh the device list and it ended up picking up two different MacBook Airs for some reason.

 

[chabig]

I'm glad it's sorted out for you. It sounds like you knew your AppleID password, and that's the key that allowed you to reset your account password.

 

[ds.]

I'm glad it's sorted out for you. It sounds like you knew your AppleID password, and that's the key that allowed you to reset your account password.

Maybe, but I was entering my Apple ID password earlier as well. It seems like for some reason they thought I had 2 MacBook Airs and they were asking for the password for each one, but when I tried this last time it didn't.

 

[flyfly]

One day this happened to me, when i was choosing the password for the macbook, i created the password with the CAPS LOCK on, so then the password was wrong every time. try using the oposite capital letters and maybe this works