Apple Enthusiast Help Needed

Pontiac | 7/17/20 | Pontiac

[Pontiac]

My nephew died last weekend without leaving his wife the password to his Apple MacBook Pro.

Is there any possible way for her to hack the password or bypass it.

She believes that he has his original compositions and artwork stored on it that he has never shown to anyone.

I did not give her any hope but if there is a possibility I would appreciate any help.

[Pontiac]

Apple Ping

[Robert DeLong]

Reset your Mac login password

Sometimes a login password needs to be reset—for example, if you have forgotten the login password and can’t use a password hint to remember it. When a user’s login password is reset, a new default keychain is created to store the user’s passwords. See About your keychain password.

Hopefuily this will help you.

[JohnBrowdie]

they aren’t “enthusiasts”. they are cult members.

[Robert DeLong]

Also see: If you forget your Apple ID or password

Your Apple ID is your user name for iTunes Store, Apple Books, App Store, iCloud, and other Apple services. It is also used to set up your Apple ID preferences on your Mac. If you can’t remember your Apple ID or password, the Apple ID account website can help you find it.

Go to the Apple ID account website, click “Forgot Apple ID or password?,” then follow the onscreen instructions.

[SamAdams76]

It's threads like this that underscore just how secure Apple devices are. Properly configured, they are nothing more than a brick to anybody else, including even law enforcement.

Sorry to hear about your nephew. Hopefully he left a password somewhere for his wife to find. This reminds me I need to update some passwords for my wife next time I go to my safe.

[Gay State Conservative]

I'm not familiar with Apple at all but am somewhat familiar with PCs (Windows).If all else fails I would think that the hard drive can be accessed directly (after being removed from the unit) and data can be retrieved that way.I've done something like that with Windows several times with good results

[Theo]

Just a guess, but you may be able to boot off of an external hard drive, and then examine the internal hard drive after starting up.

Were any backups made, either to an external hard drive or to iCloud?

[Gay State Conservative]

Agreed! I've driven diesel cars for more than ten years and I've absolutely become something more than an “enthusiast”...I'm definitely a cult member.

[Pontiac]

Thanks

That could be very helpful

[rlmorel]

It “might” be able to...unless they have encrypted their hard drive. Then it is no use unless you can reverse socially engineer their password.

I say might, because I think there may be permissions associated with files that will preclude trying to copy or open them. I could be wrong there.

Good advice for something to try, mounting the drive as a non-boot volume.

A lot better than some of the Delta Bravos on this thread who couldn’t give a crap about a Freeper looking for help on a subject.

[Atilla_the_Hun]

Apple includes a tool to replace a Mac’s password. This is the best option if you have completely forgotten your password. Follow these steps:

1 . Turn off your Mac (choose Apple > Shut Down).
2. Press the power button while holding down Command + R. The Mac will boot into Recovery
3. When you see the load bar appear you can let go of the keys. It may take a few minutes to load.
4. Select Disk Utility and press Continue.
5. Choose Utilities > Terminal.
6. Enter resetpassword (all one word, lower-case letters) and press Return.
7. Select the volume containing the account (normally this will be your main hard drive).
8. Choose the account to change with Select the User Account.
9. Enter a new password and re-enter it into the password fields.
10. Enter a new password hint related to the password.
11. Click Save.
12. A warning will appear that the password has changed, but not the Keychain Password. Click OK.
13. Click Apple > Shut Down.
14. Now start up the Mac. You can log in using the new password.
If he encrypted the drive/volume you won’t be able to recover without spending a lot of money.

Sorry about your nephew.

[rlmorel]

Yes. If it is encrypted, though...it is pretty secure and anything less than the password will leave you high and dry.

I do believe there is some component where, when you set it up, you engage a process where Apple will store a key which may help you reset it, but...if you don’t do that (and I think few people encrypt, and those that do, don’t take advantage of that option) then you have no chance at all. There is no back door if it is encrypted.

[ModernDayCato]

Some good suggestions here. It depends entirely on the version of the OS. If you aren’t in yet, FReepmail me and I’ll try to walk you through it.

[Pontiac]

Thanks for the tip.

I was expecting his death for sometime but it really did not lessen the blow.

[Pontiac]

Thanks.

[Pontiac]

I think it is an older MacBook but I have no idea if it was updated.

[Vermont Lt]

I dont know how helpful this might be, but when my macbook dies and is replaced, I take the SSD out of it and put it into an external housing. It means that I can connect it to my new one through the USB port (or whatever screwy port they are using these days.)

It becomes “another drive.” I don’t need a password to access it.

You might want to try that before getting too deep into “hacking.” Sometimes that leads to wiping out the drive.

ALSO, he might have a cloud account. I use that to save materials on my MacBook so I dont have to move files between that and my desktop.

[Pontiac]

I that would involve having another Mac which I don’t think she does. I have an older Mac which runs Tiger which I am sure would be incompatible.

It would be a good excuse to buy the new MacBook Pro I have been dreaming of.

But that might be incompatible as well.

[dinodino]

That won’t work on a Mac if drive encryption is enabled.