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I have lost or forgotten the root password. is there a way to recover it or reset it?

bmike
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W.Neidigh
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1 Answers1

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There are two ways. If you account is in the sudoers list, you can use this command:

sudo passwd root

Otherwise, boot into Recovery Mode

  1. Restart the Mac.
  2. Right after you hear the chime, press and hold the Command and the R keys for a few seconds, then release. Soon, you'll see the Apple logo and spinning gear. This will force the Mac to boot into OS X on the recovery partition that was created when you installed OS X 10.7 or later.
  3. When booting is complete, you'll see a window of "OS X Utilities." You won't do anything there. Instead, you'll go to the Menu bar at the top and select Utilities > Terminal.

  4. In the terminal window, type the following and press the Return key.

    resetpassword

  5. A new window will open and click on the volume of interest and select the desired user account in the popup. Then enter the new password twice. A password hint is optional. Click "Save."

  6. Go back to the Apple Menu at the top. Select OS X Utilities > Quit OS X Utilities. That will prompt you to restart the Mac.

You can find the guide here to reset the root password here.

bMalum
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