Password not accepted since updating to MacOS Sequoia 15.2

Follow the advise from @ jefferythefrog - First

If and only if all else fails and it should not

Reset Computer Password  for the Administrator Account Password

2 Methods, 1 for Apple Intel Computers and one for Apple M1 / M2 / M3 / M4 Silicon Computers

Choose the appropriate method for this computer 

Intel Computer

Shutdown the computer 

Restart computer and immediately hold the two keyboard combo Command  r 

If using a Bluetooth Keyboard with Rechargeable Battery - Cable the Keyboard to computer for this unique purpose. Bluetooth Kernel may not load soon enough to execute the 2 keyboard commands 

Top Tool Bar >> Utilities >> Terminal

Type resetpassword as one word and no spaces

Press Return key

Follow the prompts and remember the New Password

Apple Silicon M1 / M2 / M3 / M4 Computer 

Choose Apple menu > > Shut Down

If using a Bluetooth Keyboard with Rechargeable Battery - Cable the Keyboard to computer for this unique purpose.

Do not  attempt a Restart to access this feature. The computer Must be Shutdown and pause for about 10 seconds before moving forwards 

Press and hold the power button on your Mac until you see “Loading startup options.”

Click Options, then click Continue. 

Top Tool Bar >> Utilities >> Terminal

Type resetpassword as one word and no spaces

Press Return key

Follow the prompts and remember the New Password

I have the same issue, some key presses are not registered in the password input box.

If a dot is not added for a key press, I need to press again.

The password works correctly if I ensure the correct number of dots are registered.

This helped me, apparently when entering password, not all chars are registered. I counted and noticed, so I made sure to type the same char again when there was no extra char appearing and it helped

I can't believe it!

Let me explain what happened.

So I first said that replugging your USB adapter attached to your keyboard might fix the issue. It did for me.

However.... I went to login just now (while screensaver was running) and I couldn't log in. I do it so fast It's just a blur. What do you end up doing? You type slower. Then I saw it: I watched each dot appear as I typed and it skipped one character. I started again and it skipped the very same character again. So I typed my password slower and watched each dot. The third character did not produce a dot, so I typed it again and it showed. I slowly completed the password and when every dot appeared ... I got in.

Did it end there? NO.

I went to this forum to tell everyone, but I had to type my login password... SAME THING. Just wow. The adapter was not consistently reading the very same character. I had to do it slowly and keep retyping the character until I see a dot appear in the password box.

I feel there is a good chance the adapter is not able to cleanly translate signals to my Mini. Has 15.2 changed something in the USBC timing that disrupts the adapter functionality?

Try it: The next time you can't get in, watch each dot as you type. Retype anything that does not show.

Hi,

I also faced this behavior since sequoia 15.3. Maybe also in 15.2. Idk.

It turned out that whiling typing in the password, the 10th char is not recognized and I have to retype this one. so insteaf of for example password123 I had to type password1223. So I retype the password while unlocked in a texteditor and idk why, but one time the deadkey popup helper shows up. At this time I was using the U.S. International layout. I changed to U.S. Layout and since then, I’m unable to reproduce this error. This may help someone.

Hello Again.

As of now, this Bug is still not fixed. I'm on the newest OS version(15.3.2).

While my first suggestion was obviously wrong, I still suspect the accent marks popup to be the root of this problem.

I suspected this, because anytime a character tipped was ignored and I had to retype it, the accent marks popup showed up. Though this could only be observed, if the error happens outside of a password prompt.

So I decided to disable it for good! Unfortunately there isn't any checkmark or something else in the settings to disable it. You have to enter a command in the terminal:

defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false

src: Rajiv Shah's comment in Quora

I've done this also with sudo just in case and reboot the whole system. After that, I didn't experienced this behaviour anymore since now about a week.

I hope Apple will fix this soon, but until then, this could be a workaround for many of us.

best regards

Faetu

you can try the steps in If you forgot your Mac login password - Apple Support and see if you can regain access. you may also want to look at If you can't reset your Mac login password - Apple Support.

I think I've found what the fix might be. I too have a Mini (M4 Pro) and after the 15.2 update my machine would not accept the password if the screensaver came on. Pulling the power always got me in, but it wasn't until I read that someone here used a keyboard through a dongle. And that makes sense, because Apple doesn't give you a USBC keyboard with the Mini, so you're going to use the one you had before, which means USB to USBC interface. And since you only have a few ports, you get a dongle... likely with a card reader, and ethernet, and several USB-a ports, with firewire and lighting and thunder... all that stuff. So I simply unplugged mine and replugged it in. Just like that, I was able to login. What did 15.2 change to make that process flaky? No clue. But for now, this is a fairly painless work-around.

According to my IT dept, this was a known bug and has been fixed with version 15.4. I have not had any issues since upgrading.

Yeah. I upgraded a few days ago, and last night, this exact thing started happening for me. I had to reset in Recovery Mode once, and I was in. It's a relatively new laptop, so I hadn't set up iCloud recovery yet. That's the first thing I did when I was back in.

I'm having a VERY similar problem, and it will often take 10-20 attempts before the password is accepted.

Mac Mini M1 - externel USB keyboard connected with a j5Create Dongle. I've tried swapping keyboards,

once it works on the no-name Inland computer keyboard, I immediately switch to the AKKO keyboard.

It tends to work reliably from there.

I have clearly not forgotten it, since it eventually works.

But the timing of my 15.2 upgrade and this password phenomenon can't be a coincidence.

I am having the same issue on my 2019 Mac Pro running Sequoia. I have not had this issue on older OS versions or on my 2019 MacBook Pro running Ventura.

I have noticed that the first character is not registered, so I have to type the first character of my password twice most of the time but not all of the time. Pressing enter before typing does not count as typing the first character either. This very much feels like a software bug, not connectivity, not hardware and not drivers.

I have tried different keyboards including the newest Magic Keyboard (on Bluetooth and connected USB directly to my the Mac Pro), and older Magic Keyboard with the AA batteries (Bluetooth), a Corsair RGP0056 (USB), and an old Dell keyboard (USB). It happens on all of them.

Very frustrating as I can't use the fingerprint login since this is not Apple Silicon. Another paint point but also ridiculous considering my 2019 MacBook Pro has one built in and works fine. This makes logging in a frustrating experience for sure!

I have the same issue on a MacBook Air Sequoia 15.3.2 purchased in January 2025. My password to unlock the screen save starts with a number and the first character is often not accepted especially after inactivity overnight. The issue also occurs when I have to provide a password (starts with a letter) to get to various webpages used by my organization but I am not sure it is the always the first character that is missed. It is a laptop not using an external keyboard so I do not think the issue has anything to do with keyboard connections. My IT department suggests reimaging my computer but it sounds like that will not help.

This is still happening a LOT.

Here's what I've observed:

My password starts with a special character.

At the login prompt, the first time I type it (in character position 1), it does not echo anything to the screen.

I basically have to type it twice to get it to echo once. After making sure that the character echoes, I have zero problems getting the rest of the password entered.

This is "reliable", happening about 70-90% of the time. Switching USB keyboards makes no difference.

Is this a known issue with any USB-A - USB-C interface adapters out there? (That would be wierd, since they're not supposed to be doing anything to the USB data, to my knowledge)