Ninglow

Keep your passwords safe

• Sep 15, 2019  How to Disable the Login Password on Mac When Booting Up. Otherwise known as Automatic Login, this option makes it so your Mac goes straight to the desktop after booting up.No user selection, no password requirement. It’s still possible to have other user accounts on the Mac, but you’ll need to Switch Users from the menu pane at the top of the screen to access them.
• Aug 13, 2019  Instead, you can enter your Recovery Key directly into the password prompt of the login screen. This—aside from the password—is the only thing that can decrypt the files stored on your Mac and give you access to them. Assuming you have this recovery key, you can type the recovery key into the password field on the login screen.

Oct 18, 2016  These are the three best ways to reset the Mac login password when you forgot it. For better security, note down your password somewhere, and keep that safe! Hope you like these methods. Oct.18, 2016 17:11:32 pm / Posted by Vicky Tiffany to Windows 7. Vicky is a professional Windows technology author with many experience, focusing on computer.

We all have dozens and even hundreds of passwords to remember. Your Mac password, like a credit card PIN number, is one of the most important, so it can be a nightmare if you forget it. But it’s not the end of the world. There are a few easy ways you can reset your Mac password and make sure you don’t lose it ever again.

Mac Separate Login And Software Password Windows 10

How to recover a forgotten Mac password

Secure experience is something you can’t emphasize enough while dealing with Apple devices. Hence the importance of a safe Mac password. While it could be easy to physically steal a computer, there’s little chance someone can mess with your data unless they know the password. So it’s wise to take a few precautionary measures to avoid losing it and make it easier to recover.

Easy way to reset passwords

Setapp has a reset scenario catered for you if you forget Mac login password. Just saying.

Use Recovery Mode

Hope this is just a “what-if” for you, but let’s imagine it happened. You forgot Mac password and can’t access any of your accounts. There are no password hints and you can’t call it to mind, even though you’ve already tried to enter all pet names. For such cases, there’s Apple’s Recovery Mode.

To activate the Recovery Mode:

1. Turn off your computer and hold the power button + Command R. Wait for the loading bar to appear on the screen while your Mac boots to Recovery.
2. Next, choose Disk Utility > Continue > Utilities Terminal.
3. Type “resetpassword” (in one word) and click Return.
4. Go to the main hard drive and choose your user account.
5. Lastly, change Mac password, create a hint to easily recollect it in future, and click save. You’ll be able to use the new password after a restart.

Reset password with Apple ID

If you have an Apple ID tied to your user account on Mac, you can use it to reset password from the login window. The option should be available by default. Otherwise, you can enable it in System Preferences > Users & Groups > Allows user to reset password using Apple ID.

To make a go of this, click on the question mark next to the password field that you see on the login screen. Agree to the option to reset with Apple ID and enter wrong login credentials three times to be able to create the new password. Once you get to the reset screen, input a new password two times, create a hint, and save.

Change password from another account

Lucky you if you have more than one user account on your Mac. Or, if your mother/brother/girlfriend/dog ever use your computer to log in to their personal accounts (yes, now you owe them a thank you). Here’s how to recover Mac password, using another account you have a password to:

1. Log out of your admin user account
2. Choose another account and enter the password
3. Go to System Preferences > Users & Groups > Lock icon
4. Use the password for the alternative account to unlock
5. Reset the password for your admin account (type in a password > verify > create a hint > save).

Good news: You have a new password. Bad news: You still won’t be able to log in to your account if you don’t have the Keychain password and can’t create the new one. The thing is, to unlock all the features that require Mac Password, you should be able to access the Apple’s password management system, Keychain. Unless you remember the access data, you’ll have to create the new password with an admin account. If the account you used isn’t registered as admin, you’ll have to go for the Recovery Mode option.

Get a hint for your password

If you forgot Apple password, you can recover it with a hint. This is, by far, the most painless way to win back your access. Therefore, we encourage you to create hints each time you choose a new password. It takes a few simple actions:

1. Access System Preferences > Users & Groups
2. Click on the Lock icon > user name
3. Select the option to change password and add a phrase/word you associate with a newly created password in “Password hint (recommended).”

One more important thing. To ensure your password hint shows up when you need it, you should allow your Mac to display hints. In the Users $ Groups, click on Login options and check the box next to “Show password hints.” Ready to go.

To see the hint you created, access User Groups in the System Preferences, unlock to make changes, and press Return three times. After the third time, your hint will appear right below the password field. Unless you’ve created the hint ages ago, this should help to refresh your memory.

Resort to Target Disk Mode

Another option is to access the hard drive of your Mac via another computer. Basically, Target Disk Mode allows you to save any data from the your Mac’s hard drive.

To enter the Target Disk Mode

1. Shut down your computer and use FireWire or Thunderbolt cable to connect another Mac.
2. Click on the power button while holding the T button and wait for the hard drive to appear on the screen.

That’s it. You can now easily access and recover any data from your Mac.

Always protect your data

Resetting password could make your Mac vulnerable. Particularly, Recovery Mode is kind of a security hole: If someone can get access to your computer, it’s pretty easy to boot into recovery and reset password. To prevent this from happening you should encrypt the data on your hard drive with a built-in FileVault utility. Ensure you unlock Password Reset with Disk Utility and activate FileVault on your Mac.

To activate FileVault in the Apple System

1. Go to System Preferences
2. Click on Security & Privacy > FileVault
3. Unlock to enter your login and password
4. Select “Turn on FileVault”
5. Save Recovery key and password that you receive upon activating FileVault

Find lost passwords using Keychain Access

In case you’ve lost one of your internet logins or don’t remember the password to your WiFi, it’s very likely that you can recover it using your Mac’s native password manager — Keychain Access.

