Mac startup rejects my password even after resetting it through recovery mode

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anmol2005 Author

Level 1

4 points

Mac startup rejects my password even after resetting it through recovery mode

I had started the file vault encrypting on my mac, and knowing that it takes hours, I went to sleep. Waking up, I went to my macbook, and realised that the battery had discharged. I connected power, and started up the mac. I entered my password, it rejected my password. So, I reset it through recovery mode. After resetting it, it still rejected my password. After resetting my password three more times, it kept rejecting.

So I went through some apple discussions, and tried to boot into Single User mode (Cmd+S), I tried it 4 times, I can't even go to the single user mode. Then I tried to Safe Boot (Shift), even that doesn't work.

It straight up goes to the enter password startup page.

After putting a lot of thought, I decided to erase my mac, I can't even erase it. It says that Couldn't Open device. : (-69877)

Then I went to contact Apple Support, there it rejected the password of my Apple Id, even though I had just reset my password thrice with that(I'm creating this post with the same ID). So, I entered the Serial Number of My mac. It said that the serial number was invalid (something that has never happened before). I do remember buying my macbook from a valid and legal Apple Reseller.

Conclusion: Mac rejects password, I can use recovery mode, I can reset it, It will continue to reject it, I can't Safe Boot, I can't go into single user mode, I can't contact support.

Specifics: Macbook air (2013), 13 inch, bought in 2016, MacOS Catalina, bought from "Maple, Premium Reseller".

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jun 5, 2020 11:25 PM

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Answer 1

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HWTech

Level 9

55,934 points

Jun 6, 2020 6:01 PM in response to anmol2005

Try booting into Internet Recovery Mode (Command + Option + R) to see if you can run Disk Utility First Aid on both the physical drive and the container/volume. To see the physical drive you need to click on "View" within Disk Utility and select "Show All Devices" before the physical drive appears in the left pane of Disk Utility.

If this doesn't work, then the unexpected interruption may have damaged the file system beyond repair in which case you should erase the whole physical drive and either reinstall macOS or restore from a backup. This Apple article explains how to access the physical drive and erase the physical drive:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208496

If you don't have a backup and need your data recovered, then you will most likely need to contact a professional data recovery service such as Drive Savers or Ontrack. Both vendors provide free estimates and both are recommended by Apple. It is doubtful any consumer level data recovery apps will work when the drive is partially encrypted and partially unencrypted.

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Mac startup rejects my password even after resetting it through recovery mode

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