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Osuds Author

Level 1

4 points

Does Target Disk Mode Transfer Passwords?

Hi all! A few days ago my old MacBook Air developed a display issue where the LCD appears to be broken/damaged, so nothing is visible on the screen. It still turns on fine, but external monitors don't work. In an effort to save the data, I put it into target disk mode when booting up and was able to save the external hard drive on another Mac.

I'm going through the hard drive, but I don't see any of my old saved passwords in the files or the keychains. I was wondering if they transferred at all, as I could see why this option would be disabled for safety reasons. Do old saved passwords transfer to the external hard drive when the laptop is put into target disk mode?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Jan 27, 2022 11:02 PM

Top-ranking reply

woodmeister50

Level 7

20,479 points

Posted on Jan 28, 2022 2:42 AM

If you are using Migration Assistant to migrate your user account to another computer, then all should be transferred.

But if you are just "browsing" the other Mac's drive you won't find anything for the security reasons you already mention.

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Does Target Disk Mode Transfer Passwords?

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