How to Change My Mac, MacBook or iMac Password

Change password

Changing your Mac password is a really simple process, but perhaps because you do it very few times, or perhaps not at all, you can forget how and where you can change your password.

First of all, we want to recommend that, if you think that someone has been able to access your password, and thus your personal computer, it is best to immediately change the password of your Mac to remain calm and make sure that only you, you will have access to all the information that you save on your computer. In addition, experts also recommend changing your password from time to time, therefore, we encourage you to renew your password at least once or twice a year.

Having said that, we go through the steps you have to follow to be able to change the password of your Mac, be it a Macbook Pro, Air or iMac, the process is exactly the same in all of them.

1. From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences, then click Users and Groups.
2. Select your username from the list of users.
3. Click on the “Change password” button and follow the instructions on the screen.

have you forgotten your password? So you can reset it

It is rare that, if you use your Mac every day, there comes a time when you do not remember the password you use, however, it may happen that, after a period in which you have not touched your computer, when you want to enter it, you do not remember the password, and therefore, you cannot access, firstly, your Mac and the tasks that you do with it, and secondly, all the information that you have stored in it. Therefore, if this is your case, below we put on the table several ways to solve this “small” problem.

Before resetting your password, try these possible solutions

• Make sure the type of character you are putting, if it is in lowercase or uppercase, for this you just have to, either look at the keyboard, to see if the capital key or Caps Lock is activated, or notice that in the password field you displays the Caps Lock symbol.
• If a question mark is displayed in the password field, click on it as it will show you a password hint to help you remember it.
• Try logging in without a password, if this works, we recommend that you immediately add a password.
• Try to sign in with your Apple ID password that you use for iCloud.
• If you just changed the password, and the new password doesn’t work, try the old password, if it works, in theory you should be able to use the new password from now on.

Reset password with Apple ID

This is one of the ways through which you can reset the password of your Mac user, however, it is only available for some versions of macOS, for this, repeatedly enter a password until a message appears giving you the possibility to reset password with your Apple ID. If you’ve made three attempts to enter your password and no such message has appeared, your account is not configured to allow password reset with Apple ID. In case you can reset your password, please follow the steps below:

1. Click the button next to the Apple ID prompt, then follow the onscreen instructions to enter your Apple ID and create a new password. You will be prompted to restart when the process is complete.
2. Log in with your new password.
3. Determine if you want to create a new login keychain.

Reset password using another administrator account

Another way you can change your Mac password is if you know the name and password of an administrator account on your Mac, if so, you can change your password by following the steps below:

1. Log in with the name and password of the administrator account.
2. From the Apple menu, select System Preferences and click Users and Groups.
3. Click on the lock and enter the administrator’s name and password again.
4. Select your name from the list of users.
5. Click on the “Reset password” button and follow the instructions to create a new password.
6. Select “Sign Out” from the Apple menu.
7. Login to your account using the new password.
8. Determine if you want to create a new login keychain.

Reset using the password reset wizard

To be able to use this option it is essential to have FileVault activated, if so, you can reset your password using the wizard.

1. Wait a minute at the login screen until you see a message stating that you can use the power button on your Mac to shut down and restart it from OS recovery. If you don’t see this message, FileVault is not activated.
2. Press and hold the power button until your Mac turns off.
3. Press the power button again to turn on your Mac.
4. When the Reset Password window appears, follow the instructions on the screen to create a new password.
5. When done, click “Restart”.
6. If you were able to reset your password with the password reset wizard, log into your account using the new password.
7. Determine if you want to create a login keychain.

Reset using recovery key

To be able to reset your password in this way, again, FileVault has to be activated, if so, follow these steps:

1. At the login screen, enter a password multiple times until a message appears stating that you can reset the password with your recovery key. If you don’t see the message, it’s because you don’t have FileVault activated.
2. Click the button next to the message. The password field changes to the recovery key field.
3. Enter the recovery key. Use uppercase characters and include the hyphen.
4. Follow the onscreen instructions to create a new password, then click “Reset Password” when you’re done.
5. Determine if you want to create a new login keychain.

If after following any of these steps you are unable to sign in with your password, contact Apple support.