Keep your passwords safe
- Reset Macbook Air Without Password
- Osx Reset Password
- Factory Reset Mac Without Password
- Wipe Mac Without Password
- Factory Reset Macbook Without Disc
- Factory Reset Macbook Without Password
Get Secrets, a secure password manager app for Mac.
We all have dozens and even hundreds of passwords to remember. Your Mac password, like a credit card PIN number, is one of the most important, so it can be a nightmare if you forget it. But it’s not the end of the world. There are a few easy ways you can reset your Mac password and make sure you don’t lose it ever again.
I have a Macbook air 10.9.4. I want to reset it to the factory settings. I do not know the admin password though. I tried doing to holding down command and R thing, but all that happened was a grey screen came up with a picture of a lock, and a block for a password to be entered in, but I don't have a password. Mac OS X has inbuilt password recovery utility that you can use to reset the password. Follow the steps below: 1) Start your Mac computer by pressing the Power button. 2) Press Command + R immediately to boot your Mac computer to recovery drive.
How to recover a forgotten Mac password
Secure experience is something you can’t emphasize enough while dealing with Apple devices. Hence the importance of a safe Mac password. While it could be easy to physically steal a computer, there’s little chance someone can mess with your data unless they know the password. So it’s wise to take a few precautionary measures to avoid losing it and make it easier to recover.
Easy way to reset passwords
Setapp has a reset scenario catered for you if you forget Mac login password. Just saying.
Use Recovery Mode
Hope this is just a “what-if” for you, but let’s imagine it happened. You forgot Mac password and can’t access any of your accounts. There are no password hints and you can’t call it to mind, even though you’ve already tried to enter all pet names. For such cases, there’s Apple’s Recovery Mode.
To activate the Recovery Mode:
- Turn off your computer and hold the power button + Command R. Wait for the loading bar to appear on the screen while your Mac boots to Recovery.
- Next, choose Disk Utility > Continue > Utilities Terminal.
- Type “resetpassword” (in one word) and click Return.
- Go to the main hard drive and choose your user account.
- Lastly, change Mac password, create a hint to easily recollect it in future, and click save. You’ll be able to use the new password after a restart.
Reset password with Apple ID
If you have an Apple ID tied to your user account on Mac, you can use it to reset password from the login window. The option should be available by default. Otherwise, you can enable it in System Preferences > Users & Groups > Allows user to reset password using Apple ID.
To make a go of this, click on the question mark next to the password field that you see on the login screen. Agree to the option to reset with Apple ID and enter wrong login credentials three times to be able to create the new password. Once you get to the reset screen, input a new password two times, create a hint, and save.
Change password from another account
Lucky you if you have more than one user account on your Mac. Or, if your mother/brother/girlfriend/dog ever use your computer to log in to their personal accounts (yes, now you owe them a thank you). Here’s how to recover Mac password, using another account you have a password to:
- Log out of your admin user account
- Choose another account and enter the password
- Go to System Preferences > Users & Groups > Lock icon
- Use the password for the alternative account to unlock
- Reset the password for your admin account (type in a password > verify > create a hint > save).
Reset Macbook Air Without Password
Good news: You have a new password. Bad news: You still won’t be able to log in to your account if you don’t have the Keychain password and can’t create the new one. The thing is, to unlock all the features that require Mac Password, you should be able to access the Apple’s password management system, Keychain. Unless you remember the access data, you’ll have to create the new password with an admin account. If the account you used isn’t registered as admin, you’ll have to go for the Recovery Mode option.
Get a hint for your password
If you forgot Apple password, you can recover it with a hint. This is, by far, the most painless way to win back your access. Therefore, we encourage you to create hints each time you choose a new password. It takes a few simple actions:
- Access System Preferences > Users & Groups
- Click on the Lock icon > user name
- Select the option to change password and add a phrase/word you associate with a newly created password in “Password hint (recommended).”
