Instructions for the Mac OS X Password Recovery.
Although there’s no real way to recover a lost root password, you can change the root password even if you do not know the current one. You must have physical access to the machine in order to accomplish this task.
1. Click Restart at the login window
2. While the computer is restarting, hold down “Command-S” until you see text scrolling through the window. This boots the computer into single user mode.
3. At the Localhost% prompt type:
/sbin/fsck -y
/sbin/mount -uw /
/sbin/SystemStarter
You will then see various services starting up.
4. When the Localhost% prompt reappears, type:
passwd [username]
It will then ask you to type the new root password twice, so do so.
(Though I’ve not tried it, it appears you can type niutil -list . /users to get a list if users if you do not know the username….if someone wants to verify this, I would be most appreciative).
5. After entering the new password, type:
reboot
6. At the login window, enter the username with the new password. Once you are logged in, you can use the Multiple Users application (/Applications/Utilities) to change your user’s password, or create a new user account.
Note: this may not work for newer versions of OS X; I think they did something about it in a security update. I hope this helps you with Macintosh password recovery.
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There is no Command-S “key”.
There is a Command key (the cloverleaf next to the spacebar) and there is an “S” key.
Hold the two keys down together—that’s what the hyphen between them means, that they are held down at the same time just like when you use Command-X to cut and Command-V to paste when you’re in a word processor.
And to Anna, message #103, DON’T go picking out names from a list and trying to change their passwords. Many of these are system things you shouldn’t touch. You can REALLY screw things up in root mode in UNIX, so don’t mess with anything or randomly try stuff without reading about it and understanding it first.
If you want to know which users are listed on the system with accounts, then look at the Users folder. Usually there’s only one person if it’s a single user machine. It gives you the system “short name” for the user. For example, if you logged in normally as Jane Doe the short name is probably “janedoe” in the Users directory.
how do i know what modal my ibook is
Dear moderator, please ignore the previous post, I’ve just noticed on a further check that the command is “passwd” not “passwrd” !
I have a PowerBook G4 (that is now just over 1 year old and has not yet been used due to password problems and the installation DVD corrupted on “Password Manager” !
I have OS 10.3.3 installed with a French AZERTY keyboard (running in root mode in US configuration. I have followed the various different advices above. I get as far as “Startup complete” after typing “SystemStarter”.
I have then typed “passwrd root” and get the message “-sh: passwrd: command not found”
I then tried the extended “passwrd -i …. routine and got the same message.
Any more ideas ? (I would like to use my Mac before it becomes a museum piece rather than my PC !
Help….my iBook g4 model PowerBook6,7 will not respond to the first command but it wants /sbin/fsck -fy instead for the first command? Is this a different OS X version? After that it will not take any other commands as offered above?? No I don’t have the start up disc but thanks for asking ha ha ha any help?? Thanks….J