Mac boots to "Reset Password" instead of login screen

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Level 1

26 points

Mac boots to "Reset Password" instead of login screen

The problem occurs when you reboot and unexpectedly end up in a window entitled "Reset Password". This window is being served by the "Recovery Assistant" which is part of the recovery mechanism for the Mac and not the main macOS.

It is well documented in this website https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6670185 and other places that the only way out of this "Reset Password" state is to do a NVRAM reset. That is all fine and well, but I have had to do this virtually every time I reboot my Mac which is hundreds of times over the last few years. So I would like to find the root cause of this issue and stop my Mac from starting up in the "Recovery Assistant".

I was hoping that a clean install of macOS would solve the issue so a week ago I did blanked out my internal storage and did a fresh install of Catalina. But today, when rebooting, my Mac went into the dreaded "Recovery Assistant" again.

From looking at this https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6670185 page it seems that 900 other people have experienced this issue as well, found this page, and clicked on "I have this question too". So this problem is impacting a significant number of Mac users. There has to be a more preventative solution rather than resetting NVRAM after you find yourself stuck in the "Reset Password" state.

So my question is what is causing the Mac to unexpectedly boot into the "Recovery Assistant" and how to stop it from doing this in the future?

One more thing in case it is not clear from context - I never lost my password, nor did I request for it to be reset.

MacBook Pro

Posted on Jan 12, 2020 2:03 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

raina_b22

Community Specialist

Jan 14, 2020 2:37 PM in response to Rumboogy22

Hi Rumboogy22,

Thanks for posting your question. As I understand it, your Mac seems to be frequently starting up to the "Reset Password" window. I'm glad to share some information that may explain this.

If you're using FileVault on your Mac, it sounds like the text below is going to account for this. This is from the resource titled Change or reset the password of a macOS user account:

"Reset using the Reset Password assistant (FileVault must be on)

If FileVault is turned on, you might be able to reset your password using the Reset Password assistant:

Wait up to a minute at the login screen, until you see a message saying that you can use the power button on your Mac to shut down and start up again in Recovery OS. If you don't see this message, FileVault isn't on.
Press and hold the power button until your Mac turns off.
Press the power button again to turn on your Mac.
When the Reset Password window appears, follow the onscreen instructions to create a new password."

If your Mac has sat on the login screen for a bit and you're powering it down from there, it will start up to the Reset Password window on the next startup as described above. I hope this helps you.

Take care.

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Answer 2

HWTech

Level 9

56,108 points

Jan 14, 2020 10:41 PM in response to Rumboogy22

If there is an "Exit" button at the bottom left of the "Password Reset" window, then click it which may continue logging you in normally.

Try running Disk Utility First Aid to check the file system for issues.

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Mac boots to "Reset Password" instead of login screen

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