resetting mac password from the command line

This post is not original. I copied it from elsewhere. When I find the original I will reference it here.

hold down command-S on startup.

Run mount -uw /. (fsck -fy is not necessary.)

In 10.7 and later, run:

launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.opendirectoryd.plist

or in 10.6 and earlier:

launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist

Run 

passwd username 

and reset the password.

Run 

reboot


A second way to reset the login password of an account is to use Reset Password.app from the recovery partition:

Hold command-R on startup.

Open Terminal from the Utilities menu.

Run resetpassword, which opens the Reset Password application.

Select the volume and account and reset the password.


A third way is to create a new admin account:

Hold command-S on startup.

Run 

mount -uw /

Run 

rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone

Run 

reboot

Go through the steps of creating a new account.

Reset the password of the old account from the Users & Groups preference pane.


None of these options resets the password of the login keychain.


If FileVault 2 is enabled, you have to enter a password to start up in single user mode, and you can't use Reset Password.app to reset the password of an account.

Type 

fsck -fy

Type 

mount -uw /

Type 

launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist

Type 

dscl . -passwd /Users/username password

replacing username with the targeted user and password with the desired password.

reboot



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