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How to reset your Mac OS X password without an installer disc

How to reset your Mac OS X password without an installer disc

Let’s say you totally forgot the password to log on to your Mac. Or maybe you purchased a used Mac from someone else and they’ve got it locked down. There are numerous ways to reset a password with no OS X discs.

This tutorial may ruffle some feathers, but it addresses a topic that a ton of people ask about all the time. Yes, it’s startling to think that anyone could theoretically walk up to your computer and gain access within minutes. Before you go thinking that Mac OS X has a severe vulnerability that makes it less secure than other operating systems, think again. Anyone with physical access to your machine (whether it is Windows, Linux, or Mac) can eventually find a way in if they know what they’re doing. There are ways of bypassing nearly any security measure when a hacker is literally sitting right in front of your system.

The information here has previously been made available from many different sources online and is presented with the intention of helping people with legitimate reasons for resetting their Mac OS X password. A few of the methods floating around the Mac community have been compiled here in one easy-to-reference place. System admins responsible for supporting entire organizations and users who bought used Macs are the folks most likely to benefit from this.

Important Note:
This tutorial was written for Mac OS X 10.4, 10.5 and 10.6. Please check out the updated version of this post if you’re trying to reset the password on a Mac running 10.7 Lion or 10.8 Mountain Lion.

Reset 10.5 Leopard & 10.6 Snow Leopard password

  1. Power on or restart your Mac.
  2. At the chime (or grey screen if your chime is turned off), hold down Command+S on your keyboard to enter single-user mode.
  3. This step is optional, but it’s a good idea because it checks the consistency of the hard disk before moving on. At the prompt, type fsck -fy and press Enter/Return. Wait for the checks to complete before going to the next step.
  4. Type mount -uw / and press Enter.
  5. Type launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist and press Enter.
  6. Type ls /Users and press Enter. This lists all of the usernames on the computer – helpful if you don’t know or remember what these are.
  7. Type dscl . -passwd /Users/username password and replace “username” with one of the users displayed in the previous step. Replace “password” with a new password of your choice. Press Enter.
  8. Type reboot and press Enter.

Reset 10.4 Tiger password

  1. Power on or restart your Mac.
  2. At the chime (or grey screen if your chime is turned off), hold down Command+S on your keyboard to enter single-user mode.
  3. Type sh /etc/rc and press Enter/Return.
  4. Type passwd username and replace “username” with the short name of the user account for which you’d like to reset the password.
  5. Type your desired password and press Enter. It won’t show itself on the screen, so be careful what you type. You will most likely have to enter it again to confirm.
  6. Type reboot and press Enter.

Tricking your Mac into creating a new user account

  1. Power on or restart your Mac (should work for any Mac OS X system).
  2. At the chime (or grey screen if your chime is turned off), hold down Command+S on your keyboard to enter single-user mode.
  3. This step is optional, but it’s a good idea because it checks the consistency of the hard disk before moving on. At the prompt, type fsck -fy and press Enter/Return. Wait for the checks to complete before going to the next step.
  4. Type mount -uw / and press Enter.
  5. Type rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone and press Enter.
  6. Type shutdown -h now and press Enter.

The third method of resetting your Mac’s password requires some additional explanation. Rather than simply changing the password like the previous two methods do, this one fools the operating system into believing it has never been started before. This means when you restart the machine, it will take you through the entire setup & registration process all over again. Do not worry, all of your pre-existing data is still available. Just continue with this process and do not choose the option to transfer or migrate information to the Mac.

Once you’re done, log in with your new admin account and go to System Preferences > Accounts. You may have to click on the lock icon in the lower-left corner before making changes here. You should see your original user account(s) in the left column. Try clicking on one of them to convert it to a standard user account (uncheck “Allow user to administer this computer”) and change the password. You should be able to successfully log in to that account now and access all of your files and programs. If you want, you can log back in with your new admin account and re-check the “Allow user to administer this computer” option in System Preferences to grant admin privileges to the original user again.

