MacinSpot

Sometimes you just can’t remember your password. With so many different passwords you have to remember, it certainly isn’t uncommon. Apple is genius as they have included with the install DVD/CD that came with your new Mac, a password reset utility. It is super easy to do but may take a few minutes. If you are reading this on the Mac in which you forgot the password, you may want to print this article out or load this article up on another computer. Grab your install DVD/CD and lets get started.

First an foremost, put the install DVD/CD in your Mac and restart it. Immediately after the startup chime sounds press and hold the “C” button on your keyboard. Hold this button until the Apple logo pops up on the screen with the grey background and the wheel below that starts spinning. Grab yourself a drink after this as it takes a minute for the boot DVD/CD to load. When it is done loading you will see a screen asking what language you would like to use. If you want to keep English, just click the next button in the bottom right corner.

You will then come to a Welcome screen. Give this a second, and a menu bar should pop up from the top. Click on the Utilities menu and then select, “Reset Password”. When the password reset utility opens you will see across the top a few drives. In most cases, just two drives. The first one is the boot DVD/CD which you boot off of by holding down the “C” key at startup. The next one is probably labeled “Macintosh HD” if you haven’t renamed the drive. Click the Macinstosh HD and right below that you will see a drop down menu in which you can select a user.

Select the user you want to perform the password reset on and then enter your password twice in the two boxes just below that. If you need to, enter a password hint so you can remember your password in the future. Click save to save the password.

Now you should be able to restart your machine and log in with the password you entered. It is also a good idea to reset your keychain after changing your password since keychain is set to use the same password as the user account, but it does not change with the password reset utility.

To do this go to the Applications folder and open the utilities folder. Open up Keychain. Then click on the File menu and select delete keychain. You will want to delete all references and files. After deleting the keychain, go back to the file menu and select “New Keychain.” Name the keychain and click save. Now you can continue on with your work and enjoy the rest of your day!