How can I reset a Mac's password from Single User Mode?

Question

My sister bought a used MacBook about 6 months ago and she has lost her password.

Here is the procedure I tried to use to reset the password:

Boot into single user mode (press Command-S at power on)
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

But when I try the step 4, it says launch_msg(): Socket is not connected.

I would like to know what command to enter in the single user mode to know what version the Macbook is running and the right command to reset the password. Thank you.

In your forth step "dscl . passwd /Users/username" is the "passed" the new password? And is the "username" the username found in command "ls /User"? — , Jul 10 '13 at 17:11
I am going to close this to the canonical question that clearly answers this for macOS Catalina - the accepted answer here is outdated and the linked question will be far more useful to most people with this issue. Please raise a question on [meta] if needed to revise this close or migrate answers or lock this post. — bmike, Apr 25 '20 at 17:13

score 52 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 12 '17 at 14:51

52

Try loading com.apple.opendirectoryd.plist instead.

Hold 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.

edited Mar 12 '17 at 14:51

Community

1

answered Aug 24 '12 at 20:25

Lri

105,117

Alas none of this worked in my situation. I just keep getting 'launch_msg(): Socket is not connected'. – Dave Sag Aug 21 '13 at 01:06
Any reason that com.apple.opendirectoryd.plist would not exist? – Jake Wilson Oct 01 '13 at 21:55
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist doesn't exist in OSX 10.4 on my Powerbook G4. Just gonna point that out. – Wyatt Ward Nov 18 '16 at 21:34
Perfect, thorough answer. Thanks so much for this. Quick question: can you expand on the consequences of the "login keychain" not being reset with this? Thanks! – Joshua Pinter Jan 06 '17 at 15:18
The third way worked for me with Snow Leopard Server; the first and second did not. – Christos Hayward Nov 18 '17 at 20:42

score 7 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 02 '14 at 15:35

7

I kept getting the launch_msg(): Socket is not connected message, so I used cd to get to the LaunchDaemons directory and typed in

launchctl load com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist 
passwd username

This worked. Not sure why it didn't like the directory path as it had no errors.

edited Mar 02 '14 at 15:35

grg

201,078

answered Mar 02 '14 at 15:33

Kelli

71

This answer has already been given. – grg Mar 02 '14 at 15:38
1

The answer was not given because everybody was trying to type in launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.opendirectoryd.plist. This did not work as I had to go to the LaunchDaemons directory. – Kelli Mar 02 '14 at 15:49
2

This worked for me too, after I did the following:
after you cd into the LaunchDaemons directory at /System/Library that you type the command mount -uw / in order to make your commands writable
– Benjamin Dunphy Nov 23 '15 at 23:40

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 24 '12 at 16:52

4

Once you mount the file system, you should be able to use passwd username and then put in the password twice.

answered Aug 24 '12 at 16:52

hiiambo

1,131

You recommand those steps :
1. Type fsck -fy
2. Type mount -uw /
3. Type passwd username
Is there a way to know the user name ? I'm not sure if I should enter the space from the main screen name...
– Alexandre Aug 24 '12 at 17:06
If I remember right I tried that also yesterday and the system was asking me to enter launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist first :( – Alexandre Aug 24 '12 at 17:08
You can do an ls /Users/ and view the users list there. – hiiambo Aug 24 '12 at 17:14
Thanks a lot ! I was typing Is* instead of ls. (*Capital i) – Alexandre Aug 24 '12 at 17:29
1

It's an l so it'd be LS if in all caps – hiiambo Aug 24 '12 at 18:11
Thanks for the specification, I will try this at home tonight I hope it works, my sister has a lot of work on this laptop ! I will come back here on monday and give you your reward :) – Alexandre Aug 24 '12 at 18:42
Scroll down to see a much better and more thorough answer. – George Cummins Mar 24 '16 at 00:34

score 2 · Answer 4 · edited Dec 01 '13 at 08:57

2

Hold ⌘-S on startup, then type

/sbin/fsck -y
/sbin/mount -uw /
sh /etc/rc

passwd [username of account you want to change here]

It should ask you to enter the new password twice.

reboot

edited Dec 01 '13 at 08:57

nohillside

100,768

answered Dec 01 '13 at 06:17

user63799

21

How can I reset a Mac's password from Single User Mode?

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