That should cover it! As always, remember messing with single-user mode and Terminal is risky and may lead to trouble if you make mistakes. Considering you’re already locked out of the computer, though, you’ll probably be willing to take your chances at this point.

One last thing… if you have a Keychain Access password, you will probably need to reset that as well. You can do this by selecting “login” under Keychains on the left and choosing Delete from the Edit menu. You’ll lose everything in the Keychain, but you’ll now be able to start fresh and add new ones.

447 Comments Have Been Posted (Leave Your Response)

¡Muchas, muchas gracias!

I have a mac mini which for some strange reason does not have sound. I forgot my admin password and have been trying to reset it. Im using OSX 10.6.8. Can anyone help me

re: how to reset your mac osx password.
running os 10.6.8
I get to step 6 and the response is “Is command not found”
I tried it all twice, the second time leaving out the optional step 3.
Any advice?
P.S. I’m not actually locked out of the computer, just can’t update software that requires admin password.

I have tried command S a dozen times and the mac mini justs continues to turn on normally. I cant get into single user mode.
running 10.6.8

THANK YOU so much this was very helpful i had gotten a mac from a relative years ago and wanted to boot it up but had no fricken idea what the login was, i used method three and it worked! thank you

I went through the third method twice but once I started it up all that was on the screen was the boxes for name and password. Nothing worked for those boxes.

I keep getting :/root# socket is not connected after I try launchctl load
??? What now??

I keep getting :/root# socket is not connected after I try launchctl load
??? What now??

I have a mac..10.4.11..i forgot the password and my username is tt..and I don’t remember the password please I need ur help

Not found. Just reboots as normal. Help.

I got to the “setting up” part, but this has been going on for 6 hours. I hadn’t used the Mac Book Pro in several years, had to “trick it” into thinking it had NOT been set up, but it seems to be stuck. I am not that good, so please be gentle and clear in what I need to do. Many thanks! Paul C

reboot system
and after inputting mount -uw / and pressed Enter.
the next command was
enter password.

please help me recovering password
it is a used ibook os x 4
with already a profile

thank you for your help.

i rebooted system by pressing cmnd+s
and after inputting mount -uw / and pressed Enter.
the next command was
enter password.

please help me recovering password
it is a used ibook os x 4
with already a profile

thank you for your help.

I keep getting :/root# socket is not connected after I try launchctl load

I have gotten through the entire process and it looks like it worked until I have to put in the password and then no joy.

My old mac running on snow leopard 10.6.8 had some files that i needed. I couldn’t remember the password to my main or admin account, so I tried resetting the password to the main account. I got to step 8, and after that, the first time I wrote sudo reboot. It shut down perfectly, then started up again in what looked like recovery mode, and then it shut down again. I’ve tried to start it several times now, also in recovery mode, but it keeps shutting down. I can get in to single user mode, so I tried the whole procedure again, but with the same result. Now I can’t even get to the page where you log in.
What do I do?

Any instructions on resetting my password on my macbook pro running OS X El Capitan 10.11.2? Thx

i was also getting :/root# socket is not connected after I try launchctl load on my leopard so then i mixed it up ad after launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist i typed in passwd username and replace “username” with the short name of the user account for which you’d like to reset the password.. . and it worked!!! Yay ty. Hope this also helps .

AWESOME! worked perfectly. make sure you carefully type in everything. I missed a “/”

I have forgotten my administrator password on an old MacBook Pro running on Snow Leopard OS X 10.6.9. I have tried the tricks above to reset the password or login as a new administrator, but have had no luck. Any other suggestions?

Worked perfectly for me first time on 10.5.8 – much appreciated.

(saved me chasing someone up via e-mail, who had to chase someone else up via the telephone, who had to chase someone else up who sometimes lives here and sometimes lives in Sweden, and he was dying of cancer, but not anymore)

Brilliant, finally got into my old Mac Mini which I had given up on!

