MAC OS 26 Tahoe update prevents login with correct password u

Like I said I updated my MacBook last night to Tahoe. Everything looked good and it restarted like normal. I went to log in and it said my password was wrong. I have been using the same login password for years.


I have also tried to reset my apple password and was unable to do so .


What do I do?


The genius bar doesn't have any openings until Monday?

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 26.0

Posted on Sep 20, 2025 6:40 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 20, 2025 6:47 AM

Follow the steps here (carefully, there are many of them with 'If..." so pay attention to the instructions):

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202860

 

You may also be able to reset your password from your Apple Account.

https://account.apple.com


48 replies

Oct 1, 2025 6:21 PM in response to racre25

I have a Mac Studio M1 Max.


What finally worked for me after mutiple searches for possible solutions, huge frustrations booting and rebooting, being locked out over and over, and trying different options, was (it seems!) a new keyboard. Someone else here mentioned keyboards as a possible culprit. I found this during a search: “older Apple Magic keyboards (or other Bluetooth keyboards) can be unable to use certain keys during password entry." 


My new Magic Keyboard arrived two hours ago (I hate to thank Amazon but I was so happy for next-day delivery) and hooked it up via a USB-C cable -- one end into my Mac Studio and the other into the keyboard. I also read that the keyboard must be wired.


I had tried to get into Recovery mode before but it never went past the initial screen, nor was I able to get on using my Apple ID since the "@" symbol on my old keyboard did not work. Now I was able to use my Apple ID to log on and when I clicked under the Option box in Recovery mode, it went to the page where you can select whether to wipe the computer, re-install Tahoe, etc. -- as opposed to kicking me off and sending me back to my home screen as it had done before. I clicked "reinstall Tahoe" and hoped. I was prompted for my computer password during installation. I entered my old password and IT WORKED.


I am typing this on my Mac Studio now. Tahoe 26.0.1 is now reinstalled and I did NOT have to change my password. I have not tried to shut down where I would need a password to restart, so I do not know if this will continue to work, but right now I have my new keyboard attached to my Mac Studio and I am hoping for the best.


Also, I read there were issues with FireVault compatibility (“It appears to be related to the new OS's APFS driver no longer fully supporting the old software-based FileVault”) so I turned that off too just in case.


I hope my fix works for others! I was just so happy I did not have to wipe my hard drive and start over. I hope this was not a ploy by Apple to sell more keyboards.

Oct 22, 2025 12:43 AM in response to racre25

The recovery mode reinstallation of Tahoe did indeed shift it to 26.0.1. However further administration was still not being accepted, so I re-started it again in recovery mode, from the Utilities menu opened Terminal and typed in ‘resetpassword’ from there I was able to deactivate the Mini and reactivate it using a new password.


This has worked.

Oct 2, 2025 9:12 AM in response to racre25

Had same issue and the problem was not in wrong password but in wrong Name of the computer. Apple is stupid that the name is not automatically sellected. I saw the "name" of computer in restore settings after holding power button for a while. Name of computer was different than the original name.

So after standard restart I put the name I saw in recovery section, my password and all worked OK


Hope it helps

Nov 13, 2025 11:01 AM in response to tmondT

If you can get into Settings, you must already be logged in?? If not, in the login screen, look at the upper right corner. There may be a small 3-letter indicator of which language is selected for the keyboard. Different languages have different key layouts. Click on that symbol and you should get a drop-down menu with language choices, depending on what you have installed. Select your correct one, and then try the password again.

Nov 13, 2025 11:15 AM in response to suphatra16

I have a MacBook Pro M3 chip and the password problem only happens when I do updates. I don't even have a password. Easiest way around this is by reinstalling Tahoe and it also installs the update and lets me in.

Shutdown and hold the power button until the screen comes on with a selection then choose to install Tahoe. Has nothing to do with my keyboard because it's a laptop, my filevault is off and has not been turned on. Apple seems to not figured how to fix this issue with any updates yet. you have to do the reinstall to get around the password issue though.



