There are no password hints and you can’t call it to mind, even though you’ve already tried to enter all pet names. You forgot Mac password and can’t access any of your accounts. This is provided to you when you first set the encryption software up, and it’s worth writing this down and keeping it safe – you’ll be effectively locked out of your Mac and all its contents if you can’t remember the key when required.Hope this is just a “what-if” for you, but let’s imagine it happened. Well, the answer is pretty simple and you don’t have to pay a penny for it: FileVault.įileVault, built into the core of macOS, encrypts the contents of your Mac and disables the Password Reset utility both in Recovery Mode and in the Users & Groups menu without a Recovery Key specific to your account. Now that you’ve successfully changed your Mac password, you’ve probably realised just how easy it is to access somebody else’s Mac account and are now wondering “how can I protect myself?”. How can I stop others from resetting my password? As with the above method, this will lock you out of your Keychain, so when prompted, click Create New Keychain to start from scratch.

You should then be able to boot up your Mac and log in to your account with your new password.

Click the Apple icon, and click Shut Down.

You’ll see a pop-up informing you that although the password has changed, the Keychain Password remains unchanged.

Enter the new password, re-enter it in the verification field and add a password hint.

Select the account you’d like to change.Select the volume containing the account – this is usually your main hard drive.Enter resetpassword, all one word with lower-case letters, and then hit the Enter key.Select Disk Utility and click Continue.

Continue to hold Command + R until you see an Apple logo appear.

Press the Power button while holding Command + R.

Follow on-screen prompts to reset your password.

Click the arrow next to ‘Reset it using your Apple ID’.

Click the Question mark next to the password field.

On the login screen, click the icon of the account you’d like to access.

If you linked your account to your Apple ID, follow these steps: This links your Mac to iCloud, allowing you to sync data including contacts, photos, videos, messages and more between your iPhone, iPad and Mac, and also works as a verification method during the password process to prove that you really are the owner of the account. When you first set up your user account, you’ll be prompted to log in with an Apple ID. You can do this by heading to System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Options and clicking Change Password. Once you do eventually get back into the account, we’d recommend setting up a password hint to avoid this situation in future. If you didn’t set up a password hint, or if the hint you used is a little too cryptic for your liking, you’ll have to move on to the next method.

How to change mac password