Admin Password For Torrented Macos

 

Image credit: Apple

When you access a website, email account, network server, or other password-protected item, you can choose to save the password in your keychain so you don’t have to remember or enter the password each time. Each user on a Mac has a login keychain. The password for your login keychain matches the password you use to log in to your Mac.

  1. In the pop-up window, enter the new password, confirm it, and click on Set Password. Now you can restart the Mac from the Apple menu, and login with your new password. The above methods will help you reset forgotten MacOS Mojave password when you're locked out of the Admin account, without losing any files except the login Keychain.
  2. Trying to put in an admin password would get the security dialog to tell you you used an invalid user name or password. If anyone has root enabled, try it. Instead of typing root as the user name in security dialogs, type in System Administrator and use root's password.
  3. Feb 04, 2015 Typing the password and hitting return will submit the password for authentication, and assuming the password was entered correctly, the command will execute as expected. Typically a user only has to experience this once or twice to understand that’s how it works, but it remains a great question for users who are just starting to get exposure.
  4. It also has a password generator that helps users to create secure passwords using a combination of characters. If you are looking for a reliable yet free password manager for Mac, then LastPass is a good choice. Another reliable password manager for Mac is KeePassX. It is an open source and free app that comes in two versions.
  5. It is usually named Install macOS. Right-click on the file and select Show Package Contents. Click on Contents SharedSupport. Delete the Installlnfo.plist inside the folder. Type in your admin password to confirm the action. Click on the installer to run it again. How to Fix Catalina Installation Errors on Mac.
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In the early years of OS X, the Mac operating system was sold on a DVD. If a user forgot the administrator password, perhaps the simplest way (of several) would be to use that disc to set a new administrator password and regain control of the Mac. Nowadays, there is no install disc provided with OS X, and so an alternative method is necessary.

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To be clear, there are several technical ways to reset the administrator password on a Mac. Some of them are rather Unix-geeky and can make a novice user nervous. For the sake of completeness, I'll reference those methods at the end of this article. For now, we'll start with the easy ones.

I. Use Your Apple ID

When you first set up your Mac or upgraded the OS, The Setup Assistant will ask if you want to allow your Apple ID to reset the user (admin) password. If you did that, the box in System Preferences > Users & Groups was set. See below.

System Preferences > Users & Groups

Now, assuming you've forgotten your password, according to Apple...

If you incorrectly enter your account password at the login window three times, a message appears stating 'If you forgot your password, you can reset it using your Apple ID'. Click the arrow-in-a-circle icon to bring up the 'Reset Password' dialog. Enter your Apple ID and password, then click 'Reset Password' to proceed.

However, if you deselected that box, and later forgot your password, you're out of luck. One reason to deselect the box is extreme security. If, heaven forbid, Apple's system is hacked, your admin password could be compromised. On to the next technique.

II. Use Another Administrator Account

One administrator has the power to reset the password of another administrator. If you've previously set up your Mac with two administrator accounts, highly recommended, you can use the second admin account to login in and reset the password for the first administrator whose password has been forgotten. If you can't do that, on to the next technique.

III. Recovery Partition

If the techniques above aren't available, a very neat, simple way to reset the administrator password is to make use of the OS X Recovery Partition. This is a hidden partition on your boot drive introduced with OS X 10.7 Lion, so the technique I'll describe works with OS X 10.7 Lion, 10.8 Mountain Lion, OS X 10.9 Mavericks and OS X 10.10 Yosemite.

(The older method, mentioned in the introduction above, uses the install disc for OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and previous. It's discussed in this Apple support article # PH6317. It's no longer being updated by Apple, but if you're still using Snow Leopard or older, it still works.)

As a reminder, the person who first installed OS X on a Mac (or set it up out of the box) is the administrator. In this scenario, it's assumed that the administrator is you, and you know your account name but forgot the password.

Procedure

1. Restart the Mac.

Torrented

Admin Password For Torrented Macos Windows 7

If it's locked up,see:'Frozen: How to Force the Restart of a Mac.'