[Edited by Moderator]

Nov 30, 2025 9:17 AM in response to rst4cst

rst4cst wrote:

Thank you for this. This worked for me. My temporary workaround was to hold down the power button for options, scan my hard drive using the disk utility repair function (which of course you have to enter the admin password to complete, and this took my password, no problem), then restarting from there, the login screen would take my password. Weird how that workaround worked.


Thanks for your post here rst4cst !


Good computing !!

Sep 29, 2025 5:20 AM in response to No-type

Hi,


I found there is bug in Tahoe 26 update which is not recognizing the correct keyboard in the Macbook hardware itself. So even you are typing correct password from physical keyboard input it will type something different as per wrong keyboard input. If you are in Europe and you are facing the problem then it should be a bug in the new update Tahoe 26. It is detecting ANSI keyboard input instad of ISO because European keyboard has ISO input format and USA and Asian keyboard has ANSI input format.


I send feedback to apple but if there is more people who are facing the same issue, they should have to resolve it on immediate bases.


Macbook Pro M4 max 14"

Sep 20, 2025 7:04 AM in response to racre25

racre25 wrote:

Like I said I updated my MacBook last night to Tahoe. Everything looked good and it restarted like normal. I went to log in and it said my password was wrong. I have been using the same login password for years.

I have also tried to reset my apple password and was unable to do so .

What do I do?

The genius bar doesn't have any openings until Monday?


Is this the initial setup screen...?


If you know your password is correct I would not change it willy-nilly— that is not the issue.

A malfunction at the junction.


if it is looking for your Appleid/Account password to set up icloud or sign terms & conditions...

log in on line https://www.icloud.com/ to verify your password here. Log out and back in and compare your results.


Use another device if necessary...

Dec 31, 2025 6:30 AM in response to racre25

Same issue here. MacPro 2019 (T2), Tahoe upgrade from a stable Mac OS X 15, @first reboot -> lockout (password and latest recovery key no go).


Did manage to run a diskutil info in recovery mode to find out that:

Sealed: Broken - The Signed System Volume (SSV) integrity seal was invalid

Encryption Progress: 16.0% (Paused) (Locked) - FileVault encryption operation was started, the operation reached 16%, was paused, Data partition volume was locked...

Encrypted: No: volume is not fully encrypted, But not fully unencrypted which reflects an in-between APFS state...

Encryption intent exists... But encryption is incomplete and paused


Assumption on why this happens on Mac Pro 2019 (T2)

T2 manages (1) Pre-boot authentication, (2) Disk encryption keys

During upgrades, macOS modifies APFS snapshots and FileVault keys are rewrapped

Any interruption (which happened because OS enabled me to reboot smack in the middle of the re-encryption process) → partial encryption + broken seal


Hoping an Apple engineer stumbles on the above and either confirm this or not... because, until this thing gets fixed, I can no longer rely on Time Machine backups on Tahoe on my MacPro 20219 T2...


I called Apple, shared the above info verbally, and offered to share diagnostic data (ticket 102***078 if anyone in the IS engineer team is interested on picking it up :) ) - but on December 31, I got to a very nice support agent that wasn't able to put me thru higher OS engineer teams...


So now... as I re-read the above, I'm thinking that I should revert back to Mac OS 15 - rebuild my MacPro 2019 T2, and restart my Time Machine backups that I know I'll be able to use in the future if my Mac crashes again.... (because I did have valid MacOSX 15 Time Machine snapshots, but I cannot access them as TM did a few backup cycle on the new install Mac OS Tahoe... before I was locked out... new OSX 26 TM snapshots prevented me to access Mac OS X 15 valid snapshot from a Mac OS X 15 installation... maybe something to re-think guys as well.... I can no longer access Max OS X 15 TM snapshots because I installed Tahoe... but Tahoe is my issue and now I can't access OS X 15 TM snapshots... infinite loop of something very bad if you ask me...)


Tx all and Happy New Year!!!! :)




[Edited by Moderator]


MAC OS 26 Tahoe update prevents login with correct password u

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