To recover a password with Keychain Access:

1. Launch the utility from your Applications folder
2. Use the search field in the top-right corner to filter for what you’re looking for
3. Double-click on the wanted item
4. Check Show Password and enter the Keychain Password to reveal it

Although Keychain Access can be very useful in finding passwords you thought were lost forever, it’s rarely used intentionally due to its clunky interface and messy save-all password behavior. However, using a password manager nowadays in general is a must. And if you have to start somewhere, look no further than Secrets.

Store passwords on Mac, securely

Grab Secrets along with your Setapp perks and worry not about privacy.

Store passwords using Secrets

Secrets is a simple but robust password manager that can become your central point of reference when looking for passwords, WiFi passcodes, secure notes, credit card numbers, and other personal information.

The app is supported by the industry-standard PGP encryption so none of your files will ever get exposed. And no, saving your passwords in the Notes app or on paper is not a good idea. Thankfully, Secrets is very easy to use.

1. Download and launch Secrets
2. Proceed through the setup guide
3. To save your first password just click on the plus icon next to the search field and fill out all the necessary information

Change Password Mac Mail

Additionally, Secrets has an importing feature where you can download all your existing passwords from other managers or even as a simple .csv file. And moving forward, Secrets can be populated through a handy browser extension with a quick built-in password generator.

How To Change Password On Mac

Taking all the necessary measures to stay safe online is a must. This includes having good password hints for your Mac, knowing how to navigate through the Recovery Mode, and of course using a good password manager like Secrets, which is available for a free trial through Setapp, a platform of over 120 best Mac utilities that can help you out in just about any scenario.

Every time you unlock your Mac, you need to input the password to get through. However, if you are lazy like me, then you might not want to login to your Mac every now and then. Well, there are workarounds to bypass Mac password. In this post, we have discussed two methods which could work to unlock Mac without password, one when you have the access and other when you have forgotten your Mac login password.

Mac Separate Login And Software Password Change

Condition 1: User Can Still Access Mac

If you can access your Mac, then you can activate automatic login for any of the user accounts for Mac. To do that, follow these steps:

• Click Apple icon and Go to System Preferences.

• Now click Users & Groups.

• You will get Users & Groups window, click padlock sign at the bottom left corner and enter a password to make the settings editable with administrator rights.

• Locate Login Options from the left panel of the window. You will get Automatic Login Option. To activate automatic login without a password, toggle to turn on.

• You will get a list to select the certain username for which you want automatic login.

• A dialog box will appear. Enter the user password to confirm the changes.

• Restart your Mac and now you can automatically login to your Mac with the chosen user.

See Also: How To Keep Your Notes Password Protected On Mac

Condition 2: User Has Forgotten Password To Login

It is sad and unfortunate if you have forgotten your Mac login credentials, but luckily, you can bypass the forgotten Mac password.

You get to log in to your Mac with two methods:

1. Resetting Administrator Password
2. Create New Administrator Password

After using any of the two you can set the Automatic login to any of the users you want.

Method 1 – Use Another Administrator To Reset Password

If you have access to another admin account then it is the easiest way to reset forgotten password for your Admin account. Follow these steps to get it done-

• Turn on your Mac and log in with another administrator account.

• Go to Apple icon, select System Preferences->Users & Groups. Click padlock and enter an admin password to unlock the settings.

• Now choose the admin account for which you want to reset a password. Click Reset password beside user account.

• You will get an option to enter a new password and re-enter to confirm. Once done, click Change Password, this will reset the password. You can remove the password by not entering any password and save changes.
• Now login to the admin account for which you have reset a password, and restart your Mac.

Method 2 – Use Apple ID to reset admin account password

This step would work only if the admin account is associated with Apple ID on your Mac. If it is, then follow these steps to reset a password on your Mac.

• Turn on your Mac and choose admin account with forgotten password to sign in.
• Enter an incorrect password and you will get a message to reset a password with Apple ID, click on it.
• Now enter Apple ID credentials and click Reset Password.
• You will get a message, click OK. If you change the password for the user, you will create a new keychain.
• Now input a new password, twice to confirm and click Reset Password. This will reset a password with Apple ID.
• Now use new admin password to access Mac and create a new keychain.

Note: If you don’t remember Apple ID credentials, you can reset it from the login page by answering security questions.

See Also: How to Restore Your Mac With Time Machine

Method 3: Use Password Recovery Utility:

Mac has an inbuilt Password Recovery tool. This should be considered as the last resort. You can use this method even if you don’t have Apple ID associated with the admin account or don’t have another admin account. Follow these steps to reset your password:

• Turn on your Mac and press and hold Command and R key together when you see grey colored screen till you get Apple logo.
• Now, Mac will start in recovery mode.
• Once it comes up, click Go To->Utilities->Terminal.

• In the terminal window, type resetpassword and hit Return key. Don’t close the terminal window.

• Go to Reset Password Utility, select the user for which you want to reset password then click Next.

• Now if your admin account is associated with Apple ID then enter the password for Apple ID. If not, you will get to reset a new password for your admin account.

• Once done, reboot your Mac to save the changes. You can use the same method again if you want to reset a password for more than one accounts.

So, in this way you can reset a password for your admin account and set automatic login for easily to unlock Mac without a password. Try them and let us know if you face any issues in Bypassing Mac password