I restored a Macbook Pro from a Time Machine backup and now none of my passwords are working (and I know they are the correct passwords). What can I do?

First, make sure caps lock is not on.
Another reason why the password might not be recognized is that the keyboard layout (input source) has been switched without your realizing it. You can select one of the available layouts by choosing from the flag menu in the upper right corner, if it's showing, or cycle through them by pressing the key combination command-space or command-option-space. See also this support article.
If the user account is associated with an Apple ID, and you know the Apple ID password, then maybe the Apple ID can be used to reset your user account password. In OS X 10.10 and later, this option also works with FileVault, but only if you enabled it when you activated FileVault. It's not retroactive. Otherwise, see below.
Note: If you've activated FileVault, this procedure doesn't apply. Follow instead these instructions.
Start up in Recovery mode. When the OS X Utilities window appears, select
Utilities ▹ Terminal
from the menu bar at the top of the screen—not from any of the items in the OS X Utilities window.
In the window that opens, type this:
resetp
Press the tab key. The partial command you typed will automatically be completed to this:
resetpassword
Press return. A Reset Password window opens. Close the Terminal window to get it out of the way.
Select the startup volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name) if not already selected. You won't be able to do this if FileVault is active.
Select your username from the menu labeled Select the user account if not already selected.
Follow the prompts to reset the password. It's safest to choose a password that includes only the characters a-z, A-Z, and 0-9.
Select
 ▹ Restart
from the menu bar.
You should now be able to log in with the new password, but the Keychain will be reset (empty.) If you've forgotten the Keychain password (which is ordinarily the same as the login password), there's no way to recover it.

Similar Messages

Trouble with restoring an iPhoto library from a time machine backup.

I'm having trouble restoring my iPhoto library from a time machine backup.
I have created a new library in my pictures file.
When I try to restore the library the restore process is trying to copy it to an external drive that no longer exists - it failed and I had to have it recovered and all the recovery (including backups) data is now on a different external hard drive.
iPhoto had been using that old external drive location to start. iPhoto is now pointed to the newly created iPhoto library in my pictures file on my MacBook Air.
Is there a way to have the restoration process point to that new iPhoto library that is now empty and not to the old external drive?

You might try this with the restored library:
Starting over from scratch with new library
Start over with a new library and import the Originals (iPhoto 09 and earlier) or the Masters (iPhoto 11) folder from your original library as follows:
1. Open the library package like this.
2. Launch iPhoto with the Option key held down and, when asked, select the option to create a new library.
3. Drag the subfolders of the Originals (iPhoto 09 and earlier) or the Masters (iPhoto 11) folder from the open iPhoto Library package into the open iPhoto window a few at a time.
This will create a new library with the same Events (but not necessarily the same Event names) as the original library but will not keep the metadata, albums, books slideshows and other projects.
Note: your current library will be left untouched for further attempts at a fix if so desired.

How can I restore my EQ settings from a Time Machine backup?

I recently reinstalled Mavericks, and restored my user account from a Time Machine backup. In doing so I appeared to have 'lost' my personal EQ settings in iTunes, of which I had perfected quite a few to suit various headphones and speakers I've found myself using over the years.
I have a pre-reinstallation copy of the com.apple.iTunes.eq.plist file (found in /Users/username/Library/Preferences) that I believe contains my EQ settings; opening it in Textedit I can see references to the EQ settings I created.
Having tried restoring this particular file from Time Machine and restarting and finding iTunes doesn't recognise the [old] custom com.apple.iTunes.eq.plist file, does anyone know a way I can re-import my old EQ settings, or do I have to try and manually create them again? (gah)
Thanks for any light you can shed on this!

Enter your Time Machine backup (via the TM icon in the menu bar) and find this file
/Users/username/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iTunes.eq.plist
and hit Restore.
It didn't reflect in iTunes immediately, but after a restart it appears to read the new (old) plist file. You should have your old EQ settings back.
Let me know if it worked for you...

HT1199 I needed to restore my Imac (lion) from a Time Machine backup on a peripheral HD. Everything woirked fine except none of my Pictures showed up and my TM backups were all erased. Any way to recover??

I need to perform a complete restore of my IMac from a stand-alone HD Time Machine backup. The restore was to the internal HD in the IMac. The IMac is a new Intel i5 unit running Lion. The restore went fine except none of my picture files appeared. My external HD is partioned into a Time Machine Back Up and a Stoarge partion. All the TM back ups prior to the restore are gone and the external storage was wiped clean. 3000 photos from our African Safaris are gone. Any ideas on if they can be recovered from either the external storage drive or the internal HD?
Where did the older TM BUs go?
Thanks for any advise

Hello:
I don't know what you did, but there must have been some option to clear the external HD. To my knowledge, restoring from a Time Machine backup will NOT clear the external HD.
Since I was not there, I really cannot speculate on what happened:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4927
In any event, there are third party tools that will attempt to recover data from erased drives (the erase normally deletes pointers, not the actual data).
Barry

Restoring bookmarks in firefox from a time machine backup

I've accidentally deleted (fool that I am!) all my bookmarks from my Firefox browser. Can they be restored from a Time Machine backup? If so, how? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Joe, you should be able to, I don't use TM myself, but...
Have you looked through Pondini's extensive TM help site?
http://Pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
I can't imagine anything TMwise not covered.

