Password???

[boogiedout]

Hi,
I have a 2014 Mac mini, which my daughter has been using the past few years. She is no longer using it. I am the administrator for the mini but for the life of me I can not remember the password for my account🤦🏼‍♂️ I want to repurpose it, is there a way of getting the password reset for my account? I mean the log in password not my Apple ID

 

[Papanate]

If you Apple ID and Password for iCloud is ilnked to the Mac Log in - you can use that to login and then change it.

Alternately after several wrong attempts at signing in - restart the Mac and show options for resetting the login password. If Apple ID is an option, choose it now.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Worst case scenario, boot it while holding Command-Option-R, open Disk Utility, and erase the disk. Then “Reinstall macOS.”

The only potential issue there, is if Activation Lock is enabled you’d need the password for the Apple ID used on the Mac.

 

[Ben J.]

I might be totally wrong here, but a 2014 Mini doesn't have the T2 security chip, right? And the earliest OS it can run, that it came with, would be OS X 10.10 "Yosemite". That means it would be possible to erase it, install OSX again, and set a new password when creating a new user. No "activation" as I can remember.

 

[curnalpanic]

I think this should answer all your questions.
If you forgot your Mac login password

 

[carylee2002]

I might be totally wrong here, but a 2014 Mini doesn't have the T2 security chip, right? And the earliest OS it can run, that it came with, would be OS X 10.10 "Yosemite". That means it would be possible to erase it, install OSX again, and set a new password when creating a new user. No "activation" as I can remember.

T2 chip was starting into the 2018 Mac Mini...but it still have filevault and SIP. I find High Sierra can be used on the 2014. After that Mojave was a big change in requirements.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

I might be totally wrong here, but a 2014 Mini doesn't have the T2 security chip, right?

You're correct; Activation Lock won't be a concern on this model.