I’m certain I saved the password to the keychain on iCloud. Can’t find it there. I get prompted to enter the password; it is long; but I’m very careful. I can’t seem to brute force my way through using various versions of the 3 part password. It’s an 8TB drive and it’s full. It has very important data of mine; such as songs I’ve created … help .. please and thank you 🙌🏻🙏🏻🙌🏻
MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 13.2
Leo Phoenix71 wrote:
Well, you can go into Safari or Firefox and grab any passwords you’ve stored. There is a key section that I was in last night that basically has a password for everything you’ve entered one for .., sometimes they are encrypted … other times clear as day to see. I’m going to continue my brute force attack … it’s just very consuming when one is is severe pain. If there is no backdoor entrance … I ram through the various iterations until I get it. 8TB of important data is not something I can spare to lose. Just my 283 songs that I wrote … that’s a huge loss because they aren’t stored anywhere else 🤦🏼♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️☹️☹️☹️ thanks for your help. Bedtime soon. Brute force when i wake and recharge
If it was stored in your keychain it would be entered automatically when you access the drive. I have some external drives with Apple password protection and they mount automatically. Are you encrypting with FileVault or some third party password/disk tool?
My external drive password (Apple FileVault) is found in Keychain Access, Default Keychains => login =>Passwords and it is listed with the name of the external drive. Try looking there in your Keychain.
Leo Phoenix71 wrote:
I put a hint on so I’d know what each of the 3 parts meant. … but why this is not allowing me in is baffling. I’m going to write each one down in varios iterations in notes and go through them all. I’m certain I stored the password on the key as I bought that drive and moved all the data from my 6 1TB drives to the 8TB before I left Canada. The disc manager is giving me the option to copy the drive to another (doesn’t suggest I need a password) …
You mentioned in another post that you erased and formatted your main drive. That would also erase the keychain, although the iCloud stored portion should repopulate.
"3 part password"?
Is this with non-Apple disk tools?
"...disc manager giving me option to copy drive to another ..."
Sounds like non-Apple disk tools, in which case you should contact the third party vendor to help you through this. But being able to copy to another drive that easily sounds like weak password protection.
Maybe not my business, but unless you have financial or other crucial personal information on the drive, it might make sense not to password protect in the future, as the cure can be worse than the disease. Human memory and recollection are not 100% accurate.
Do you still have the six 1 TB original drives with your original data? If so, recover from those?
Well, you can go into Safari or Firefox and grab any passwords you’ve stored. There is a key section that I was in last night that basically has a password for everything you’ve entered one for .., sometimes they are encrypted … other times clear as day to see. I’m going to continue my brute force attack … it’s just very consuming when one is is severe pain. If there is no backdoor entrance … I ram through the various iterations until I get it. 8TB of important data is not something I can spare to lose. Just my 283 songs that I wrote … that’s a huge loss because they aren’t stored anywhere else 🤦🏼♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️☹️☹️☹️ thanks for your help. Bedtime soon. Brute force when i wake and recharge
Leo Phoenix71 wrote:
I’m certain I saved the password to the keychain on iCloud. Can’t find it there. I get prompted to enter the password; it is long; but I’m very careful. I can’t seem to brute force my way through using various versions of the 3 part password. It’s an 8TB drive and it’s full. It has very important data of mine; such as songs I’ve created … help .. please and thank you 🙌🏻🙏🏻🙌🏻
If you can't remember the password I'm afraid you are out of luck.
I don’t understand what the point of storing the password on the keychain is if it can’t be recovered. One tech support call a woman misunderstood what I needed and she said she could recover the drives accessibility. I keep getting mixed info.., but I appreciate your input
I suspect you did not store the password. You said you tried various versions of your password. This indicates to me that you do not remember the password. If passwords could be bypassed then it would be kind of useless to have passwords. If you could "brute force" your way in, so could anyone else thereby making passwords useless.
Try to access your data from your backup.
i definitely stored it on the keychain. It doesn’t always ask me for the password; but on occasion it does. I just formatted my hard drive and reinstalled my system .. I’m not seeing anything related to my HDD. Need to hit the hay. I sleep during the day; work at night. If you have anymore ideas; by all means. I’ll check them out when I wake. Thanks a lot
I put a hint on so I’d know what each of the 3 parts meant. It would be very unusual if someone knew what the 3 parts meant to be able to brute force it. None of the 3 parts are simple standard words… I really don’t understand why any of what I’m trying is not working. I’m not new to systems. I’ve been on systems since 1982. Been upper level support for banks and numerous other large companies. I’m just saying; I know my way around systems … but why this is not allowing me in is baffling. I’m going to write each one down in varios iterations in notes and go through them all. I’m certain I stored the password on the key as I bought that drive and moved all the data from my 6 1TB drives to the 8TB before I left Canada. The disc manager is giving me the option to copy the drive to another (doesn’t suggest I need a password) … I have two 12TB drives arriving next week for a monster PC that I’m building .. but hopefully I can get in prior to that.
Again … it’s one very long password in which I put 3 passwords I know together. There was no 3rd party utility … it was done through Apple’s File Vault or whatever they call their system that encrypts hard drives. It was stored on the keychain. I don’t have the 6 drives because I have been traveling since 2017. I bought the 8TB drive so I could carry one drive around with me instead of 6. Any further information you need to know? Shoe size maybe?
My snarky reply was because I have clearly stated numerous times that I used Apple’s File Vault Encryption and stored it to the keychain. As I said; I am far from new to computers; 40+ years … So when I say this is what I did … that’s what I did. I didn’t do anything that your imagination is creating for you.
this is an example of a 4 part password:
R3d1$mYF4v0uR1T3c0L0R<~>
obviously this is not the password or close that I used … but i believe the problem I am facing is where I have capitals or lower case letters.
why it’s not on the keychain I have absolutely no idea. I can’t even find my email passwords on the keychain 🤷♂️
sadly I have found that Mac is more flawed than the typical user believes.
i am now making a list of numerous iterations of the 3 part password … perhaps one will let me in and I’ll be able to remove the encryption.
I cannot unlock my external HDD
