Admin password reset

MsDarcy

Hey guys,

Have totally forgotten my admin password and have been operating from a second account (which isn't an admin acc) need to get back to the admin now and have been googling furiously trying to figure out how to do, I have a mac book air 11' 10.7.2 .. I tried to reboot doing the whole .. mount... shutdown thing however when everyone else's seems to be starting fresh mine just goes back to the usual opening menu showing the two accounts.. I've misplaced my cd i got but I don't have a drive for it anyway! Any suggestions? Thanks

Colonel Panic

Have a look at this, MsDarcy!

I have to say, it's pretty scary how easy it is to do that on Lion. Another reason to turn on FileVault! (If you're not crap at remembering passwords! )

conor.hogan.2

Wow I thought resetting SL and W7 passwords was easy but that is ridiculous.

MsDarcy

Thanks a mill ! It didn't work (or I'm just a total egjit altogether ) Gonna make a trip into town tomorrow and hopefully the guys in the store near graft on street can help... thanks again!!

Colonel Panic

Did it boot into Recovery Mode?

Shut down your laptop then start it again holding Alt/Option.

MiniNukinfuts

Colonel Panic wrote: »

Have a look at this, MsDarcy!

Time to take a trip to pcworld and lock all the staff out of the macs

MiniNukinfuts

Also, I thought I should post this also, http://osxdaily.com/2011/04/25/change-admin-password-mac/

This uses the single user mode to change the admin/ root password. I've used it in the past and I reckon it's faster to change the password than the lion recovery method mentioned above

muggyog

Set a firmware password ( not so easy to circumvent now!)

More or less explained here.

mackytiger

There are many commands to reset Mac admin password which differs depending upon the situation. For example resetting password in 10.4-10.5 is simple by typing the following command : 
sh /etc/rc
passwd shortusername

while Mac OS X running 10.7 to 10.12 you need to simply open terminal in recovery mode and type command "resetpassword" --> Select the volume containing the user account then > Select username and type a new password > hit save and you are done.

For a detailed information you may want to refer to this detailed article on how to reset mac admin password -

5uspect

If anyone is looking to further secure their Mac consider a firmware password.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204455