Standard User has temporary password after migration?

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Level 1

17 points

Standard User has temporary password after migration?

I was the Administrator of our previous desktop running El Capitan, and there was one Standard User. We got a newer desktop, now running 10.15.7 Catalina. I transferred files, apps, etc. with the help of Time Machine, Migration Assistant, and "tbirdvet" (thank you!). I have the same Administrator password, and it works fine, and the Standard User intends to have her same password. During migration, we got a message saying "The Standard User has this temporary password: xxxyyy... ; write it down so it isn't forgotten." Catalina is now working pretty well, but the Standard User's temporary password is rejected when she attempts to log in with it. Any experts know what we should do next?

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jun 13, 2021 6:51 PM

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Answer 1

jcasapple

Community Specialist

Jun 14, 2021 12:56 PM in response to Martin6469

Hi Martin6469,

We appreciate you reaching out for help regaining access to your this user account you transferred over to your newer Mac. We'd love to help in any way we can.

To ensure we understand exactly what's going on, let us know if you've already attempted entering the password from your previous Mac when signing into the user account.

If so, we can recommend the steps in this guide to attempt to reset the user account password:

If you forgot your Mac login password - Apple Support

Let us know if this helps, or if you've got any questions.

Have a great day!

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Answer 2

jcasapple

Community Specialist

Jun 15, 2021 7:26 AM in response to Martin6469

Hi Martin6469,

Thanks for clarifying. In that case, we can certainly recommend attempting to use the previous password, and if it's not accepted, you'll want to follow those steps in the link we provided to reset the login password.

If you should encounter an issue resetting the password, refer to the instructions in this guide:

If you can't reset your Mac login password - Apple Support

Let us know how it goes.

Take care!

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Answer 3

Martin6469 Author

Level 1

17 points

Jun 16, 2021 1:46 PM in response to jcasapple

Hi jcasapple: The Standard User tried to log in to her account with her old password and it didn't work, so she said, "I'm going to try to change whatever the new mysterious password is back to my original password in 'Users and Groups'." It worked, however, we were annoyed to find that both our accounts' Bookmarks and Reading Lists were mingled in the Administrator account, and in the Standard account! I think this resulted from her turning iCloud on in her password reset process, because there was a reference to this weird outcome a year or two ago in this forum. Bookmarks and Reading List are stored in a single separate file for each user, and somehow iCloud mingles them. Apple should look into this commingling since they advertise Mac OS as set up to keep several users of one Mac completely separated.

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Answer 4

Martin6469 Author

Level 1

17 points

Jun 14, 2021 1:17 PM in response to jcasapple

Thanks jcasapple. The Standard User has not tried her previous password because the message we got from Migration Assistant "Don't forget this temporary password" sounded pretty ominous. Neither of us are Mac experts, so we thought we should look for advice before proceeding further. What do you think?

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Answer 5

jcasapple

Community Specialist

Jun 17, 2021 7:33 AM in response to Martin6469

Hi Martin6469,

Thanks for keeping us updated. We're glad to hear she was able to sign into her account after resetting the password.

Regarding your Bookmarks and Reading List, do you recall whether an Apple ID was signed into both accounts for iCloud at any point? For example, was the administrator's iCloud account signed into her standard user during the initial setup?

If not, was her iCloud account inadvertently signed in on the administrator's account when attempting to reset the user password? If either of these occurred, it would explain why Bookmarks and Reading List would have merged.

Otherwise, it's certainly not expected behavior, and we appreciate you bringing it to our attention. At this point, we recommend manually erasing unwanted bookmarks and items in Reading List.

Have a great day!

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Answer 6

Martin6469 Author

Level 1

17 points

Jun 17, 2021 3:32 PM in response to jcasapple

Thanks jcasapple; When the strange account commingling happened, I believe the Administrator account had iCloud turned off; then the Standard User turned iCloud on for her and only her account during her password reset process in "Users and Groups." (Of course, this happened in the Administrator account since this was the only available account.) During this process, she was asked for the Apple ID and the Apple password, which I, the Administrator, then put in, then she put in her desired Standard User password.

Does this make sense? Should we have done something else?

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Answer 7

jcasapple

Community Specialist

Jun 20, 2021 7:24 AM in response to Martin6469

Hi Martin6469,

Got it. This is helpful, as it does explain what happened. When the Apple ID of the standard user was signed into the administrator account, all contacts were synced at that point. When an account is signed out of iCloud, the option to keep your synced contacts on the computer is presented. It sounds like the contacts remained on the computer, and then when you signed into the Apple ID of the administrator, the contacts on the computer merged with the ones in iCloud.

To prevent this in the future if you should ever switch iCloud accounts in a user account, we recommend deleting all synced contacts from the Mac when signing out of iCloud. This step does not delete the contacts in iCloud, but only from the computer. Then when the new Apple ID is signed into iCloud, only the iCloud Contacts from that account will appear.

Have a great day!

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Standard User has temporary password after migration?

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