Active6 years ago
This question already has an answer here:
To reset the administrator password when running Lion or later: Restart the Mac while holding down the Option key, and double-click the icon for the Recovery partition. A Mac OS X Utilities screen appears. Choose Utilities > Terminal. In Terminal, type resetpassword.
- How can I get admin access to a Mac without knowing the current password? 2 answers
In the event that you have forgotten the login password to your Mac (for whatever reasons). What possibilities exist to reset the password without having the OS X installation disc(s) ?
SimonSimon3,73020 gold badges51 silver badges79 bronze badges
marked as duplicate by bmike♦Aug 26 '13 at 12:13
This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.
2 Answers
Recovery HD
The simplest way may be to use the Recovery HD.
- Boot into the Recovery HD (hold ⌥ alt/option at boot and select the Recovery HD).
- Once it has booted, click Utilities, then Terminal.
- Type
resetpassword
then ↩ enter. - Follow the instructions.
Restarting Setup Assistant
In addition to using the Recovery HD, you can also restart the Setup Assistant, create a new Administrator account, then use that account to reset the password to the original account.
You can restart the Setup Assistant by performing the following:
- Boot into Single User Mode (hold ⌘ cmd + S at boot).
- Mount the drive by typing
/sbin/mount -uw /
then ↩ enter. - Remove the Apple Setup Done file by typing
rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
then ↩ enter. - Reboot by typing
reboot
then ↩ enter. - Continue setup, making sure not to transfer data.
- Setup a new administrator account. You can use this account to reset the password to the original account (through System Preferences → Users & Groups).
The new account can then be deleted once the original account has been recovered.
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Another option (in addition to using
resetpassword
or creating a new admin account) is to use dscl in single user mode.![Password Password](/uploads/1/2/5/7/125714816/783559723.jpg)
- Hold command-S on startup.
- Run
mount -uw /
.fsck -fy
is not needed. - Run
launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.opendirectoryd.plist
in 10.7 and later, orlaunchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist
in 10.6 and earlier. - Run
dscl . -passwd /Users/username
(whereusername
is replaced with the username of the account but-passwd
is not replaced with anything) and enter a new password. If there is an error aboutcom.apple.DirectoryServices.plist
, you can ignore it. - Run
reboot
.
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Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged macosmountain-lionpasswordlogin .
Active6 years ago
This question already has an answer here:
- How can I get admin access to a Mac without knowing the current password? 2 answers
In the event that you have forgotten the login password to your Mac (for whatever reasons). What possibilities exist to reset the password without having the OS X installation disc(s) ?
SimonSimon3,73020 gold badges51 silver badges79 bronze badges
marked as duplicate by bmike♦Aug 26 '13 at 12:13
This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.
2 Answers
Recovery HD
The simplest way may be to use the Recovery HD.
- Boot into the Recovery HD (hold ⌥ alt/option at boot and select the Recovery HD).
- Once it has booted, click Utilities, then Terminal.
- Type
resetpassword
then ↩ enter. - Follow the instructions.
Restarting Setup Assistant
In addition to using the Recovery HD, you can also restart the Setup Assistant, create a new Administrator account, then use that account to reset the password to the original account.
You can restart the Setup Assistant by performing the following:
- Boot into Single User Mode (hold ⌘ cmd + S at boot).
- Mount the drive by typing
/sbin/mount -uw /
then ↩ enter. - Remove the Apple Setup Done file by typing
rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
then ↩ enter. - Reboot by typing
reboot
then ↩ enter. - Continue setup, making sure not to transfer data.
- Setup a new administrator account. You can use this account to reset the password to the original account (through System Preferences → Users & Groups).
The new account can then be deleted once the original account has been recovered.
![Mac Mac](/uploads/1/2/5/7/125714816/488804429.png)
22.3k48 gold badges142 silver badges188 bronze badges
grg♦grg145k25 gold badges230 silver badges341 bronze badges
Another option (in addition to using
resetpassword
or creating a new admin account) is to use dscl in single user mode.- Hold command-S on startup.
- Run
mount -uw /
.fsck -fy
is not needed. - Run
launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.opendirectoryd.plist
in 10.7 and later, orlaunchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist
in 10.6 and earlier. - Run
dscl . -passwd /Users/username
(whereusername
is replaced with the username of the account but-passwd
is not replaced with anything) and enter a new password. If there is an error aboutcom.apple.DirectoryServices.plist
, you can ignore it. - Run
reboot
.
82k12 gold badges176 silver badges242 bronze badges