Reset Your Mac OS X User Password

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How to Reset Your
Mac OS X User Password
Reseting a forgotten account password in Macintosh OS X

Created: 06/22/2004

Updated: 11/18/2007

Authors: Alison

What happened? Did you forget your OS X user account password? Make sure the CAPS LOCK key isn't on. 9 out of 10 times that's usually the problem. But sometimes you might pick a password and then forget accidentally it. Don't worry. It happens. Just follow the directions below to reset your Mac OS X user account password.

Warning: Do not use the instructions in this document to reset the password for a FileVault protected account. Doing so may render the contents of the account inaccessible. Instead, follow these instructions provided by Apple. If you don't know what FileVault is or aren't 100% sure you don't have FileVault enabled, then find a professional to help you.

01.

Startup Your Mac with an Operating System Disk

Find the operating system disk that came with your Macintosh or better yet a Mac OS X Install CD whose version is closest the the version of Mac OS X you have installed.
Put it inside your disk drive.
Restart your computer and hold the C key as the computer starts. You can release the C key when the gray Apple appears.

The computer may take several minutes to boot up off of a CD or DVD. Relax. This is normal. A Macintosh Operating System disk will automatically launch the OS Installer. Do NOT reinstall the OS. Continue to follow the directions below.

NERD NOTE: Mac OS X is based on the Mach kernel and is derived from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) implementation of Unix in Nextstep. Nextstep was the object-oriented operating system developed by Steve Jobs' company "NeXT" after he left Apple in 1985.

02.

Select A Language?

You may or may not be promoted to select a language. If you are, select English and click on the right arrow to continue on to the next screen.

03.

Open the Reset Password Utility

The location of the Reset Password utility varies slightly depending on the version of Mac OS X on your installation disk.

Mac OS X 10.2.x through 10.3.x:
Select Reset Password from the Installer menu (Installer > Reset Password).
Mac OS X 10.4.x (Tiger):
Choose Reset Password from the Utilities menu (Utilities > Reset Password).

04.

Select Your Hard Drive

The Reset Password window asks you to select your hard drive. Your hard drive is probably called "Macintosh HD" unless you renamed it.

Select your Mac OS X hard disk.
Select the user account you wish to reset from the drop down menu but do NOT select "System Administrator (root)". This is actually a reference to the root user. Do not confuse it with a normal administrator account.
Enter a new password in the boxes. If you are using Mac OS X Tiger and above, you can also type in a password hint.
Click the Save button.
Click OK on the message confirming the password has been reset.

NERD NOTE: Regardless of how many characters are actually in the password, thirteen bullet characters (•••••••••••••) will appear in the Password and Verify fields the next time the password is edited.

05.

Quit Reset Password & Installer then Restart Your Mac

Select Quit Reset Password from the Reset Password menu (Reset Password > Quit Reset Password).
Quit Installer from the Installer menu (Installer > Quit Installer).
Click Restart or Quit when prompted.

06.

Reset Your Keychain

After you restart your computer and login with your new password, you need to reset your password keychain. If you change your account's password using your Mac OS X Install disc (or if your network-based account password is changed due to a network admin forcing a password change), your default keychain password does not change. Because of this, you will be prompted to enter a keychain password each time an application requires authentication that your keychain would normally provide. This will drive you nuts!!! The best way around this is to delete the keychain. Don't worry, the OS will automatically make you a new one.

From the Finder, click on the Go menu and select Home (Go > Home).
A new Finder window will appear on the screen. Open the Library folder and drag the Keychains folder to the trash.
Log out and log back in. A new keychain will be created automatically.

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