Locked out of MacBook Pro

Question

Level 1

9 points

Locked out of MacBook Pro

I think I locked myself out of my MacBook Pro. I tried resetting password in terminal by pressing command R, then using resetpassword in terminal, but instead of seeing my username, nothing is displayed in the window. My username is 'jess' and I keep my Apple ID, system admin, and all other passwords on a printout. I shut my mac down one evening and got up the next morning ready to work, and instead of seeing 'jess' with my lotus user picture, it's three heads and it's asking me for a name and password at the startup screen. I don't know what to do at this point. Is there another way to reset my username and password?

MacBook Pro, iOS 11.2.6, Mid 2010 MacBook Pro running High

Posted on Feb 25, 2018 6:22 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

brenden dv

Community Specialist

Feb 26, 2018 8:32 AM in response to jtayloranim

Hello jtayloranim,

Thanks for reaching out to the Apple Support Communities.

I see that you are locked out of your MacBook Pro. You've tried to reset the password using Terminal, but you still can't login. I'll be happy to help assist you with this.

You can also try to reset your password using your Apple ID or another admin account. Check out this support article: Change or reset the password of a macOS user account , specifically:

Reset using your Apple ID

In some macOS versions, you can use your Apple ID to reset your login password. At the login screen, keep entering a password until you see a message saying that you can reset your password using Apple ID. If you don't see the message after three attempts, your account isn't set up to allow resetting with Apple ID.

Click next to the Apple ID message, then follow the onscreen instructions to enter your Apple ID and create a new password. You'll be asked to restart when done.

Log in with your new password.

Determine whether to create a new login keychain.

Reset using another admin account

If you know the name and password of an admin account on your Mac, you can use that account to reset the password.

Log in with the name and password of the other admin account.

Choose System Preferences from the Apple menu, then click Users & Groups.

Click , then enter the admin name and password again.

Select your user name from the list of users.

Click the Reset Password button, then follow the onscreen instructions to create a new password:

Choose Log Out from the Apple menu.

Log in to your account using your new password.

Determine whether to create a new login keychain.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Regards.

Reply

Answer 2

jtayloranim Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 26, 2018 8:43 AM in response to brenden dv

Thanks, Brenden, for your help. I contacted Apple Support, and apparently I have a deeper software issue.

The first person that I talked told me I had File Vault on, otherwise the terminal reset should have worked. I had set up file vault a few years back but forgotten that it was still on.

While trying to reset the password with them, my computer was starting up, but would get stuck on the startup screen, with a full progress bar. It wont go to the strange login screen anymore.

This morning I called back, was told to reinstall the OS, that isn't working. My mac can't finish installing the OS. It shows a 'your mac shut down because of a problem' message, attempts to start up, crashes, then turns itself back on again.

I had performed first aid on my hard drive before this, and it came up fine. They think it's a software issue and that I need to just go to an Apple store to have it looked at. For now, I have left it on, in recovery mode.

Reply

Locked out of MacBook Pro

Similar questions