One more important thing. To ensure your password hint shows up when you need it, you should allow your Mac to display hints. In the Users $ Groups, click on Login options and check the box next to “Show password hints.” Ready to go.
To see the hint you created, access User Groups in the System Preferences, unlock to make changes, and press Return three times. After the third time, your hint will appear right below the password field. Unless you’ve created the hint ages ago, this should help to refresh your memory.
Resort to Target Disk Mode
Another option is to access the hard drive of your Mac via another computer. Basically, Target Disk Mode allows you to save any data from the your Mac’s hard drive.
To enter the Target Disk Mode
- Shut down your computer and use FireWire or Thunderbolt cable to connect another Mac.
- Click on the power button while holding the T button and wait for the hard drive to appear on the screen.
That’s it. You can now easily access and recover any data from your Mac.
Always protect your data
Resetting password could make your Mac vulnerable. Particularly, Recovery Mode is kind of a security hole: If someone can get access to your computer, it’s pretty easy to boot into recovery and reset password. To prevent this from happening you should encrypt the data on your hard drive with a built-in FileVault utility. Ensure you unlock Password Reset with Disk Utility and activate FileVault on your Mac.
To activate FileVault in the Apple System
- Go to System Preferences
- Click on Security & Privacy > FileVault
- Unlock to enter your login and password
- Select “Turn on FileVault”
- Save Recovery key and password that you receive upon activating FileVault
Find lost passwords using Keychain Access
In case you’ve lost one of your internet logins or don’t remember the password to your WiFi, it’s very likely that you can recover it using your Mac’s native password manager — Keychain Access.
To recover a password with Keychain Access:
- Launch the utility from your Applications folder
- Use the search field in the top-right corner to filter for what you’re looking for
- Double-click on the wanted item
- Check Show Password and enter the Keychain Password to reveal it
Although Keychain Access can be very useful in finding passwords you thought were lost forever, it’s rarely used intentionally due to its clunky interface and messy save-all password behavior. However, using a password manager nowadays in general is a must. And if you have to start somewhere, look no further than Secrets.
Store passwords on Mac, securely
Grab Secrets along with your Setapp perks and worry not about privacy.
Store passwords using Secrets
Secrets is a simple but robust password manager that can become your central point of reference when looking for passwords, WiFi passcodes, secure notes, credit card numbers, and other personal information.
The app is supported by the industry-standard PGP encryption so none of your files will ever get exposed. And no, saving your passwords in the Notes app or on paper is not a good idea. Thankfully, Secrets is very easy to use.
- Download and launch Secrets
- Proceed through the setup guide
- To save your first password just click on the plus icon next to the search field and fill out all the necessary information
Additionally, Secrets has an importing feature where you can download all your existing passwords from other managers or even as a simple .csv file. And moving forward, Secrets can be populated through a handy browser extension with a quick built-in password generator.
Taking all the necessary measures to stay safe online is a must. This includes having good password hints for your Mac, knowing how to navigate through the Recovery Mode, and of course using a good password manager like Secrets, which is available for a free trial through Setapp, a platform of over 200 best Mac utilities that can help you out in just about any scenario.
Setapp lives on Mac and iOS. Please come back from another device.
Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.
Read onSign Up
Setapp uses cookies to personalize your experience on our website. By continuing to use this site, you agree to our cookie policy.
Let’s say you totally forgot the password to log on to your Mac. Or maybe you purchased a used Mac from someone else and they’ve got it locked down. There are numerous ways to reset a password with no OS X discs.
This tutorial may ruffle some feathers, but it addresses a topic that a ton of people ask about all the time. Yes, it’s startling to think that anyone could theoretically walk up to your computer and gain access within minutes. Before you go thinking that Mac OS X has a severe vulnerability that makes it less secure than other operating systems, think again. Anyone with physical access to your machine (whether it is Windows, Linux, or Mac) can eventually find a way in if they know what they’re doing. There are ways of bypassing nearly any security measure when a hacker is literally sitting right in front of your system.
