#Macbook administrator name and password how to#
#Macbook administrator name and password install#
#Macbook administrator name and password password#
#Macbook administrator name and password mac#

Now, assuming you've forgotten your password, according to Apple. If you did that, the box in System Preferences > Users & Groups was set.

#Macbook administrator name and password mac#

When you first set up your Mac or upgraded the OS, The Setup Assistant will ask if you want to allow your Apple ID to reset the user (admin) password. For the sake of completeness, I'll reference those methods at the end of this article. Some of them are rather Unix-geeky and can make a novice user nervous.

#Macbook administrator name and password password#

To be clear, there are several technical ways to reset the administrator password on a Mac.

#Macbook administrator name and password install#

Nowadays, there is no install disc provided with OS X, and so an alternative method is necessary. If a user forgot the administrator password, perhaps the simplest way (of several) would be to use that disc to set a new administrator password and regain control of the Mac. Except, perhaps, your Mac blowing up or becoming sentient or something.In the early years of OS X, the Mac operating system was sold on a DVD. I sincerely hope that you know all of your email passwords if that's what happens.В In any event, though, pretty much anything is better than not being able to log in at all. I just can't be trusted, and I apologize.Д¬hoose Save, and you're done! Then just go up to the Apple menu and hit Restart.ДЄs before, resetting the password in this way will not change that account's keychain password, so the worst-case scenario is that you'll lose access to that. You'll then select the account and enter a new password for it. When Terminal opens, type in the following, all lowercase with no spaces: resetpasswordДЄfterward, you'll get a nifty little program in which you can choose the volume (usually 'Macintosh HD') containing the user account with the missing password. What you want to choose for our purposes, though, is Utilities > Terminal from the menu at the top of the screen. Once your Mac finishes booting, you should see a bunch of troubleshooting options that are very handy when your Mac's having trouble, like Restore from Time Machine Backup, Disk Utility, and Reinstall OS X. When you see the Apple icon appear on your screen, you can release Command-R. (Bear with me-as far as I know, you can't take screenshots in the Recovery System, and I just couldn't bring myself to take pictures with my phone and use them here.)

You're going to need to log in to your Mac's Recovery System, and you do that by holding down Command-R while your machine's restarting.

#Macbook administrator name and password how to#

If you set things up ahead of time, you can use your Apple ID to reset that password, and I wrote an article on how to do that a while back.Д«ut if you didn't configure that before you forgot the password, you're still OK, because there's a super-secret ninja way to get around those restrictions. What if the password you can't remember is your administrator password, and it's the only administrator account on your Mac? That'll mean that when you try to log in as a different user, you can't even unlock the System Preferences pane because you don't know the only existing administrator password! You're totally screwed, right? Well, maybe, but not where your Mac is concerned. See how my 'karma' account is greyed out in the second screenshot above, with an orange checkmark next to its picture? That's because it's still logged in, so if I need to reset that user's password, I'll have to log him out first. Lastly, the account you're trying to work with can't be logged in using fast user switching.

(But if the sole administrator password is the one you've lost, see below.) Second caveat: You can't reset the password on an account you're currently logged into unless you know the existing password, so log into a different user account if you need to make changes. Unfortunately, you'll have to re-enter all of those passwords in a new keychain, which OS X will prompt your user to create the next time he logs in. This means that the user's keychain-which stores things like email passwords for Apple Mail, Wi-Fi passwords, and so on-won't be usable unless you recover that original password. First, as the box above points out, resetting a lost password won't change the login keychain password for that account. Seems simple, right? But there are a few caveats here. Then OS X will ask you to enter the new password. The first, easiest way starts like this: Open System Preferences > Users & Groups, click on the lock at the bottom-left of the window to unlock the pane, and then enter an administrator's name and password so you can edit things.ДЄfter that, click on the account you've forgotten the password for and choose Reset Password. If you forget an account password in Lion or Mountain Lion, there are lots of ways to reset it.