2. Right after you hear the chime, press and hold the Command and the R keys for a few seconds, then release. Soon, you'll see the Apple logo and spinning gear (or progress bar in Yosemite).

This will force the Mac to boot into OS X on the Recovery Partition that was created when you installed OS X 10.7 or later.

3. When booting is complete, you'll see a window of 'OS X Utilities.' You won't do anything there. Instead, you'll go to the Menu bar at the top and select Utilities > Terminal.

What you see after booting into Recovery Partition.

Don't worry. You won't have to do anything exotic on the Unix command line.

4. In the terminal window type the following and hit Return.

5. A new window will open, like this:

What you'll see after you enter 'resetpassword'

Click on the 1) volume of interest, 2) select the desired user account name in the popup. Then enter the new password (twice). A password hint is optional. Click 'Save.'

6. Go back to the Apple Menu at the top. Select OS X Utilities > Quit OS X Utilities. That will prompt you to restart the Mac.

If all went well, when the Mac restarts normally, you'll be able to log in to the administrator account with the new password you defined in step #5 above. From there you can manage the rest of of the users if necessary with System Preferences > Users & Groups.

IV. Keychain Reset

The OS X Keychain is where all your passwords are kept securely. If you forget your password, you no longer have access to that Keychain. As a result, when you log back in, you'll be asked to reset your Keychain. A new one will be created and unlocked with your new password. Because of that, you'll find yourself re-entering all the passwords that were stored in your old, now inaccessible Keychain. See Apple support article # PH18681.

V. Apple Support Articles

VI. References

For the more experienced user who may want to explore and learn, there is much more material available on resetting OS X passwords. Some of these other techniques are not as simple and should be practiced on a non-mission critical Mac, being mindful of their context and applicability.

Finally, if you run into a problem and can't navigate your way out, one thing to try is to contact an Apple retail store nearby. Make an appointment with an Apple Genius, and you'll get the help you need.

Note: Before your take your Mac into an Apple store for any repair or procedure, make sure you've made a Time Machine backup.

Alternatively, you can check the Apple Consultants Network.

More than four years ago, Alicia Katz Pollock wrote “Five Ways to Reset a Lost Administrator Password” (17 January 2014), and through the vagaries of Google’s search algorithm, it remains our most popular article to this day. Apparently, lots of people forget their macOS passwords or need to help friends or clients who have lost their passwords.

Unfortunately, that article is long past its shelf life, so here’s a current guide to resetting an admin password in macOS 10.13 High Sierra. As before, you can accomplish this task in a variety of ways, depending on how the Mac in question was set up and what information you know.

Reset the Password from Another Admin Account

The best-case scenario is that there is another admin account on the Mac for which the password is available. If that’s true, you can log into that account and change the password for the locked account:

  1. Open System Preferences > Users & Groups.
  2. Select the locked account in the list at the left. (If necessary, click the lock at the bottom of the window and provide your admin credentials.)
  3. Click Reset Password.
  4. Enter the new password, verify it, and (optionally) include a password hint.
  5. Click Change Password.

The only problem with this method is if the locked-out account is logged in, you can’t modify it. The easy solution is to restart the Mac, log in with the admin account whose password you do know, and carry on from there. To forcibly log out the other user while rebooting, you have to enter an admin username and password.

If you don’t currently have an extra admin account on the Macs you take care of, it’s a good idea to create one. Just make sure it has a strong password that you’ll remember.

Reset the Password Using an Apple ID

What if there is no other admin account available? You can use the Apple ID associated with the account in question to reset the admin password, but only if these conditions are true:

  • You know the Apple ID’s email address and password. If you don’t know the password, but you have access to the email address, you can reset the password at Apple’s Apple ID page.
  • The “Allow user to reset password using Apple ID” checkbox in System Preferences > Users & Groups must be selected. This setting won’t appear if FileVault is enabled.

To get to the point in the login process where you can reset the password, click the question mark that appears on the right side of the password field or just try to log in three times. After the third failed login attempt, the Mac will prompt you with the password reminder, if one is set, and give you the option of resetting the password using your Apple ID.

