How to reset a password in OS X

23 Aug 2015

Have you ever forgotten the password to your Mac? Has someone changed it and locked you out? Thankfully, there is an easy way to get back in!

Follow these steps to get back in:

  1. Shutdown the Mac
  2. Boot into Recovery Mode by pressing the power button whilst holding 'Command + R'
  3. Choose Disk Utility
  4. At the top menu, select Utilities > Terminal
  5. In terminal type 'resetpassword' and press enter
  6. Select Macintosh HD
  7. Choose your user account
  8. Enter the new password twice and click save
  9. Restart the Mac, and login with the new password!

That's great, but now you want to protect your account so others can't reset your password? If you enable FileVault (System Preferences > Security & Privacy > FileVault) it will encrypt your Hard Drive with your current password. If you do this, and lose your current password there will be no way of getting back in. So be careful!

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Lewis Lebentz