Incorrect password when booting Mac in target disk mode.

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Level 1

13 points

Incorrect password when booting Mac in target disk mode.

So long story short, I cracked the display on my new 2020 MacBook Pro and am trying to gain access to it with an older MacBook Pro (late 2013 model) since I cannot see anything on its display. I have put the newer model with the cracked screen in target disk mode and connected it to the older Mac (both are running Mac OS Catalina) via Thunderbolt and it recognizes it just fine and allows me access to its hard drive when I enter the password. The issue is that when I select the MacBook with the broken display as the startup disk and reboot, I get an incorrect password error on the login screen and I know I am entering the correct password I have always used to log in on that Mac. Anyone know what the problem could be and how to fix it?

Posted on Jul 21, 2021 12:28 PM

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Answer 1

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Allan Jones

Level 9

72,176 points

Jul 21, 2021 12:53 PM in response to lutro95

What 2020 MacBook Pro? Intel or Apple Silicon?

This Apple guide suggests that Target Disk Mode is not available for M1 Macs:

Boot modes for a Mac with Apple silicon - Apple Support

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Answer 2

lutro95 Author

Level 1

13 points

Jul 21, 2021 2:33 PM in response to Allan Jones

It's an Intel model. When prompted to restart the computer and enter recovery mode to reset the password, I get a black screen with a prohibited symbol (while circle with a slash through it). Can that mean my late 2013 MacBook Pro is incompatible with the newer one? I simply want to use the older Mac's screen, keyboard, trackpad etc. to run the damaged one on. I've done this before in the past with Mac OS installed on an external hard drive when I was having issues with a Mac and it worked just fine. Not exactly sure what the problem I'm having now could be.

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Answer 3

HWTech

Level 9

60,332 points

Jul 21, 2021 8:28 PM in response to lutro95

In theory it should work, however, the authentication with the T2 security chip on the 2020 model can be problematic. I've encountered issues where the functionality is buggy even when trying to boot into Recovery Mode as authentication can sometimes fail. If you have more than one admin user account on the 2020 laptop, then try entering the password for the other account.

Otherwise you can try connecting an external display. You may need to enable mirroring. If you have trouble getting to your apps and are unable to mirror the display, then you should try putting the 2020 laptop into Clamshell mode by connecting the charger (plug it directly into the laptop to be safe), a USB keyboard & mouse, and an external display, then closing the lid of the laptop (you may need to reboot the laptop and close the lid immediately after the startup chime). It can be tricky to get an external display to work properly when the built-in display is still seen by the laptop. It can be frustrating and may take several attempts.

You should always have frequent and regular backups. An SSD can fail at any time without any warning signs. Plus it is impossible to recover accidentally deleted data from an SSD after the Trash has been emptied. A Mac with a T2 security chip has even more ways you can permanently lose access to your data so backups are even more important since even a professional data recovery service may not be able to recover any data from a 2018+ Mac.

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Incorrect password when booting Mac in target disk mode.

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