Admin Password For Torrented Macos Windows 10

Then enter the Apple ID email address and password and follow the onscreen instructions.

Reset the Password Using the Reset Password Assistant

If the “Allow user to reset password using Apple ID” option isn’t enabled, or the previous method doesn’t work, there’s still a way to use Apple ID credentials to reset the admin password. You’ll need to use Apple’s Reset Password assistant, which requires that you reboot into macOS Recovery and use Terminal:

Admin Password For Torrented Macos
  1. To enter macOS Recovery, restart the Mac. As it’s starting up, press and hold Command-R until you see the Apple logo, at which point you can let go.
  2. Once in macOS Recovery, ignore the main window and choose Utilities > Terminal, which opens a Terminal window.
  3. In that window, type resetpassword and press Return to open the Reset Password assistant.

Either way, once you’re in the Reset Password assistant, select “I Forgot My Password” and click Next.

If the account for which you wish to reset the password is a standard account, rather than an admin account, all you have to do is enter a new password.

For an admin account, you’ll instead have to enter the password for the account’s associated Apple ID. (If you don’t know it, you can click “Forgot Apple ID or password?” to move on to the Apple ID recovery process, which may require your trusted phone numbers.) Once you have entered the necessary password, you may be prompted for a two-factor authentication verification code, which will arrive on another device connected to that Apple ID. (If the Mac is your only Apple device, you should be able to receive the code from a phone call or SMS text message.) Finally, you’ll get to a screen where you can enter a new password and password hint.

Admin Password For Torrented Macos Mac

What If You Use FileVault?

FileVault encrypts the Mac’s boot volume, making it readable only after the appropriate login credentials are entered, typically those of the primary admin account. The process for resetting the admin password changes a bit if FileVault is turned on because FileVault eliminates the option to reset the password with Apple ID credentials.

Fortunately, the method remains simple: enter a random password three times at the login screen, after which you’ll be prompted to reset the password using your Apple ID or recovery key.

Admin Password For Torrented Macos 8

Apple notes that you may still have trouble logging in with the new password after all this, and if so, suggests that you use the Reset Password assistant to reset the password again, using the “My password doesn’t work when logging in” option and following the subsequent instructions.

I hope your FileVault recovery key is stored in a safe place, like 1Password or LastPass! If it wasn’t saved or you can’t access it, you may want to turn off FileVault before you get into a situation where you can’t log into the Mac. In my experience, it’s easier to back up the drive, erase it, and then restore it, than it is to turn off FileVault.

Dealing with the Keychain

The keychain is an encrypted container associated with each user account that stores login credentials for apps, network servers, AirPort base stations, and Web sites accessed in Safari. It’s easy to forget about the keychain because it is typically protected by the same password used to log in to the account. As a result, resetting the password for an admin account means that you can no longer access the keychain for that account. Sorry, but there’s no way to recover that information.

After resetting the admin password and logging in again, you will likely receive an alert that macOS was unable to unlock your login keychain. Click Create New Keychain to start fresh. If you don’t receive the alert and have problems with the keychain, follow these steps to reset it:

  1. Open Keychain Access from /Applications/Utilities.
  2. Choose Keychain Access > Preferences and click Reset My Default Keychains, which creates a new keychain with no password.
  3. Log out of the account by choosing Apple > Log Out Username.
  4. Log back into the account to tie the account password to the new keychain.

Admin Password For Torrented Macos Mac

Don’t Reset Passwords Willy-Nilly

Admin Password For Torrented Macos Version

As you can see, there are a variety of ways that you can reset a lost or forgotten admin password and regain access to a Mac, although they all depend on knowing either another admin password or an Apple ID password.

Admin Password For Torrented Macos Pc

However, don’t reset an admin password unless doing so is absolutely necessary because the login keychain will be lost in the process, and that will likely cause future annoyance.

If you’re not yet in this situation, take precautionary measures now! Be sure that your Macs’ passwords and any FileVault recovery keys are stored in secure locations that you—and other trusted users—can access easily. And of course, make sure to keep regular backups, which can help you recover from a multitude of sins.