By Achilles Hill | Last Updated
Lost or forgot Mac admin password and no installer disc? Here are 3 effective ways to easily reset Mac admin password without disk.
Even you have lost access to Mac, the built-in password recovery utility and terminal will always help you to sign in Mac after Mac admin password reset.
While you have another available administrator on Mac, please take this easy and safe way to reset your Mac password.
1. Power on Mac and login with another administrator.
For example, if you want to reset mac password for admin account "isunshare fox", now please select another administrator "deger" to sign in Mac.
2. Open System PreferencesUsers & Groups and remove the lock on editing with administrator password.
3. Select the admin account in user list, and click on Reset Password button next to the account.
4. Type a new password for selected account and reenter it to verify. Click Change Password and the Mac admin password would be reset or removed if you don't type any password for administrator account.
5. Restart Mac with admin account you just reset password to make new password effective.
Before using Apple ID to reset forgotten Mac admin account password, it is necessary to make sure you have linked your admin account to Apple ID on accessible Mac.
Steps to reset Mac forgotten admin password with Apple ID:
1. Power on Mac and select the password-forgotten admin account to sign in.
2. Just type incorrect password, press Enter and you would get the message about you can reset password using your Apple ID. Click the icon after that.
3. Enter Apple ID and its password. And tap on Reset Password to continue.
Note: If you forgot apple id password, please reset it at first on login page through email or security questions you have set.
https://appleid.apple.com/
4. Click OK while another message prompts you will create a new keychain if you change the password for this user.
5. Type a new password twice for admin account and click on Reset Password button to make Mac admin password reset successfully with Apple ID.
6. Access Mac with new admin password and then you could create new keychain.
Simple steps to associate admin account to Apple ID on Mac:
1. Open System PreferencesUsers & Groups and right click the password-forgotten admin account. Choose Advanced Options. Or you can directly see Apple ID option under the user account. (Take Yosemite as example)
2. On Advanced Options window, click Set button next to the Apple ID option to add Apple ID.
3. Write down the existing Apple ID you want to associated with or create one now by Create Apple ID option if you have no Apple ID. Click OK and again to make sure the connection between user account and Apple ID.
4. Return to the admin account in Users & Groups. Now please check "Allow user to reset password using Apple ID". Then you could reset admin password with this Apple ID on Mac login screen whenever you want.
It will guide you how to reset Mac admin password with built-in password reset tool on Mac. And it always works even though you have no another administrator or have not associated admin account to Apple ID.
1. Start Mac and press Command + R when grey screen appears and hold on it until you see Apple logo.
2. Wait for Mac entering recovery mode.
3. While you access Mac in recovery mode, click Utilities on the top menu and select Terminal.
4. Type resetpassword in Terminal and press Enter. Please keep terminal open.
5. On following Reset Password utility, choose a user you want to reset password. And click Next.
After Mac user password reset, reboot Mac to make password recovery effective.
Note: If you still want to reset password for another user in recovery mode, please type "resetpassword" again in Terminal and all of users will be listed again for you to choose and reset password.
Besides above easy and safe ways, Terminal also helps you to reset Mac admin password with command line in single user mode, but it seems a little difficult and is not recommended. Surely if you think you can do it, please try. But if you cannot do it in proper way, probably your Mac would be damaged by something wrong.
Note:
1. If you cannot make sure the user name, please check it with command "ls /Users" at first in Terminal.
2. And it is an extra step for Mac running OS X 10.7.3 and later. Load Open Directory with following command before running password reset command line.
launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.opendirectoryd.plist
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