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my father passed away and i was given his iMac.  i dont know his password to get started.  help

I need to set up an iMac that was given to me and can’t get on because I don’t know the deceased persons password


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Posted on Sep 6, 2018 5:01 PM

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Posted on Sep 7, 2018 12:37 AM

Sorry for your loss. You don't mention the age of the iMac. See if following these instructions help…

What to do before you sell or give away your Mac - Apple Support

2 replies

Sep 7, 2018 12:45 PM in response to betsy246

Unfortunately, I have seen this scenario so many times. There is one quick check that I always do here. Turn on the machine and then hold down the "Command" and "S" keys on the keyboard. After a few seconds, the screen will light up and you will either get a black screen with a bunch of gobbly-gook / gibberish in white letters that will usually stop at a # prompt after about 10-15 seconds. Or you will get a login screen asking you to login.

If you get the white text on a black screen, then it isn't too hard to get around. Just type the following three lines:

mount -uw /

rm /var/db/.applesetupdone

exit


The setup assistant will come up after a few seconds and ask you to make an account and you're done.

If you get the login screen, then the machine has FileVault enabled and you will not get in without the correct password. If you cannot find or guess the password, the only option is to erase the drive and start over.

my father passed away and i was given his iMac.  i dont know his password to get started.  help

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