If you have forgotten Mac OS X account password, then there is a tricky method which let you create a new administrator account on Mac OS X and through that admin account, you can reset password of the previous account.
So, let’s see how to create an administrator account on Mac while you lost your Mac passwords. This guide was written using Mac OS X Snow Leopard and also testing on OS X Yosemite as well.
Creating new Mac OS X account to recover old account
- Restart the system and hold “Cmd + S” keys from the keyboard until it shows Terminal.
- Now type the following commands one after one and press “Enter” button after each command to execute it individually.
/sbin/mount -uaw
rm /var/db/.applesetupdone
reboot
- “Reboot” command will restart the Mac, and you will see the “Welcome wizard” after beautiful welcome messages animation.
- Follow all the wizard instructions, until you see the following screen to create a new account. Fill all entries and hit Continue button.
This will create a new administrator account and automatically log into it.
Reset old user account password
Now you can reset the password of your old Mac OS X account using this new account, here is the process.
- Click on “Apple icon” and then “System Preferences.”
- Click on “Account”s icon
- Here you can see all Mac OS X user accounts are listed, new account “TrickyWays” that we have created and “Susan” the old one that we want to recover.
Click on the lock icon to enable previous account “Susan” and reset its password.
Enter the Password of current user account and hit the OK button
- Now your prev. the account is enabled for changes, select that and hit the “Reset Password” button
Enter “New password”, “Password hint” and hit “Reset Password” button to reset the account password.
Now log out and log in to your prev. account “Susan” and you can delete the account “TrickyWays” that we have created to recover prev. account “Susan”.
Leave a message below in comments, If you successfully recovered your account or need further help to solve the problem.
see also how to reset the Root password on Mac OS X or check out our Mac OS X section for more Mac Tricks
View Comments (192)
This is some type of hacking Mac computer and its really bad if in bad hands, but i Its useful for me i forgot my Mac password.
What a great resource!
it Worked!
Not working for me, i cant get passed:
rm /var/db/.applesetupdone
it says:
No Such file or directory
never mind, i was adding a space befor the . THANKS!
Mac OS X Snow Leopard
which OS ver. you are using?
It worked!
i was following your directions, and when i got to entering the new password for the account i am trying to recover, it asks for a master password. so i tried typing in the one that i created earlier in your directions but it keeps saying the password is incorrect. what should i do?
thanks so much!
Can you tell me the exact step where its prompting for the password.
If its prompting on step-5 then enter the password of the user that you created in step-3 of wizard.
Feel free to reply.
it is happening at step six. one top of the new password space it asks for master password. so it looks like this:
master password:
new password:
verify:
password hint
i tried putting in the step three password for the master password and it says it is incorrect.
If your previous Mac account was protected by FileVault then you must enter the master password first to reset it. If you forgot the the master password i don't thing there is any way to bring your account back b/c its encrypted by FileVault.
ok, is the master password the one i set for the filevault? i really appreciate the help!!
now, a new window comes up and it says
reset password failed.
CSSM_ERRCODE_MEMORY_ERROR.
what does this mean?
According to your comments with TrickyGuy so far i think FileValut was enabled on the account that you want to recover.
If FileValute is enabled on a Mac account its mean you have a Master Password as well and you have to enter this before editing any account information on Mac.
I must agree with the rest, I tried other methods to try to get my password reset with no luck. This worked exactly as explained. Thank you so much! I am bookmarking this site.
Not working for me, i cant get passed:
rm /var/db/ .applesetupdone
it says:
No Such file or directory
Don't put space before ".applesetupdone"
write like this:
rm /var/db/.applesetupdone
Feel free to reply.
I did the steps and it rebooted and no welcome screen?
The same thing happened to me. I got through the rebooting part fine, but when it restarted it led me directly back to my original desktop screen with no "Welcome" screen or any of the other steps?
I'm having the same problem in that I cannot get past the 2nd step. I'm typing in all of the ":/root" variations properly, then my system goes to reboot but the "Welcome" screen doesn't come up; instead it goes directly back to my original desktop. What should I do?
this was excellent...worked perfectly...thx
I having problems with the first step do you restart the cumputer and press cmds or how ?
Yes, restart your Mac, press and hold the "cmd + S" both keys until it shows terminal
I cant get it to work I tried restarting and holding command + s and it boots up like normal every time. I have osx version 10.6.8 what am I doing wrong??
I have the same problem. After the system comes back up, I press Cmd + S and absolutely nothing happens (vers 10.4.11)
Never did get a reply. Please help. When I reboot my Mac and hit the Comnd key + S key ... nothing happens.