Using a Mac as your personal machine is simple. All thanks to the great developers and engineers at Apple who made Mac OS X so versatile and easy to understand. A person who is using the system for the first time will have a great ease and understanding of how things work on a Mac. But that doesn’t mean it is not powerful. Mac based computers are extremely useful and powerful. So much so, that most of the creative people like audio, video and other type of creative artists prefer working on a Mac rather than on a Windows based machine.
But there are a few things that you might feel that interrupt your usage on a Mac. Like recovering a forgotten password. Can’t remember your Mac password? Don’t worry. Nobody in this world is perfect. In case you are locked out of your Mac computer, then we are here to help you. Follow the steps in this tutorial to Recover Forgotten Mac Password.
Reset your login password using Apple ID
If you have associated your Mac account with an Apple ID then it’s very easy to reset your login password. Just enter the wrong password three times and it will ask you if you have forgotten your password.
- From Apple menu choose ‘Restart’ or press power button to restart your Mac.
- Click on the account, enter wrong password three times and you are good to go. (Alternatively, you can click on the question mark to reset the password).
- Enter your Apple ID and password.
- Follow the instructions on the screen.
Note: If you have turned on FileVault Encryption then the above tutorial will not work for you. You can’t reset your password using your Apple ID.
Reset your login password using FileVault Recovery Key
When you setup FileVault recovery key option, it gives you two options: To store the key in your iCloud account or take a printout/write it down. We are assuming that you have the recovery key with you.
- Just enter the recovery key in the password filed and hit ‘enter.’ It will sign you in. Once you are logged in, go to ‘System Settings’ to change your password.
Note: If you don’t have access to your recovery key then there is no option to recover your account. You have to re-install OS X in order to use your computer.
In the event, if you have enabled UEFI password then there is no way you can reset password from OS X recovery or Re-install Mac OS X.
Reset password from OS X recovery
If you haven’t enabled FileVault Encryption and UEFI Password then you can reset password of any user on that specific Mac.
- Restart your Mac and hold Command + R.
- It will boot into OS X Recovery Mode.
- Select the volume containing the user account.
- Select the user account.
- Enter new password for that specific account and you are good to go.
Bonus: There is another way you can reset your Mac password if you have enabled FileVault Encryption. If your Mac has more than one user then you can log in into the second account (considering that it has the permission to decrypt) and create a new account for yourself or regain access to your old account.
