How do I recover my forgotten password?

This is Apple’s guidance for resetting your Mac’s login password:

If you forgot your Mac login password - Apple Support

> How do I recover my forgotten password?

I'm going to be pedantic here... the only two ways you should ever be able to recover a forgotten password, is to

a) find wherever it was you wrote it down.

b) trigger some memory of what it was.

that's it. No other option exists (or, at least, should exist)

No other source - no web site, not Apple, not Google... no one.. should ever be able to tell you "oh... your password is xxxxxxx' because if they do, they're doing it wrong- it means they're storing the password in a plaintext, or at least recoverable format. That should never happen. The reason being that it's too easy for your password to leak if someone either convinces the site that they are you, or if their internal systems are breached and someone gets access to their user database.

What sites should let you do is reset your password to a new one, once you can validate your identity.

Unless you wrote your password down somewhere, or can remember it, consider it gone. kaput. poof!

So, now that we got that out of the way...

Let's start with which password?

You likely have a password used to log into your device.. that's your local password for that device

You have a password associated with your Apple Account (maybe what you used to post here)

You likely have an password for your Google account (most people have one...)

You may have an password for your work or school email

You may have a password for your bank

You may have a password for your favorite airline's frequent flyer program...

or hotel ..

or car rental company...

or online store...

the list goes on.

Each of these will have different mechanisms for resetting your password. Since you don't tell us which password you're trying to reset, it's hard to be specific about what path to take.

How do I recover my forgotten password

[Edited by Moderator]