MacBook Pro stuck on "Enter Old Password" screen after Big Sur 11.2.2 update

Question

Level 1

5 points

MacBook Pro stuck on "Enter Old Password" screen after Big Sur 11.2.2 update

I've just today applied the latest Big Sur 11.2.2 update on my work MacBook Pro (Model 15,1, it's a mid 2018).

I was previously on 11.2.1 and I've never had any problems with other upgrades from Catalina or earlier.

Anyway, after installing the 11.2.2 update and rebooting, macOS asked for my username and password, which I duly entered.

Rather than logging in though, it presented me with a screen as follows:

Enter Old Password

[picture of laptop]

MacBookPro15,1

[computername]

Enter the password you previously used to unlock this MacBook Pro.

Your password is encrypted and cannot be read by Apple.

[password input field]

I entered the password, and then an activity spinner appeared and all the UI controls grayed out.

I thought I'd leave it for a little while, but two hours later it's still spinning away.

This feels like it's too long to actually be doing anything useful, and rather it appears stuck, but I'm a little scared to reboot it, in case it gets even worse.

Additionally, I can't find any answers on Google or DuckDuckGo; nothing comes up for any of the phrases shown in the dialog. Help! Do I just reboot it and cross my fingers that no further problems come up?

Posted on Mar 1, 2021 3:46 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

xborland Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 1, 2021 7:20 PM in response to xborland

After leaving it for 8 hours overnight, it was still stuck on this screen. Left with no other apparent choice, I rebooted the mac.

Upon reboot it let me log in successfully, and it was OK after that.

I noticed that post reboot, my iCloud account had been signed out of, and when I went to sign back in again it asked me for the "password previously used". This also got stuck and spun forever, but because it was in the context of the Settings app I was able to quit, and then do a "reset encrypted data" on my iCloud account to enable it.

Note for future travelers: Reset Encrypted Data means you effectively lose lots of data. As it was a work machine I didn't have anything in the iCloud account so I didn't mind, but you do NOT want to do this on a personal account

Reply

Answer 2

pivrous

Level 1

4 points

Mar 29, 2021 3:28 AM in response to xborland

I encountered the exact same issue, but thanks to your post I didn't wait hours to reboot it, which solved the problem.

In my case however, my iCloud account is still signed in, and everything works all right, I didn't experience any data loss.

Reply

MacBook Pro stuck on "Enter Old Password" screen after Big Sur 11.2.2 update

Similar questions