When setting up a computer, most people get too excited to pay attention to what they’re doing. They are interested in getting into the computer to see what it has to offer. Moments later, they realize that the Admin name and password they entered while setting up the account will be the login credentials.
In a bid to not get locked out of their computers, they begin to ask: how do I find my administrator name and password for Mac? If you’ve entered an administrator name and password that you don’t know, I’ll walk you through the steps of finding them back.
You’ll also learn how to change the administrator name and password for your Mac, even if you don’t know the password beforehand.
How Do I Find My Administrator Name And Password For Mac?
The administrator name, commonly known as the admin name, isn’t classified information on macs. Everyone can see the different admin names, even when they’re not logged into the account.
If you know the admin password to your account and all you need to know is the admin name, you can put the Mac to sleep.
When your Mac wakes up from sleep, it will display the administrator name. You can enter the admin password to regain access to your computer.
Another way to find the administrator name without putting your computer to sleep is by using the Users & Groups feature. If you open System Preferences and select Users & Groups, you’ll see a list of the account names of every user on the computer.
While finding the administrator name is as easy as pie, uncovering the password isn’t an easy task. For enhanced security, you can’t just open System Preferences to see an admin’s password.
You can only change your password; you cannot view it. In the next section, you’ll learn how to change your password without knowing the previous password on a Mac.
How to recover your administrator password on a Mac
If you don’t know what password you entered while setting up your Mac, you’re not out of luck. You can still regain access to your machine without having to enter the password.
In this section, you’ll learn some hacks that can help you reset your password if you’re still logged into your Mac.
- Recovering with another admin account
It’s a best practice to keep two administrator accounts on a mac. On macOS, an administrator can change the password of another administrator, easing the process of recovering an admin password.
If you have a separate administrator account, and you can remember the password, you’re lucky. You can try resetting the password of your account using the following steps.
- Log into your computer using the second account. You shouldn’t try this if you don’t know the password to the second account, as you may lose access to your computer.
- Open Preferences and navigate to Users & Groups as you might have guessed. To gain unrestricted access to the area, click the lock icon at the bottom left and reenter your password.
Now, you can change any user account that you wish, including administrators.
- Click the administrator that you wish to change the password for and select ‘Reset Password.’
Without any prompts to enter the previous password, the resulting screen will be a password reset screen. You’ll need to enter the new password twice. You can also enter a hint if you like.
Click on the ‘Change Password‘ button when you’ve finished.
These processes will change the user password for the account that you need to change its password, provided that you have two admin accounts.
If you don’t have two admin accounts, all hope is not lost. You can still successfully recover the account without losing any of your data.
- Recovering password using Apple ID
There is a step required for this to work; you must turn it on in System Preferences > Users & Groups.
When you select your account in the Users & Groups menu, you’ll have a checkbox that toggles the option that allows you to reset your password using your Apple ID.
If you can’t recall your setup password, but you still have access to your computer, you can recover the password.
Firstly, you have to make sure that you’re signed into an Apple ID on the computer.
Next, you should navigate to System Preferences and then to Users & Groups to check the box that lets you reset your password using your Apple ID.
When you’ve completed these steps, you can proceed with recovering the password using the associated Apple ID.
Here are the steps you should follow to recover (reset) your admin password using your Apple ID.
- Restart your computer to get to the lock screen. When you’re prompted for a password, enter it incorrectly three times (don’t fret).
- A little popup will emerge, showing your password hint. You’ll also see an option to ‘…reset it using your Apple ID.’
Click on the arrow after the ‘… reset it using your Apple ID.’
- You’ll see a prompt asking you to enter your Apple ID and the associated password. If everything is all good, you’ll need to click ‘OK’ on some pop-ups to get to the password reset page.
Here, you can enter your desired password and password hint to secure your account. Click on the ‘Reset Password’ button when you’ve typed the new password.
That’s it.
Conclusion
How do I find my administrator name and password for Mac? That’s the question people ask when they realize that they can’t remember the password they typed minutes ago.
You don’t always need to remember your administrator name on a Mac; the computer will show you that each time you start it up. However, for the password, you cannot view your admin password, at least for now.
If you can’t remember it, then you change it. Be careful; if you make a mistake, you might get locked out of your computer.