How to Reset your Login Password on Mac

• Author:
• Editor: Oleg Afonin
• Updated: 5.03.2025 12:30

Read this article to find out how to reset your login password on Mac. You’ll know what to do if you forgot your password or just want to change it.

Contents

• Method 1. How to reset a Mac password with Apple ID
• Method 2. How to recover a password with the help of the hint
• Method 3. How to reset a Mac password in the Recovery Mode
• Method 4. Reset the password with another administrator account
• Method 5. How to unlock your Mac with the FileVault key
• Method 6. Target Disk Mode in MacOS
• Conclusion
• Questions and answers
• Comments

Probably, there is no user who never experienced difficulties when trying to log in – at least once in a while. As you turn on your Mac, you can’t get access to your files just because the login password is lost – or forgotten. With such cases in mind, Apple has already thought about a variety of ways to reset a password and login to macOS again. In today’s article, we’ll cover a few methods of resetting the login password and gaining access to files stored on a Mac computer.

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Method 1. How to reset a Mac password with Apple ID

If you linked your device to Apple ID, then you can sign in using it.

To log in with Apple ID, type your password several times in the Mac login window. This method will be available, if you enabled the option to allow user to reset password using Apple ID. If such option is disabled, you can’t reset the password with this method.

Now, type an incorrect password several times until you see the message saying you can reset the password using your Apple ID Click on the Reset button.

Type your Apple ID and password, and then click – Reset password.

As a result, you will see a notification that a new keychain will be created for this account to store the user’s passwords, and you will lose all saved passwords stored in the old keychain. Click ОК to confirm your action.

Then your Mac will restart and you will see the Recovery Assistant window where you can click on Reset Password. Type a new password one more time, and a hint if necessary. Click Next.

If you often forget passwords, adding a hint is totally recommended. Next time you try to login, you will see the hint and recall the password.

In the end, you will see a notification saying that your user account password has been reset, and you can log in using your new password. Click on the Restart button to proceed.

When the computer boots again, you will see the login window, where you can type the new password and sign in. Meanwhile, all data and system settings will be saved.

Method 2. How to recover a password with the help of the hint

If you have already configured the password hint, you can try recovering the password with the help of the hint.

In the login window, click on the question mark symbol. As a result, you’ll see that the password can be reset with the help of Apple ID. Below, the hint will be displayed to help you recall the password.

Method 3. How to reset a Mac password in the Recovery Mode

If the hint can’t help you recover the password, and you fail to reset it with Apple ID, or this option is disabled in the account settings, try doing it in the Recovery Mode.

For starters you should boot Mac in the Recovery mode. To do it, restart it and hold down the keys Command + R until the Apple logo appears on the screen.

After you boot in the Recovery Mode, go to the menu – Utilities – Terminal.

In the Terminal window, type the command:

resetpasswordCopy

And press Enter.

If you have several accounts, select this option - Forgot all passwords.

If you know the password for the second administrator account, you can use such account to reset the password. It can be done from the recovery menu or in the system settings.

You will see the password reset sequence in the system settings a bit later. But now - just like in the previous method - type the new password, type it again to check, add a password hint below. Click Next.

Now the password is reset, as well as the user account. Click Exit to Recovery Utilities.

Then close the Terminal window and restart the computer.

As a result, now you can log in to your system with the new password. All data and system settings are intact.

Method 4. Reset the password with another administrator account

If there are several administrator accounts set up for your Mac, you can reset a forgotten password using another account. For this method to work, you need to know the password for such account, and this account should have administrator rights - otherwise, the reset operation is impossible.

Sign in to another administrator account, open System Settings - Users & Groups.

Click on the i button next to the user whose password needs to be reset, and click Reset.

Type the administrator password to allow actions - and hit Unlock.

Now type the new password, confirm it, add a hint, and then click Reset Password.

After that, you’ll be able to log in to the locked account using this new password.

Method 5. How to unlock your Mac with the FileVault key

FileVault is an integrated disk encryption feature that protects data by encrypting the whole disk. If this feature is active and you forgot its password, you can recover it with a special recovery key. Method

Before trying this method, make sure you have this kind of key - it’s the code you received after activating FileVault.

Boot Mac in the Recovery Mode: the key shortcut Command + R at startup, before the Apple logo appears.

When your Mac boots, you will see the Recovery Assistant window. Click Forgot all passwords.

Now type your recovery key to unlock the disk, and click Next.

In the pop-up window, click on Reset Password.

Select the user for whom the password should be reset - and click Next.

Type a new password, and then a hint. Next.

When the reset operation is successful, you will see the message saying “Authentication succeeded.”

Exit to Recovery Mode and reboot your Mac. Now you can log in with the new password. Just like before, all files and system settings have remained intact.

Method 6. Target Disk Mode in MacOS

If you need to access files on a locked Mac and do it quickly, you can do it with the Target Disk Mode.

Target Disk Mode will not help you to recover the password, but it will help you transfer data between two Mac computers.

Connect both Mac computers with a USB or Thunderbolt cable.

Restart or turn on the locked Mac while holding down the T key. As a result, the locked Mac will switch to the Target Disk Mode.

When you open the other Mac, you will see an external drive with files which are stored in the locked computer.

This is how you can transfer files to the properly working Mac and then change the password for the locked computer.

IMPORTANT NOTE: TargetDisk may not work if the FileVault feature and firmware password are enabled.

Conclusion

Summing up, now you know a few methods to reset your login password on Mac. No matter if you lost your password, or you just wanted to change it for better security, the methods you have seen today will help you solve the problem.