It happens to the best of us. No matter how strong your memory is, it’s likely that at some point you’ve forgotten a password. When it comes to online accounts like social media, you can simply click a few links, enter your email address, and receive a link to reset your password. It is not so easy if you forget the password to access your spades. But don’t panic! Of course it’s possible to get back into your Mac if you’ve forgotten your password. Take a deep breath, because you are not locked out forever. Apple is aware that a forgotten password can be a personal hell. As such, in addition to the company’s security measures to protect devices from unauthorized access, it has built a tool into macOS for this exact scenario.
There are a few different methods you can use, and the way you go about unlocking your Mac without a password can depend on if you have linked your Apple ID to your user account on your Mac during setup, or if you have one of the new ones M1 Mac. If you haven’t linked your Apple ID, that’s okay too, because there’s still another option to reset your account password. Here’s how to start taking back control of your Mac.
note: Before you begin, Apple recommends you double-check that you’re using your Mac login password and not your Apple ID password, check Caps Lock, and make sure you’re using the correct login source for your language by clicking input menu (keyboard icon) in the menu bar. If you have set a password hint, you can check it by clicking the question mark icon next to the password field on the login screen. If you have multiple user accounts, make sure the correct account is selected before attempting the recovery.
Use your Apple ID to reset your Mac’s password
Ideally, you’ll have associated your Apple ID with your Mac user account during initial setup, which will make it possible to reset your user password with just a few clicks.
After entering the wrong user password three times, you will be asked if you want to restart your computer to see the password recovery options. After it reboots, you’ll be prompted to sign in with your Apple ID, select the user account you want to reset the password for, and then enter a new user account password.
You will have several options that will allow you to reset your password.
On some Macs, you may see another screen, including the option to directly reset your password using your Apple ID, or if enabled, the option to reset using your FireVault recovery key. We’ve covered that in more detail towards the end of this guide.
You may also see a message that says “Your account is locked. Please try again inside [duration].” In this case, wait until the timeout has passed, restart your Mac, and try the above steps again.
Use a different administrator account to unlock your Mac
If you share your Mac with friends or family members and they’ve forgotten their password, chances are you can reset it for them. The main thing here is that you need access to an administrator user account.
Usually, the person who first set up your Mac has an administrator account by default, but you can check by signing in to your account and opening System Preferences > Users and Groups and view the list of user accounts on your Mac. Just below the username will be the account type — if it says “Admin”, you can reset the user’s passwords.
To do this, from the same Users and Groups screen, click on lock and enter the administrator name and password when prompted. Next, select the user for whom you need to reset the password and then click on the labeled button Reset password and follow the instructions.
Don’t forget to write down new passwords you create for other users on your Mac.
Recovery Mode is the next best bet
If none of these methods work, you’ll need to boot your Mac into recovery mode in order to use the password reset tool. I’ve found the easiest way to do this is to start by fully booting your Mac.
From there, the process to enter recovery mode will depend on the type of Mac you have. For Macs with an Intel processor, press and hold commands AND R buttons on your keyboard, then press the power button. Keep Command + R until you see a progress bar appear below the Apple logo. You can also enter recovery mode by restarting your Mac and trying to time the keyboard combination Command + Rbut in my experience, starting with your Mac turned off is the most reliable method.
For him MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and Mac Mini that use Apple’s M1 processor, you’ll need to turn off the computer and then press and hold the power button until you’re presented with an options button. Click it and then select recovery. (We have one more full description of recovery mode on M1 Mac.)
With your Mac now in recovery mode, click on Municipal services in the menu bar followed by The terminal. A new window will appear, waiting for you to enter a command. type “reset password” as one word, without quotes and capitals Return.
Close the Terminal window, where you will then find the Reset Password tool. Follow the instructions, which include signing in with your Apple ID and then selecting the user account for which you need to change the password.
If you use FileVault, you have two options to reset your user account password.
If FileVault is enabled on your Mac, you can use your recovery key
FileVault is an optional MacOS feature that encrypts your Mac’s hard drive and all data stored on it. It’s usually enabled during initial setup, or you can enable it in System Preferences later.
If you have FileVault enabled, you have two additional options to reset the user’s password. You can wait up to a minute at the user login screen for a prompt to appear instructing you to press the power button to restart your Mac in Recovery mode. Follow the instructions to restart your computer, after which you will see a password reset window appear.
The other option is to use the recovery key that you should have written down when you enabled FileVault. Let’s be honest, most of us don’t, but if you did, you can enter the recovery key when prompted after three failed login attempts. Be sure to use capital letters and include dashes — they are required.
If you don’t reset your password using your Apple ID or recovery key, you’ll be able to see a window with other system recovery options like restoring from Time Machine, reinstalling MacOS, using Disk Utility, and Terminal. You can click Terminal, type resetpassword, and click Return to run the Reset Password assistant. If all else fails, you may want to reset your Mac by reinstalling macOS.
Every method we have described is an effective way to regain access to your account or if your child has forgotten the password. Of course, if you can use this to access your Mac, so can anyone with access to your computer. You can prevent this from happening, you just have to be more proactive during setup with saving recovery keys and remembering your password. Here’s how to shut down your Mac.