The information here has previously been made available from many different sources online and is presented with the intention of helping people with legitimate reasons for resetting their Mac OS X password. A few of the methods floating around the Mac community have been compiled here in one easy-to-reference place. System admins responsible for supporting entire organizations and users who bought used Macs are the folks most likely to benefit from this.
Important Note:
This tutorial was written for Mac OS X 10.4, 10.5 and 10.6. Please check out the updated version of this post if you’re trying to reset the password on a Mac running 10.7 Lion or 10.8 Mountain Lion.
This tutorial was written for Mac OS X 10.4, 10.5 and 10.6. Please check out the updated version of this post if you’re trying to reset the password on a Mac running 10.7 Lion or 10.8 Mountain Lion.
Osx Reset Password
Reset 10.5 Leopard & 10.6 Snow Leopard password
- Power on or restart your Mac.
- At the chime (or grey screen if your chime is turned off), hold down Command+S on your keyboard to enter single-user mode.
- This step is optional, but it’s a good idea because it checks the consistency of the hard disk before moving on. At the prompt, type fsck -fy and press Enter/Return. Wait for the checks to complete before going to the next step.
- Type mount -uw / and press Enter.
- Type launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist and press Enter.
- Type ls /Users and press Enter. This lists all of the usernames on the computer – helpful if you don’t know or remember what these are.
- Type dscl . -passwd /Users/username password and replace “username” with one of the users displayed in the previous step. Replace “password” with a new password of your choice. Press Enter.
- Type reboot and press Enter.
Reset 10.4 Tiger password
- Power on or restart your Mac.
- At the chime (or grey screen if your chime is turned off), hold down Command+S on your keyboard to enter single-user mode.
- Type sh /etc/rc and press Enter/Return.
- Type passwd username and replace “username” with the short name of the user account for which you’d like to reset the password.
- Type your desired password and press Enter. It won’t show itself on the screen, so be careful what you type. You will most likely have to enter it again to confirm.
- Type reboot and press Enter.
Tricking your Mac into creating a new user account
- Power on or restart your Mac (should work for any Mac OS X system).
- At the chime (or grey screen if your chime is turned off), hold down Command+S on your keyboard to enter single-user mode.
- This step is optional, but it’s a good idea because it checks the consistency of the hard disk before moving on. At the prompt, type fsck -fy and press Enter/Return. Wait for the checks to complete before going to the next step.
- Type mount -uw / and press Enter.
- Type rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone and press Enter.
- Type shutdown -h now and press Enter.
Factory Reset Mac Without Password
The third method of resetting your Mac’s password requires some additional explanation. Rather than simply changing the password like the previous two methods do, this one fools the operating system into believing it has never been started before. This means when you restart the machine, it will take you through the entire setup & registration process all over again. Do not worry, all of your pre-existing data is still available. Just continue with this process and do not choose the option to transfer or migrate information to the Mac.
Wipe Mac Without Password
Once you’re done, log in with your new admin account and go to System Preferences > Accounts. You may have to click on the lock icon in the lower-left corner before making changes here. You should see your original user account(s) in the left column. Try clicking on one of them to convert it to a standard user account (uncheck “Allow user to administer this computer”) and change the password. You should be able to successfully log in to that account now and access all of your files and programs. If you want, you can log back in with your new admin account and re-check the “Allow user to administer this computer” option in System Preferences to grant admin privileges to the original user again.
Factory Reset Macbook Without Disc
That should cover it! As always, remember messing with single-user mode and Terminal is risky and may lead to trouble if you make mistakes. Considering you’re already locked out of the computer, though, you’ll probably be willing to take your chances at this point.
Factory Reset Macbook Without Password
One last thing… if you have a Keychain Access password, you will probably need to reset that as well. You can do this by selecting “login” under Keychains on the left and choosing Delete from the Edit menu. You’ll lose everything in the Keychain, but you’ll now be able to start fresh and add new ones.