HOW TO BYPASS MAC OS X LOGIN PASSWORD!!!
It happens more than often that people forget their login password for various reasons. It also happens that you can buy computer that is password protected.
No matter what your case is, you are confronted with two solutions: reinstall the Operating System and loose all your data; or you can try to bypass the password or recover it if possible.
In this article, we are going to show how easy it is to bypass a login password on Mac computers (Mac OS X).
To do this, follow these simple steps:
- Reboot your Mac computer holding the COMMAND+S keys Note: This will boot you into what is called a “single user mode”. It is a command line mode, meaning that you have to enter commands. Please be careful here because the user root here is a super user “i.e. it has the most power”, so it can do some serious damage to your computer if you don’t follow correctly the instructions.
- Type in this command and hit Enter after each
- mount -uw /
- rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
- shutdown -h now
That’s it!!! After you turn on your computer, you password issue should be gone!!!1
Note: If you hold down the COMMAND+S keys and nothing happened, it is more likely that an EFI password has been set up on the computer. To make sure, reboot the computer, holding the OPTION key and it you should be prompted to enter a password; if you don’t know that password either, please click here to check out our previous article on how to bypass that kind of password.
itcrush 
but what exsacly does it DO to the computer to get pass, does it delete the user? or are you on there account?
It doe not delete the account nor will you use any of files. It just clears the passsword!!
lol this is shit it totaly restarted the computer
hi
This is actually the intended behavior. With the new admin account, you can reset the old user password and log back in.
I hope that answers your question.
Thanks
When you say Command+S are they case sensitive commands? Also is it Cmd (plus) S? or just Command S?
On number 3…are there spaces between the -uw / ?
Thanks for any help 🙂
Hi Dawn,
First of all, thanks for visiting my blog.
For the first question, Command+S means pressing both the “COMMAND” and “S” keys on your keyboard.
Next, yes there is a space betwenn “-uw” and “/”
Thanks for your reply! Your blog is fab! 🙂
This worked! So helpful! Thanks!!
Will this delete anything? Such as files, pictures, so on and so forth.Also will this delete the password.And do you have to do it everytime you want to access our computer?
No, this will only allow you to change the password and get in the computer. Your files remain untouched, and you only have to do it once. Unless you forget the password again!!
Hi,
Yesterday I did not want the start up screen to prompt me for a password anymore, so I went into change it to nothing. I just wanted my computer to open up my desktop with out the prompt screen. Well today, the pw prompt screen came up asking me for a password, well I didn’t type one in, I left the field blank yesterday and saved it out. now i can’t get in! My password hint is ‘no password’ to remind me. I’ve tried rebooting with command S, nothing works. I tried the option key while rebooting to get into my recovery drive, there’s nowhere to change my password.
Help please..
HI Lincat,
First of all, thank you very much for reading. You said that when you press COMMAND + S, nothing happens. Have you perhaps set your computer with an EFI password?
This just takes me to a bootloop
Can you elaborate more Jeremy? What is taking you to a bootloop?
Hi when I tried this it and restarted my computer it brought me to a select your language screen that appear when I first bought my computer– does this mean all my files and programs on my computer are lost?
No, This method, if done correctly, shouldn’t wipe your data.
Hi, when I enter the first line the response on screen is “no such file or directory”
I noticed a few lines up it says “if you want to make modifications to files run ‘sbin/fsck -y’ first and then’sbin/mount -uw /’ does any of this make any sense???
Hi dear reader,
I am sorry for the late reply.
I have tried to replicate your error and you only get that error when you enter the command without space.
I suppose you are entering this “mount-uw/” instead of “mount -uw /”
Notice that there is a space between the command itself (i.e. “mount”) and the options (“-uw”), also a space between the options and the argument (i.e. “/”).
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Hi,
When I tried to do this I rebooted the computer and it came up with select language and reregistration page. Did I lose all my files? How do I fix this?
You shouldn’t have lost anything as you have not deleted any file except the one that tells the computer that there was an initial setup; Just make sure the new account you create does not have the same name as the old one!!
What happens if you do? :S
So, the whole point of this method is being able to access the computer with a new admin account. Once you are in, you can reset the password of the existing one and get all your files back. IF you create a new account with the same name as the existing one, then it will crush it, and thus preventing you from retrieving your files.
i followed your directions. now, my computer just keeps rebooting itself upon startup. what is happening???
this made a new account on my mac, how do i get the password for my old admin account?
This is the intended behavior. Now that you have an admin account, you can reset the password of the other account in Systems Preferences
Worked just fine… thanks
Sure thing!!
Hey I was wondering if the 2nd option about rm /var/db/ .AppleSetupDone is it supposed to do something since when I did it it said: File does not exist
The reason why you have got that error is because you put a space between /var/db/ and .AppleSetupDone .
It is supposed to be: /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
Is there a way to recover the users original password afterwards??
Unfortunately, no. You cannot recover the original password. You can reset it though.
DO NOT TRY THIS UNTIL YOU BACKUP A VOLUME OR HAVE A HARD DISC BACKEDUP WITH ALL YOUR FILES AND INFO.
IT RESTARTS THE COMPUTER, AND MAKES IT LIKE WHEN YOU FIRST GET IT.
Please help me get my computer back to normal.
hi
This is actually the intended behavior. With the new admin account, you can reset the old user password and log back in.
I hope that answers your question.
Thanks
Worked Perfectly! Thank You!