RbMac0109

Q: internet- recovery saved my wifi- password; how to delete?

Hello,

 

I have a little problem. I wanted to re- install the Mac- OS via internet recovery. I noticed that the recovery is automatically connected to the internet. Maybe i have accidentally saved my wifi password in recovery mode. How can i delete it?

 

Thank you for your help

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4)

Posted on Sep 10, 2014 9:00 AM

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Q: internet- recovery saved my wifi- password; how to delete?

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  • by RbMac0109,

    RbMac0109 RbMac0109 Sep 11, 2014 5:39 PM in response to Kingoftypos
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    Sep 11, 2014 5:39 PM in response to Kingoftypos

    Did you mean without going to recovery? Then: Yes.

    Otherwise: No. I don't have to enter my SSID password when i launch any kind of recovery.

  • by RbMac0109,

    RbMac0109 RbMac0109 Sep 12, 2014 12:16 AM in response to RbMac0109
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 12, 2014 12:16 AM in response to RbMac0109

    * When i  start in any kind of 'recovery- mode' my mac connects automatically to the internet.

    When i start in 'normal- mode' it does not. I have to type in my wifi password every time.

  • by RbMac0109,

    RbMac0109 RbMac0109 Sep 12, 2014 10:41 AM in response to RbMac0109
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 12, 2014 10:41 AM in response to RbMac0109

    Any other suggestions anyone?

  • by RbMac0109,

    RbMac0109 RbMac0109 Sep 23, 2014 12:08 PM in response to RbMac0109
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 23, 2014 12:08 PM in response to RbMac0109

    Hello,

    I still haven't fixed the problem.

    Maybe i got a clue now. Maybe the recovery partition saves the passwords in an own file -- not connected to the usual Mac- System.

    Is there maybe a way to launch the system- settings on the recovery partition?

  • by Drew Reece,

    Drew Reece Drew Reece Sep 23, 2014 12:27 PM in response to RbMac0109
    Level 5 (7,485 points)
    Notebooks
    Sep 23, 2014 12:27 PM in response to RbMac0109

    This may be a dumb question but lets see…

     

    Do you have an ethernet connection on the iMac? Recovery mode will connect via that if it is available.

     

    Also if you have the ability to do so turn off your router & reboot into recovery mode. If you get a wifi connection you know it is connecting to something that isn't your own router.

     

    You can also click the wifi menu whilst holding alt - that will give you the MAC address and the 'security mode' please note them & post JUST the 'Security:' type here. Compare that info to the same network connection in normal boot to see if you are using the same network. The RSSI & transmit rate figures should be similar too.

  • by RbMac0109,

    RbMac0109 RbMac0109 Sep 23, 2014 12:56 PM in response to Drew Reece
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 23, 2014 12:56 PM in response to Drew Reece

    Hello, thank you for your quick response.

     

    - No, I don't have a ethernet- connection.

    - I shut down my router. My computer couldn't connect to the router via wifi.

    - The network- stats are the same in normal and recovery mode -- so the network it connects to is the same. The network is secured via the WPA2- standard.

  • by Drew Reece,

    Drew Reece Drew Reece Sep 23, 2014 2:55 PM in response to RbMac0109
    Level 5 (7,485 points)
    Notebooks
    Sep 23, 2014 2:55 PM in response to RbMac0109

    Double check Keychain access - the Wifi password is saved in the system keychain (not System roots or the user keychain). I'd expect recovery mode to be able to use that if the disk is OK.

     

     

    Otherwise it is just weird - I cannot reproduce this on a Mac running 10.9.

    Personally I'd change the router's wifi password & see if it stops happening. My assumption is that the password was saved when the install or upgrade happened, but I was under the impression that recovery mode didn't save the password. I used ethernet when I installed so it's possible I have different config on the recovery partition. If it is cached on the recovery partition it should stop automatically connecting, if it is using keychain it will reconnect after you re-add the password in a normal boot.

     

    Do you have any profiles installed? If it was setup with deployment tools like Profile manager I would understand this behaviour however it seems odd.

    Profiles create a new item called 'Profiles' in System Preferences when you have them installed.

  • by jimmyfisher,

    jimmyfisher jimmyfisher Oct 19, 2015 3:54 PM in response to RbMac0109
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    Oct 19, 2015 3:54 PM in response to RbMac0109

    Necro because this thread is first on google.

    Anyway you want to reset NVRAM to resolve this. Internet recovery's stuff is stored there and has nothing to do with the Keychain or anything else accessible from within OS X.

     

    How to Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

  • by Drew Reece,

    Drew Reece Drew Reece Oct 19, 2015 4:36 PM in response to jimmyfisher
    Level 5 (7,485 points)
    Notebooks
    Oct 19, 2015 4:36 PM in response to jimmyfisher

    jimmyfisher wrote:

     

    Necro because this thread is first on google.

    Anyway you want to reset NVRAM to resolve this. Internet recovery's stuff is stored there and has nothing to do with the Keychain or anything else accessible from within OS X.

     

    How to Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

    If that is the case you should be able to list all NVRAM variables via this next line in Terminal…

    nvram -p

    Here is the manual for that command -> https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/ man8/nvram.8.html

     

    It would be interesting to see if that actually contained the password or the SSID before resetting. If that is the case feedback to Apple should be posted - that page does not explain that the recovery partition saves the wifi password there & it should be documented.

    http://www.apple.com/feedback/

  • by jimmyfisher,

    jimmyfisher jimmyfisher Oct 19, 2015 4:39 PM in response to Drew Reece
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 19, 2015 4:39 PM in response to Drew Reece

    Give me a couple hours, and I'll reply here with more information. I had to sort this out myself just a little while ago. I did NVRAM and SMC reset before attempting again so I'm not positive which step actually took care of it though I had assumed NVRAM. I'll check all of the above as well as your tip and report back.

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