How To Factory Reset A Mac Without Password

1. Factory Reset Macbook Without Disc
2. How To Factory Reset A Mac Without Password

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. Mac os x install dvd iso. 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. How do i copy a vhs tape to my mac. 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.

Without an active internet connection, you may not be able to use your computer temporarily. How to Restore a Mac to Factory Settings. Have you completed your data backup and signed out of everything? If the answer is yes, you are ready to wipe your Mac and have it ready for a fresh start. Restart your Mac in Recovery Mode. And the data in the MacBook should be backed up before you reset it. Besides, if you intend to sell it or give it to someone as a present, it would be better if you could disable all services associated with the system before the MacBook is reset to factory settings. A security engineer who goes by the name of fG!, specialized in Mac security and reverse engineering, has found a way to reset a Mac's firmware password without help from Apple's support team.

Factory Reset Macbook Without Disc

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.

Before we start

Don't rush into a factory reset if your Mac is performing badly or if you find a number of strange or unusual files. We think we have an easier solution for you!

Try MacKeeperto unclog your Mac and get a smoother performance! MacKeeper will help you find and delete useless files, remove duplicates, free gigabytes of memory, and clean junk from your Mac.

The longer you use your Mac—the odds are it will start acting up. If something is not working correctly—factory reset seems like a good plan. Besides this, if buying a newer model, trading, selling your MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, or iMac, or just going back to Windows—you'd still need to take care of a few things first. And factory reset is one of them.

The process of reinstalling and wiping all the information off your Mac seems like a challenging task. Don't get intimidated that fast—the process is smooth if you know the steps. Follow our step-by-step guide to reinstall your macOS by reading through these sections:

How to Reset Mac to Factory Settings

Note: the following sequence is applicable to both MacBook Air and MacBook Pro.

Plug in your power adapter. Next, follow our guide once your system is copied and you've logged out of your accounts and services. Before you wipe your Mac and erase any hard drive data, the first thing you need to do is start from the Recovery mode.

1. Click on the Apple logo in the top left corner of your screen and choose Restart
2. When your Mac shuts off and powers back on, press and hold the Command + R keys until you see the Apple logo. Then release the keys. While in Recovery mode, you won't see your usual login screen. Instead, you'll see the macOS Utilities window.
3. In the macOS Utilities window, choose Disk Utility—click Continue
4. Choose your ‘Macintosh HD' startup disk (by default) and click Erase
5. For the macOS High Sierra and higher, choose the APFS format. For the older macOS versions, select MacOS Extended (Journaled) format or Journaled, Encrypted as an extra security option with disk encryption. In this case, you'll need to create a password. Select GUID Partition Map
6. Click Erase
7. Wait until the process is finished and click Done
8. When it's done—go to the Disk Utility menu at the top—quit Disk Utility by clicking the red cross. From the macOS Utilities window—choose Reinstall macOS. Consider installing the latest macOS BigSur
9. Press Continue, accept the license agreement—choose a bootable drive for your macOS
10. After the installation process, you have been successfully factory reset your Mac.

In practice, factory reset doesn't take that much time. After performing it—follow the hints and set up your Mac from scratch.

Steps to do Before Factory Resetting your MacBook

For extra security, back up all your files before restoring your MacBook to factory settings. That way, you'll be able to make sure that none of your personal details are compromised while your Mac is fully prepared for the new owner.

How to back up your Mac

Copy your system with all its components before wiping a Mac. It is best to use Time Machine, a built-in macOS utility that will do all the heavy lifting for you. Using this service means you won't have to import the files to another physical drive manually. When you're up and running on your new Mac, you can restore everything in a snap.

How to erase your personal data

If you plan to sell or give away your Mac, you may want to erase all your data so that the new user has no access to it. Here where it's possible to erase your data.

Deauthorize iTunes account

How To Factory Reset A Mac Without Password

1. Open the iTunes app
2. Click Account in the menu bar
3. Find the Authorizations option in the list and click Deauthorize This Computer
4. Enter your Apple ID and password to confirm
5. Click Deauthorize

Sign out of iCloud

For macOS Catalina and later Hp utility scan settings mac.

1. Click the Apple logo and select System Preferences
2. Click Apple ID
3. On the sidebar, select Overview and click Sign Out

For macOS Mojave and earlier

1. Click the Apple logo and select System Preferences
2. Select iCloud and click Sign Out

Sign out of iMessage

1. Open the Messages app
2. Click Messages next to the Apple logo and select Preferences
3. Click iMessage, then Sign Out

Unpair your Bluetooth devices

If you are selling your Mac but plan to keep your wireless mouse or keyboard, it's an excellent idea to unpair them from your old Mac. If you don't unpair the devices and the new owner of your Mac gets in the Bluetooth range of your peripherals, it can inconvenience both of you.

Your keyboard or mouse will try to connect to the old Mac and may get disconnected from yours. This can result in the characters you type appear on the old Mac's screen, which is not safe.

If you use iMac, Mac Mini, or Mac Pro, you will need to connect a wired keyboard to perform the steps.

1. Click the Apple logo and select System Preferences
2. Go to the Bluetooth tab
3. Hover your mouse over the name of the device to unpair and click the X button next to it

Reset NVRAM

Resetting NVRAM (Non-Volatile Random Access Memory) will erase specific settings. These include your time zone, sound volume, recent kernel panic information, and configurations of your startup-disk and display. It will also restore security features to default.

To reset NVRAM, do the following:

1. Click the Apple logo and select Shut down
2. Hold down the Option + Command (⌘) + P + R keys. Note: you will need to quickly press and hold them together in the next step, so you may want to remember their location
3. Turn back on your Mac and immediately press and hold Option + Command (⌘) + P + R
4. Hold the keys for about 20 seconds and then release them

Don't forget, you can use these instructions if you're selling your Mac or if you want to erase your startup disk to reinstall macOS. If you plan on keeping your Mac, you might be interested in our guide on how to make a bootable macOS installer before the factory reset process.

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