Backing up the whole Macbook Pro from a Time Machine was not a good idea

So here's my little story... I've started to had a problem yesterday with a game running with crossover on my mac. Since the game was working fine 2 days ago I've decided to back up my whole computer from my Time Machine. After 5 hours of work the machine restarted and oh! My game work just as fine as it was 2 days ago...
What could go wrong ?? ... Well everything. The first thing I've noticed is that my iPhone 5 would not save anymore... No big deal, deleted all the last saved backup and guess what ? Problem solved. Next thing you know... The notification center was not working anymore... So, after searching a bit decided to reinstall the last update for mountain lion... Problem solved again. The last but not least, Mail app... Decided to check my mail. Whoops.. Crashes. Comptuer restart ... Crashes again. Then it went downhill, super slow... Mail not working... Safari and iMessage went down and iCloud would not work either...
Now ? Factory recovery here I come ! But wait... I have 2 days of file backing ahead of me. 5000 songs + 150 movies + 1500 photos.
Special thanks to Time Machine for all that great work... When you don't need it it's awsome, you can show to all your friends how many backups you have inside this white box...

Reinstall Adobe Reader and reset its preferences to install the plug-in to use it as the default PDF viewer in Safari. Be sure to download the latest version.
Regardless of your sound output preferences the boot chime will always play through the computer's speakers. This is in fact "normal" on the Mac Pro. However, after startup your sound output preferences should remain honored. If this is not the case then there may be a preference problem. However, your description of the problem isn't clear on this.
What was the hardware from which you transferred to the new computer? What OS version had been installed on it? At this point I'm not sure about the third problem.
Message was edited by: Kappy

How to restore all Logic files from a Time Machine backup

Hello-
I recently had to clear all of the memory on my laptop, in order to free up some room. It was running very slow, and I had far too much clutter on there. I have a MacBook, and back everything up on Time Capsule, so I've spent the past couple of days individually retrieving all of the files that I want on my computer. I naively thought that I could click on the Logic Pro application from a previous backup, but failed to realize that I have to find the drivers and other components that make up the software. Where can I locate all of these files, and how would you recommend going about restoring all of my projects, drivers, etc.? Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

Smart mailboxes are not a storage location, they are just a kind of saved search. There's not really anything to restore if you can't restore the messages.
As to your difficulty restoring mail, see the [Time Machine FAQ|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1964018] and [Time Machine Troubleshooting|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2057525] guides. Also, try posting on the TM forums for better help.

New MacBook Pro - continue with Time Machine backups or start over?

I'm unsure of how I should proceed here ...
My old (late 2008 aluminium unibody MacBook) died last month and I now have a shiny new MB Pro. I transferred my data from one of two backup drives I have using Migration Assistant but did not transfer the Pictures folder because the new MB Pro only has a 256GB PCIE drive whereas I had upgraded my old MacBook to a 750GB hard drive. The Pictures folder was 175GB - it obviously couldn't be transferred in its entirety so at this stage I haven't transferred anything at all from my Pictures folder.
Both backup drives I use are 1TB Lacie Rugged external hard drives. I have them partitioned as follows -
Time Machine Backup - 475 GB
SuperDuper Backup - 350 GB
Pictures - 175GB (I only have the iPhoto Library on the Pictures backup)
I was thinking that I could simply continue with the existing backups, however, I realise that will be impossible because the existing backups all include the Pictures folder as part of the 'normal' backup process.
So, should I wipe my backup drives and start all over from scratch with the new MB Pro? Obviously, I don't need such a large space for the Time Machine and SuperDuper backups now so I could re-partition the drives and allocate more space to the Pictures folder (which is the one that continues to grow).
Does anyone else have experience of using their iPhoto Library on an external drive with the smaller PCIE drives in the MB Pro?
I would be very grateful for any suggestions as to how I should proceed.
Tricia

Many thanks for your response Ingo2711. It seems as if we faced pretty much the identical situation.
I've never taken much notice of Time Machine - just let it do its own thing. However, when I go to System Preferences - Time Machine - Options - Exclude these items from Backups and then choose the Pictures folder it shows that the space saved is only 1.47GB (my Pictures folder on my old MacBook is about 175GB). I clicked on the Pictures folder in Finder and discovered that it had one folder in it which is the folder I use for Desktop and Screen Saver and that the size of that folder is, in fact, 1.47GB.
So, am I right in thinking that I can just allow Time Machine to do a full backup without excluding anything and it will see that the new system is different from the previous one or am I missing something? I really don't want to lose the previous backups in case I ever need to go back to something.
Cheers
Tricia
BTW, I'm going to download iPhoto Library Manager and see if I can put my photos in chronological order by year and then just keep the current year's photos on my new Mac and keep the rest on the Pictures partition of my backup drive (which is connected via USB 3) - I'm hoping that the access to the external drive won't be so slow over USB 3.

