I'm locked out of my MacBook Air and followed these steps, but get to the macOSRecovery screen after clicking options and there is no tool bar:
1 - Choose Apple menu > > Shut Down.
2 - Press and hold the power button on your Mac until you see “Loading startup options.”
3 - Click Options, then click Continue.
4 - Top Tool Bar > Utilities > Terminal
5 - Type resetpassword (one word, no spaces)
6 - Press Return key
7 - Follow the prompts and remember the New Password
That explains it. You’re in Recovery, but you haven’t passed the user authentication screen yet, so you won’t see the normal Utilities menu at this point.
Since you don’t know the login password, click Forgot all passwords? and follow the prompts. On an Apple silicon Mac, Apple recommends using the password-reset options presented there before trying Terminal. If you forgot your Mac login password - Apple Support
You may be asked for your Apple Account information or other recovery details. I’d follow that path and avoid erasing or reinstalling macOS unless Apple’s recovery process specifically gets you to that point.
If you get an error after choosing Forgot all passwords?, post the exact message you see.
That explains it. You’re in Recovery, but you haven’t passed the user authentication screen yet, so you won’t see the normal Utilities menu at this point.
Since you don’t know the login password, click Forgot all passwords? and follow the prompts. On an Apple silicon Mac, Apple recommends using the password-reset options presented there before trying Terminal. If you forgot your Mac login password - Apple Support
You may be asked for your Apple Account information or other recovery details. I’d follow that path and avoid erasing or reinstalling macOS unless Apple’s recovery process specifically gets you to that point.
If you get an error after choosing Forgot all passwords?, post the exact message you see.
It sounds like you may not be fully into macOS Recovery yet. The Utilities menu appears in the menu bar only after Recovery has finished loading.
If you see a screen asking you to select a startup disk, volume, or user, continue through that first. Once you reach the Recovery window with options such as Reinstall macOS and Disk Utility, you should see the menu bar at the top. Then choose Utilities > Terminal and enter resetpassword.
Apple’s current instructions are here: If you forgot your Mac login password - Apple Support
If you’re already at that Recovery window and still have no menu bar at all, what exactly is shown on the screen?
In that case, I’d stop before any erase, reinstall, or “Erase Mac” option.
The safest path is to regain access to the Apple Account tied to that user, because that may let you reset the Mac login password without touching the data. If the former secretary can’t receive codes on her old trusted number, she should use Apple’s account recovery process instead.
Until that’s resolved, I wouldn’t make any changes in Recovery that mention erasing the Mac or removing the user account. Those can put the files at risk.
If she still knows the Apple Account email address and password, that’s useful — the missing trusted phone access is the part Apple’s recovery process is designed to deal with.
After following the steps (I posted), and select the 'option' then 'continue', the macOS Recovery screen pops up. There is only the apple icon and then next to it Recovery Assistant in the task bar.
Then in the centre of the screen, 'Select user you know for the password for: and below that, 'forgot all passwords?' With a 'restart' arrow...
That changes things a bit. The Apple Account Recovery screen is asking for the Apple Account associated with that Mac user account.
If that account belongs to the former secretary and she can’t currently receive verification codes on her trusted number, I wouldn’t erase the Mac or reinstall macOS if there’s data on it that you need.
She can try Apple’s account recovery process if she no longer has access to the trusted number/device. Apple notes that recovery can take several days or longer: How to use account recovery
It asks me to sign into my apple account.
The secretary who used this Macbook has moved abroad and can't access her local phone. This MacBook has been in use all this time until the person was off sick and got back yesterday and now can't get back into the laptop.
Thanks...definitely don't want to delete the contents!
Locked out of MacBook Air
