If you forgot your Mac login password
If you forgot the password to log in to your Mac user account, or the password isn't accepted, choose a reset option from the login window.
These steps are for macOS Catalina or later. The steps for macOS Mojave or earlier are different. If you're not sure which macOS you're using, try these steps first.
Make sure that you're at the login window
The login window appears after you turn on, restart, or log out of your Mac. It's not the same as the window you might see when waking your Mac from sleep or stopping the screen saver, though it uses the same password.
If you see Shut Down, Restart, and Sleep buttons, you're at the login window.
If you see a Switch User button, click it to switch to the login window.
If you see different buttons or no buttons, press and hold the power button on your Mac for up to 10 seconds, until your Mac turns off. (Every Mac has a power button. On laptop computers that have Touch ID, press and hold Touch ID.) Then press the power button again to turn your Mac back on. It then starts up to the login window.
Enter a password up to three times
After making sure that you're at the login window, enter any password up to three times until you see one of the password-reset options below.
Choose a password-reset option
After you enter a password up to three times, your Mac should show one of these password-reset options.
Option 1: “Restart and show password options”
If you see the option to restart and show password reset options, click it to restart your Mac.
What happens next depends on how your Mac is set up.
If you're asked to select a volume to recover, select the volume that your Mac is currently starting up from, which by default is Macintosh HD.
If you're asked to sign in with your Apple ID, enter your Apple ID, then enter its password. You might then be asked to enter the verification code sent to your other devices.
If you're asked for your FileVault recovery key, enter the long string of letters and numbers you received when you turned on FileVault and chose to create a recovery key instead of allowing your iCloud account (Apple ID) to unlock your disk.
Select a user to reset the password for, then click Next.
Enter your new password information, then click Next.
When the password reset is completed, click Restart.
Option 2: “Reset using your Apple ID”
If you see the option to reset using your Apple ID, click it.
If your Mac restarts, follow the steps for option 1, above.
If your Mac doesn't restart, but immediately asks for your Apple ID, enter that information and click Reset Password.
If you're asked to create a new keychain to store the user's passwords, click OK to restart your Mac.
If you're asked to select an admin user you know the password for, click “Forgot all passwords?”.
If you see a Reset Password window with the option to Deactivate Mac, click Deactivate Mac, then click Deactivate to confirm. This is temporary.
Enter your new password information, then click Next. (If you see multiple user accounts, click the Set Password button next to each account name, then enter the new password information for each account.)
When the password reset is completed, click Restart.
Option 3: “Reset using your recovery key”
If you see the option to reset using your recovery key, click it.
Enter your FileVault recovery key. It's the long string of letters and numbers you received when you turned on FileVault and chose to create a recovery key instead of allowing your iCloud account (Apple ID) to unlock your disk.
Enter your new password information, then click Reset Password.
If you can't reset your password
If you can't reset your Mac login password