Thanks

Hi
I am currently trying to reset my passwd on mac os leopard 10.5 but I keep getting “socket not connected”, and I do not know what a “shortname” for user account means or where it is found (My bet is it’s the username displayed when connecting at the first account menu) . Could someone help me gain access to my old mac please?

I tried this :
dscl . -passwd /Users/username password
but couldn’t gain access without launchctl load… and so I typed it correctly and still :
“Socket not connected”
and also got “file not found” for.
my passwd Username password

Thank you so much! This method worked like a charm. I recently bought a refurbished iMac & was unable to recover the Admin password as the seller was a wholesaler. Anyway after trying numerous suggestions from the Apple forum that all failed, I stumbled upon this fix. I followed the instructions above and rebooted, the iMac reset & took me through the setup & registration process.

Thanks again!!!!

Thank you. It still works!

Is it normal that the fans on my powermac g5 go nuts in single user mode?

I am trying to wipe my old 2006 macbook, running 10.4.11

After following the steps for “Reset Tiger Password”, when I enter my new password for the second time and hit enter, a new command line pops up and reads “Sorry”, with a new “localhost:/ root#” prompt.

Any ideas why the new password isn’t taking?

THANK Youuuuuuuuu

I already have a gmail address on my Android Nexus 5 and I am unable to access to my mail on my Mac OS X 10.6.8

Thanks!!!!!! Actually worked!

I want to run cd/dvd on a Mac OSX 10.4.11 Iforgot my main password

how can I recreate a password ?

I have tried this option and cannot get into single user mode boots up as normal i am using leopard 10.5.8 on my mac G5 with a generic keyboard and using the windows key as the command key.
Could you help please.

any advice for system running 10.2.8?

Fantastic. Thank you so so much.

This worked out well , worked so good the apple guy Wanted to know how I did it.

Tiger 10.4.11 worked as described, perfect.
All reset, no loss of archive, thank you!!!

Alfred van Paaschen
April 2nd, 2020, 10:07 AM

Works like a charm for 10.5 Thanks!

I’ve got a G4 Mac Silverback that I’ve used daily for 14 years and yesterday found myself locked out. Wouldn’t accept my password. Your third trick worked like a charm and I set up a new account that works just fine. Thanks for walking me through this nerve-wracking experience. Really appreciate your clear instructions and helpful graphics!

Tried hundreds of times to input new password on my macbook pro from 2011 with Snow Leopard 10.6.8 (hasn’t been used for many years) since I forgot the password and can’t do any new software installation. Neither method works (as described above nor the trying to get in as a totally new laptop admin account, it always boots back to home screen and any new password does not work at all, spent 20 hours trying over and over so I guess I noew have a fancy boat anchor!

The error ‘socket is not connected’ is due to the reason
that in step 4, mount command is not used with ‘/’
Use: mount -uw /

Thank you!! Method 1 worked perfectly for 10.5. After much failed trying, I’m so glad I found this! Felt badass like a hacker, and my mother-in-law who had the old computer with the forgotten password was very impressed.

Many thanks – this was the only place that I find the answer I needed, even though I had to brace fort the 3rd option – I’m in! Hurrah!

Bonjour, j’ai acheté un PowerBook G4 mais malheureusement je n’ai pas le password pour pouvoir effacer le disque et réinstaller OS9.2 et OS X 10.4.
Comment puis-je faire ?

Got to type rm / var/db/.AppleSetupDone
Then it asks
Override -w——r— root/wheel for / var/db/.AppleSetupDone?
I typed in shutdown -h now
And it took me back to
Local host:/ root#

What did I do wrong?

It really worked for me after many attempts.

Had an old mac with 10.6.3 and forgot its password.
Thank you it worked for me. (as of 09/23/2021)

[…] the web brought up some promising articles on how to reset user passwords in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger – trying them out however resulted in […]