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I just bought my MacBook Pro online. its used, so its not brand new. Everything seemed fine but when I tried to open the disk "Macintosh", I need to type a password and I don't know the password... its not one of my passwords. and I asked the guy who sold it, but when I tried the password he gave me, that didn't work either. so I wonder what I can try to do now?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
MacBook Pro (2020 and later)
Make sure the Mac does not have a firmware lock enabled by Option Booting to see whether you get the Apple boot picker menu or the padlock screen. If you see the padlock screen, then return the laptop for a full refund since there is nothing you can do about it.
When booting from the macOS installer, make sure to use Disk Utility to erase the whole physical drive (Intel only) which does not require any macOS password. It will work to erase a Mac with Filevault enabled as well. If you have a 2018+ Mac with a T2 security chip or an M1 Mac, then you should "Restore" the firmware instead which will also reset the security enclave as well as perform an Internet Recovery Mode install of macOS.
Revive or restore an Intel-based Mac using Apple Configurator - Apple Support
Revive or restore a Mac with Apple silicon using Apple Configurator - Apple Support
Make sure the Mac does not have a firmware lock enabled by Option Booting to see whether you get the Apple boot picker menu or the padlock screen. If you see the padlock screen, then return the laptop for a full refund since there is nothing you can do about it.
When booting from the macOS installer, make sure to use Disk Utility to erase the whole physical drive (Intel only) which does not require any macOS password. It will work to erase a Mac with Filevault enabled as well. If you have a 2018+ Mac with a T2 security chip or an M1 Mac, then you should "Restore" the firmware instead which will also reset the security enclave as well as perform an Internet Recovery Mode install of macOS.
Revive or restore an Intel-based Mac using Apple Configurator - Apple Support
Revive or restore a Mac with Apple silicon using Apple Configurator - Apple Support
frodefart wrote:
I just bought my MacBook Pro online. its used, so its not brand new. Everything seemed fine but when I tried to open the disk "Macintosh", I need to type a password and I don't know the password... its not one of my passwords. and I asked the guy who sold it, but when I tried the password he gave me, that didn't work either. so I wonder what I can try to do now?
Typically for a used Mac you would hope it was correctly prepped for sale:
ref What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your Mac
—Your local Computer user/admin account password
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202860
If you forgot your Mac login password - Apple Support
—Filevault is different see FileVault password—
How does FileVault encryption work on a Mac? - Apple Support
Use FileVault to encrypt the startup disk on your Mac - Apple ...
Checking The Status Of Filevault encrypted, from the Terminal.app copy & pate.
fdesetup status
— You can heck for a firmware password from the Terminal.app copy & paste:
sudo firmwarepasswd -check
See the article
Firmware password protection in an Intel-based Mac - Apple Support
Firmware password protection in an Intel-based Mac - Apple Support
You bought a Mac improperly prepared for resale; the seller is at fault.
You should: return it for a refund or insist he set it up properly or insist he replace it with a properly prepared unit.
Macintosh HD requires password, how to access?
