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I am trying to run software updates on an older MacBook Pro2 (2006), Snow Leopard, and realized I forgot the administrator password! How do I change it?
MacBook Pro (15-inch Core 2 Duo), Mac OS X (10.6.8)
Forgot Your Account Password
For Lion, Mountain Lion, or Mavericks
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
When the menubar appears select Terminal from the Utilities menu.
Enter resetpassword at the prompt and press RETURN. Follow
instructions in the dialog window that will appear.
Or see:
Reset a Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Password
OS X Mountain Lion- Reset a login password,
OS X Mavericks- Solve password problems,
OS X Lion- Apple ID can be used to reset your user account password.
For Snow Leopard and earlier with installer DVD
Mac OS X 10.6- If you forget your administrator password,
OS X- Changing or resetting an account password (Snow Leopard and earlier).
For Snow Leopard and earlier without installer DVD
How to reset your Mac OS X password without an installer disc | MacYourself
Reset OS X Password Without an OS X CD — Tech News and Analysis
Thanks! After the second try (my typing) it worked!
Then, a box came up asking to update my keychain, when I tried, it asked for my keychain password and I'm lost again. Is this a necessary or recommended step and if so how do it reinvent the password for it?
Note, I don't use this computer much anymore, mostly to play music.
Your keychain password is the same password. If you tried that one and it didn't work then:
First, if you've forgotten your password, you can use the "Keychain First Aid" utility to make the keychain password the same as the login password. This can be accomplished via the following process:
1. Open Keychain Access (located in Applications/Utilities)
2. Go to the "Keychain Access" menu and select "Preferences"
3. Click the "First Aid" tab
4. Make sure the "Synchronize login keychain password" box is checked
5. Close the Preferences window
6. Go to the "Keychain Access" menu and select "Keychain First Aid"
7. Enter your username and password
8. Click the "Repair" button
Thank you so much for taking the time to help me with this... I found a Keychain Access.app in Utilities, and found Keychain First Aid inside it. But here is the message I got when Keychain FIrst Aid said after I followed your instructions:
Repair started
Checking keychain configuration for lfawcett (user ID=501)
Home directory is /Users/lfawcett
Checked login keychain
Checked password for ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain
Password for ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain is not the same as login password, so keychain can't be unlocked automatically
Login password could not be synchronized with keychain ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain (-128)
Unable to read settings for ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain
User differs on ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.security.plist, should be 501, owner is 0
Owner corrected on ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.security.plist
Checked default keychain
Checked keychain search list
Checked contents of ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain
Checked contents of ~/Library/Keychains/Microsoft_Intermediate_Certificates
Checked contents of ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/AIR/ELS/com.adobe.amp.4875E02D9FB21EE389F73B8D1702B320485DF8CE.1/ PrivateEncryptedDatak
Checked contents of ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/AIR/ELS/com.adobe.amp.E7BED6E5DDA59983786DD72EBFA46B1598278E07.1/ PrivateEncryptedDatak
Warning: some problems were not fixed
Repair failed
I bet you know the answer!
Update.
I read the part at the end of the instructions where I changed my login password using Terminal. It said I would likely have to delete my old Keychain and create a new one. This I did and it finally let me type in a password WITHOUT have to know an old one. That was nice.
I forgot my MacBook Pro password, how can I change it?
