Password randomly changed in the middle of using computer and now I’m locked out

paityn50 wrote:

So I have a MacBook Air 2020 and I was on the Finder app deleting some old files and I came across a file that said a private file you don’t have access to and it wouldn’t let me delete it so I just skipped it and kept running into private files and in the middle of deleting files my password quit working to delete files and that password also goes to like my whole computer and now I can’t get into my computer and if I try to reset my password on the lock screen, it just sits there and loads and loads. I’ve tried to shut down. I’ve tried to restart.

Unless you deleted some system preference file, this sounds more like a system failure of some sort (macOS corruption or an actual hardware issue).

It will not let me use command R or options so I’m kind of stuck.

Do you have an Intel Mac or Apple Silicon Mac? Those special startup keys only work on Intel Macs. Apple Silicon Macs have only one special startup method which involves holding the power button until you see the screen show "Loading startup options....".

I don’t really know what else to do because nothing’s really working. I’m not tech savvy.

If none of the password reset options provided by the Apple article @D.I. Johnson linked work, then you can try performing a DFU Firmware Revive to reset the security enclave chip & system firmware (theoretically won't destroy any data on the internal SSD, but who knows what happens if the procedure does not complete successfully). Unfortunately this process requires access to another Mac currently running macOS 15.7+ Sequoia or macOS 26.x Tahoe (with Sequoia you must use the Apple Configurator v2.19 app).

Don't you have a backup of your computer? There are a lot more new ways to permanently lose access to the data stored on the internal SSD of the recent Macs due to all of the hardware, software, and security changes. People should always have frequent & regular backups of their computer including external media (including the cloud) which has important & unique data. Apple provides Time Machine backup software with macOS to make things easy, but there are also third party options. The more important the data....the more backup copies you should have and ideally should be using two different backup methods just in case one method has a problem.

Why were you deleting old files? Are you low on storage space? If so, do you know what the numbers are?

If your Mac is critically low, below ~40 GB, then that may be part of the problem.

It's also possible that you may have attempted to deleted something potentially critical to the smooth operation of the Mac, so it asked for your password to confirm the deletion.

I'll post here a few things for your review.

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

If you forgot your Mac login password - Apple Support

This is Apple's guidance for starting up from Recovery:

How to start up from macOS Recovery - Apple Support

And finally this for reinstalling macOS:

How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support

If you choose to reinstall macOS, know that you don't have to erase the drive. You should be able to simply reinstall on top of what is already there. This would replace any damaged or missing files and folders.