I just got a macbook air a few days ago and created a password. however i forgot to write it down and now can’t login. I’ve tried to follow instructions online but it won’t seem to work for me. When I shut down the computer and then start it up there is not help or question mark button.
MacBook Air, macOS 14.4
Hey kaysee! You can always try to reset your password using your Apple ID in the macOS recovery menu. Here are the steps to do so!
Step 1, Booting into recovery mode: Shut down your macbook fully, make sure the screen and keyboard lights turn off. Once you've fully shut down your macbook, press and hold the power button till it says "Showing startup options". You will be prompted with 2 options, your main drive which has your OS on it and another one that says "Options", press the second one.
Step 2, Logging into recovery mode with Apple ID: In the recovery mode login menu, you should see the choice to log in with your user. Under that should be a button saying "forgot all passwords", click that and you should be prompted to log in with your Apple ID.
Step 3, Resetting the user password: On your menu bar (top of the screen) you should see a Utilities button, press that. You will be prompted with multiple applications, continue by selecting Terminal.
Now that you're into terminal, simply type in the command resetpassword and macOS will prompt you to re-enter your appleID and take you through the whole process.
Step 4, Logging in: Personally, I've never done this so I'm not sure if it reboots you into your login page or not. But if it doesn't, and you just remain in the Recovery menu then just press the Apple logo in the top left of your menu bar and reboot. You should be brought back into your login screen and you can enter the new password that you made for yourself!
If you encounter any issues during this process, feel free to reply to this and I'd love to help out some more.
can’t login to macbook air
