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Five Ways to Reset a Lost Administrator Password

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Several years ago, I was helping a client upgrade her Mac running Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, but she couldn’t remember her administrator password. Because she also couldn’t find the original system CDs that shipped with her iMac, I had to resort to some advanced techniques few home users would ever be able to figure out.

Starting with 10.7 Lion, you could still call on all those options, but Apple added a method so easy that even an inexperienced user can do it — the Apple ID-based password reset. Now that 10.10 Yosemite has been released, a few of these options are no longer available. Let’s explore all the options to reset a password. Which you should use depends on the specific version of Mac OS X, and how the Mac is set up.

Read more about how to reset a password…

Picture of Alicia Katz Pollock
Alicia Katz Pollock
Recently named one of America's Top 50 Women in Accounting, Alicia is a leading expert in QuickBooks Online training with a Masters in Teaching and decades of business consulting. She offers a range of tailored resources from self-paced courses to personalized coaching. Known for her patience and commitment, Alicia simplifies QuickBooks for clients, helping them achieve their financial management goals with ease.
Picture of Alicia Katz Pollock
Alicia Katz Pollock
Recently named one of America's Top 50 Women in Accounting, Alicia is a leading expert in QuickBooks Online training with a Masters in Teaching and decades of business consulting. She offers a range of tailored resources from self-paced courses to personalized coaching. Known for her patience and commitment, Alicia simplifies QuickBooks for clients, helping them achieve their financial management goals with ease.
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