I changed my IMac admin password and have now forgotten in and can't find my originàl discs to reset it. I understand you can reset it using apple ID but I can't work it out. Can someone help me
Yes, thanks, Kappy!
The MacYourself link gave me great advice to reset the password from Terminal. Worked great!
Tricking your Mac into creating a new user account
1. Power on or restart your Mac (should work for any Mac OS X system).
2. At the chime (or grey screen if your chime is turned off), hold down Command+S on your keyboard to enter single-user mode.
3. This step is optional, but it’s a good idea because it checks the consistency of the hard disk before moving on. At the prompt, type fsck -fy and press Enter/Return. Wait for the checks to complete before going to the next step.
4. Type mount -uw / and press Enter.
5. Type rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone and press Enter.
6. Type shutdown -h now and press Enter.
The third method of resetting your Mac’s password requires some additional explanation. Rather than simply changing the password like the previous two methods do, this one fools the operating system into believing it has never been started before. This means when you restart the machine, it will take you through the entire setup & registration process all over again. Do not worry, all of your pre-existing data is still available. Just continue with this process and do not choose the option to transfer or migrate information to the Mac.
Once you’re done, log in with your new admin account and go to System Preferences > Accounts. You may have to click on the lock icon in the lower-left corner before making changes here. You should see your original user account(s) in the left column. Try clicking on one of them to convert it to a standard user account (uncheck “Allow user to administer this computer”) and change the password. You should be able to successfully log in to that account now and access all of your files and programs. If you want, you can log back in with your new admin account and re-check the “Allow user to administer this computer” option in System Preferences to grant admin privileges to the original user again.
That should cover it! As always, remember messing with single-user mode and Terminal is risky and may lead to trouble if you make mistakes. Considering you’re already locked out of the computer, though, you’ll probably be willing to take your chances at this point.
One last thing… if you have a Keychain Access password, you will probably need to reset that as well. You can do this by selecting “login” under Keychains on the left and choosing Delete from the Edit menu. You’ll lose everything in the Keychain, but you’ll now be able to start fresh and add new ones.
Message was edited by: amirrahim
Thanks Kappy. I now have access to my computer, but had to start new keychain. Any way to retrieve the old one ?
This got my hopes up when I discovered my problem this morning. My 'e' key, 'd' and 3 key dont work. I cannot use tge root commands and bypass the loggin password which contains both 3 and e.
I have tried all of this and it still would not allow me reset my password. It told me the command and directory could not be found.
I'm looking at this question about forgot password I have the same situation forgot password. Do still have access to all your files and iPhoto once you try this?
Thank you so much, Amirrahim - it worked!
Thank you very much!!!!!
Worked like a charm. Thanks!
I Tried this and it work great. Thank you for helping me get back on track. I like your thorough explanation. Thanks
How to reset my MacBook Pro password?
How do I reset my iMac desktop password
Look at the links in the post above yours.
Perfect step-by-step! Thank you!
How to reset admin password iMac
