So I bought a Mac Mini a few years back and I disabled the password at boot. However, when I'm installing some software it's asking me for a password now and I see it's not my Apple ID password so I assume its the Admin password. Of course I have no idea what this password could be now as its been years. I tried every password I could think of and nothing. So what do I do now? I can't do a pw reset from the Users & Groups pw reset option since I don't know what the old pw is.
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Password Reset...HELP!!!
- Thread starter ShinRich
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Bigwaff
Contributor
If you forgot your Mac login password - Apple Support
If you can’t remember the password to log in to your Mac user account, or the password doesn’t work, try these steps to reset your password.
Since I enabled auto login I don't see an option for login now..it just goes straight into the OSIf you forgot your Mac login password - Apple Support
If you can’t remember the password to log in to your Mac user account, or the password doesn’t work, try these steps to reset your password.support.apple.com
To get rid of auto login you can go to Apple>System Settings>Users & Groups. Then turn off Automatically Log in As <user>
(Ventura)
(Ventura)
Logout out of the machine, and that’ll take you back to the login window.
Fishrrman
macrumors Nehalem
One should write down important passwords if you're not going to remember them.
Store the paper or notebook in a safe place.
Or... create a protected document that stores passwords. But you'd probably want to protect THAT with a password, as well.
I helped a friend who frequently stumbled into "password hell" with this Pages document:
(attached below)
You can go to the "file" menu and choose "Set Password" to protect it.
Final thought:
IF you get the login/administrative password reset, DON'T use auto-login again.
Instead, force yourself to do manual logins so you remember the password!
Store the paper or notebook in a safe place.
Or... create a protected document that stores passwords. But you'd probably want to protect THAT with a password, as well.
I helped a friend who frequently stumbled into "password hell" with this Pages document:
(attached below)
You can go to the "file" menu and choose "Set Password" to protect it.
Final thought:
IF you get the login/administrative password reset, DON'T use auto-login again.
Instead, force yourself to do manual logins so you remember the password!
You are 100% right and I won't argue with you on that one. I infact have such a file and I am pretty good at updating it as soon as I create an id/pw for anything. So it baffles me how this one slipped through the cracks. The only thing I can think of is when I changed my apple id pw, I may have overwritten my admin pw thinking they were the same thing. Now of course I come to find out that they are not.
Thank you! I completely never paid attention to the fact that there was a logout option. I followed that and I reset the pw via my Apple Id.