Replace password on external drive

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Replace password on external drive

Hello all,

on my iMac 21.5", I recently updated my internal Mac HD to El Capitan 10.11. There are now several important programs (e.g. MPEG Streamclip and Photoshop Elements 11) which worked fine under Yosemite but are incompatible with El Capitan.

On an external HD, I installed Yosemite 10.10.2 in late 2014 when it was the current OS X version. I only installed a System on the external drive in case of startup failure on the usual internal HD. All the affected programs (also installed on the external drive) work fine in Yosemite.

When I startup on the external HD to access those programs, I run into problems when I need to make changes for which the System requires a user and password. I no longer remember what they were. Is there a way to change the password (given that I can identify the user name from the "Users" folder), please?

Sincerely, paulranger1.

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)

Posted on Feb 27, 2016 5:33 AM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

Feb 27, 2016 4:04 PM in response to paulranger1

Please open the Startup Disk preference pane and select the startup volume on the external drive. You should change this selection back to the internal drive after resetting the password.

Start up in Recovery mode. When the OS X Utilities window appears, select

Utilities ▹ Terminal

from the menu bar at the top of the screen—not from any of the items in the OS X Utilities window.

In the window that opens, type this:

resetp

Press the tab key. The partial command you typed will automatically be completed to this:

resetpassword

Press return. A Reset Password window opens. Close the Terminal window to get it out of the way.

Select the startup volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name) if not already selected. You won't be able to do this if FileVault is active.

Select your username from the menu labeled Select the user account if not already selected.

Follow the prompts to reset the password. It's safest to choose a password that includes only the characters a-z, A-Z, and 0-9.

Select

 ▹ Restart

from the menu bar.

You should now be able to log in with the new password, but the Keychain will be reset (empty.) If you've forgotten the Keychain password (which is ordinarily the same as the login password), there's no way to recover it.

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Answer 2

paulranger1 Author

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Feb 27, 2016 4:55 PM in response to Linc Davis

Thank you Linc,

Reading your instructions closely, I tried every startup sequence I can think of but external OSX 10.10 will still not accept 'changed' password. I'll try to simplify what steps I took below.

Sequence 1: With external 10.10 active, I restarted to external 10.10 Yosemite in 'Recovery' mode; from menu bar selected 'Utilities/Terminal’,

with "-bash-3.2#” displayed, I typed resetp; pressed “TAB” key; text in TERMINAL window then added "-bash: resetp: command not found

-bash-3.2#"

I shutdown external 10.10 HD as I cannot change 'Startup Disk' preference to Macintosh HD in that SysPref panel (user and/or password not accepted).

Sequence 2: I restarted holding 'Option' key down to manually select Macintosh HD as active system.

Sequence 3: With internal 10.11 as active system, I restarted holding Command R keys down to launch in 'Recovery' mode; from menu bar I selected 'Utilities/Terminal' with a blank screen showing in TERMINAL; I type resetp and press TAB key; command completed to resetpassword; I press RETURN key and "Reset Password" window opened.

Selecting each user in turn (2 on internal, 3 on external) I type the same 4 digit password and clicked 'save'. After each user's password was changed, the (internal) El Capitan system assured me that each change had been registered on both the internal and external drives. I close the "Rest Password" window.

I restart holding "option" key to ensure I'm actually restarting to external Yosemite 10.10 (by selecting external drive manually). When 10.10 is open and active, I try actions requiring a user/password combination authorisation, e,g, moving unwanted, non System folder to "Trash". The user/password continues to be rejected.

Being somewhat mentally concussed at this point (my fault), I may have incorrectly followed your steps. Sorry.

Sincerely, PaulRanger1.

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Answer 3

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

Feb 27, 2016 10:37 PM in response to paulranger1

I typed resetp; pressed “TAB” key; text in TERMINAL window then added "-bash: resetp: command not found

I'm not sure why that happened, but try typing the full command "resetpassword" (without the quotes.)

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Answer 4

paulranger1 Author

Level 1

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Feb 27, 2016 11:06 PM in response to Linc Davis

Thank you again for your perseverance, Linc.

With external Yosemite active system, I restarted in "Recovery" mode; at ""OS X Utilities" window opened (from menu bar) 'Utilities/Terminal.

With TERMINAL window text -bash-3.2, I typed resetpassword and pressed return - "Reset Password" window opened.

I changed all 3 users Paul Ranger Slim (paulcollins), Paul Ranger (paulranger), Systems Administrator (root) to the same 4 digit password.

Yosemite confirmed change after each user change.

Restarted to external Yosemite.

At desktop, a folder that could not be moved to "Trash" previously, was 'trashable' now. Yippee!

To check that Yosemite really was accepting the newly changed passwords, I highlighted and selected "Get Info".

I clicked the LOCK - authorisation User/Password window opened - I entered new 4 digit password - system would not accept either user or password.

"Get Info" window shows Sharing & Permissions

admin Read & Write

rangertest (me) [on internal El Capitan] Read & Write

staff (?) Read & Write

everyone (?) Read & Write

Absent from "Get Info" window for external drive were Paul Ranger Slim (paulcollins), Paul Ranger (paulranger), Systems Administrator perhaps was reflected in "admin". Still somewhat confused but markedly less so.

Still, I was able to move a previously immovable folder to "Trash".

So, if I can continue to do actions (that previously required a user/password that was NOT accepted) that are now accept the user/ new password combination, life is again 'sweet', thanks to you.

Sincerely. PaulRanger1.

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