How to reset Mac password on macOS Sierra

It is generally good practice to password protect your user account. Protect your account from unauthorized access and keep your personal data safe. However, that layer of protection can quickly become a nuisance if you forget your password. You might think that the only way to avoid this situation is to completely reformat your Mac, but luckily there’s a relatively easy way to reset your Mac’s password. The best part? This method can also be used to change the administrator account password. So, if you forgot your account password, here’s how to reset your Mac password .

Note : I’m demonstrating this on a MacBook Air running macOS Sierra 10.12.4 developer beta. This article is primarily for Macs running any version of macOS Sierra.

How to reset your Mac password: Password Reset Utility

If you forgot your account password on macOS Sierra, you can easily reset it by following these steps.

• Restart your Mac. When you hear the “startup chime,” press and hold “Command + R” until you see the Apple logo. This will start your Mac in recovery mode.
• Then click on Utilities and select Terminal .

• Type the command “resetpassword” in Terminal and press Enter.

• The Password Reset Utility opens and displays all the accounts you have on your Mac. Select the account for which you want to change the password and click Next .

• Your Mac will prompt you for a new password along with a password hint (recommended). Enter this and click Next .

• You can now restart your Mac and sign in to your user account using your new password.

How to reset your Mac password: Older versions of macOS

If you don’t use macOS Sierra and need to reset your Mac’s password, you’ll be happy to know that it’s easy to do. Please follow the steps below.

Note : I haven’t tried this method, but there’s no reason it wouldn’t work. Please give it a try and let us know your results.

1. Delete the applesetupdone file

• Restart your Mac and hold Command + S when you hear the startup sound. This will put you in single user mode and give you access to the terminal.

• Now type the command fsck -fy and press Enter. This basically checks the file system on your Mac and makes sure everything is fine before proceeding.

• Then enter the “ mount -uw / ” command. This command basically mounts the entire hard drive and makes it writable. This ensures that any changes you make persist across reboots .

• Then type the command rm /var/db/.applesetupdone and press Enter.

Note : This command will remove a file called “applesetupdone” from your Mac. That is, it tricks the Mac into thinking it hasn’t set up the user yet.

2. Create a new user account

You can now restart your Mac. Learn every step you take when setting up your new Mac.

• Create a new user account and make sure the account name is different from the account whose password you want to recover.

• Log in with this user account (this will be your administrator account).

• Then just go to System Preferences -> Users & Groups .

• Here, simply select the account you want to reset the password for and click ” Reset Password “.

• Enter your new password and you’re done. You can now log in to your original account using the new password you set.

Bonus: Protect your account

The ease of use of this method is highly praised. However, the fact remains that anyone (with physical access to your Mac) can use this method to reset your password. That’s a serious security issue. So if you’re worried about someone resetting your Mac’s password without your knowledge, there are things you can do to protect your data.

1. File vault

FileVault is a built-in encryption utility that Apple ships with your Mac. This is a very powerful tool that allows you to quickly encrypt all the data on your Mac and seal it with a password (and recovery key) . Every time you log into your account, you must enter your FileVault password to unlock your encrypted hard disk.

You may be wondering how this can help you. Well, think about it this way. Even if someone resets your Mac’s password, they must unlock your hard drive before they can do anything remotely malicious on your Mac. After that, just use recovery mode to unlock your hard drive and reset your password again. Simple like that.

2. Firmware password

If disk encryption alone isn’t enough and you need a very high level of security, you can actually lock your Mac at the firmware level . To do this, you need to enter recovery mode and select ” Firmware Password Utility ” from the utilities menu. If you log in to your Mac the traditional way, you don’t need a firmware password. However, if someone tries to boot into Recovery Mode or Single User Mode , or try to use the Mac in Target Disk Mode for data transfer, the Mac will prompt for the firmware password.

Resetting the firmware password is not trivial and should only be used when absolutely necessary. If you forget your firmware password, you need to contact Apple and they will help you resolve it. However, because of this strong level of security, firmware passwords are the way to go if you’re in a high-risk environment and want to keep your data as safe as possible.

See also: How to lock/unlock your Mac or PC using a USB drive

Easily reset your Mac password using these methods

Starting your Mac in recovery mode and using a password reset utility is the best way to reset a forgotten password. It’s easy to run and quick enough to get you back to work. Be aware that this method can be used by others to change your Mac password without your knowledge. This is the last thing you want. Have you forgotten your Mac password? What did you do? Also, if you know of another (hopefully easier) way to reset your Mac password, let us know in the comments section below.