Restoring my Maverick OS from a Time Machine backup

My Seagate hard drive is failing on my Imac27. I have done a complete time machine backup and am awaiting delivery of the new drive. After I install it (providing that I am successful in doing so), is there anything I need besides the time machine backup to get up and running. Not too computer savy, but stumble onto disc images and boot discs, etc. From what I have read, it should be as simple as starting the computer up and holding command-R, then selecting backup drive. That sound correct?

Considering you are not too computer savvy I would STRONGLY recommend you have your local Apple Store or AASP install the new drive for you and help you install OS X and restore from your TM backup. It's a straight forward process assuming you know what to do, however I'm getting from your post may not know the process.
You did not state what version of OS X install discs you have but my guess is they are for Snow Leopard. After formatting the new HD and installing SL you will need to upgrade to the version of OS X because you probably have a TM backup using a later version of OS X than SL. Because of these nuances as I suggested earlier I'd bite the bullet and have a professional help you through this.

Restoring only specific folders from a Time Machine backup

I am sorry if this is not the right community to ask this question. I truly was not sure where to post this as it involves the OS, iOS, Time Machine, iTunes...
I am trying to restore ONLY my photos from a MobileSync folder located on my Time Machine backup. I do not know how to go about restoring just the photos or if this is even possible? Possibly restore the entire Backup folder if needed. Whatever it takes. I know this sounds odd but my brother passed away and I lost all of the photos on my phone when I upgraded to iOS 7. Some of which have no copies floating around elsewhere. I attempted to retore from backup through iTunes and was informed my previous backup was damaged. I am currently using the latest version of Mavericks and iTunes 11.1.3. The backup I would like to recover files from is a Snow Leapord backup dating back to July of 2013 and from an iPhone 4. I currently have an iPhone 5.
Any help, guidance or insight would be greatly appreciated as I had hoped to print and frame these photos for family members.
Thank you.

You should be able to just restore the photos.
First though, you might consider making a backup of the drive that has the photos on it. I would get another external HD (anything except WD will do), and use CarbonCopyCloner to clone the drive.
What you would do to restore the photos is just click on the drive that has the Time Machine backups on it, and navigate to one of the backups or the MobileSync folder. In TM the backups are arranged by date; I'm not sure about MobileSync. Then you just open the backup and navigate to the photos, and drag the folder with the photos to your desktop.
I am sure the people at your local Apple store would help you.
Sorry for your loss.

Restoring OS X Server from a Time Machine backup

On this below article on Apple support says:
Important: When restoring, restore from a local Time Machine backup. If you try to restore from a network-based Time Machine backup, not all settings will be restored correctly
Is it means that if i were using Time Capsule it will not be restored correctly??
'All settings' mentioned above is it settings for the OS X or settings in Server App?
Full article here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5139
Please enlight me

Is it means that if i were using Time Capsule it will not be restored correctly?
Yes, that's what it means. In my experience, Setup Assistant doesn't properly restore all server data even from a local backup, though perhaps it works for some. You should have at least one mirror (clone) backup of the server as well as Time Machine backups.

Restored my mac from a time machine backup but now iCal isn't working?

There are no calendars listed on the side, not even the ones I had in my backup or the ones that come default in ical. Won't let me create new calendars or sync with icloud to get my cloud calendars. Any one know how to fix this? iCal is currently unchecked in iCloud but that didn't help anything. I tried deleting the calendars folder but it didnt help. I also tried deleting the com.apple.iCal.plist file but nothing changed in ical and perference generated a new one titled: com.apple.iCal.plist.HPjnF3U
Does any one have a solution to this problem? I build multiple calendars for work in iCal so I lost a lot of work and it won't even let me rebuild it.

You can add a new local account in Calendar/Preferences/Accounts - + sign and then CalDAV account.
Do a backup.
Quit the application.
Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Select Library/Calendars - enter Time Machine to restore.

Any way to restore iTunes and iPhoto libraries from failed Time Machine backup?

Is there a way to restore iTunes and iPhoto libraries from an unmountable Time Machine backup?
Background: I received an update alert on my iMac (mid-2010, 1TB) from Time Machine (wirelessly connected to a Time Capsule, 2TB 2013) that it required an update and required rebooting, of course, it happened when I was in the middle of a project and I postponed the restart for later. That evening I turned off the computer and coincidentally the next morning, the iMac would not start; it loaded to the Apple logo and about an 1/8 of the progress bar would load before the iMac would turn off.
The iMac had been fine to that day (OS upgrades and all since 2010) so I was assuming something misfired when I declined the Time Machine update. I tried the PRAM and SMC resets mentioned in the forums but no dice. I then went into Disk Utility to try repairs and there were errors on the hard drive that could not be fixed. My next step was to erase the drive and restore from my Time Machine backup. Before doing that I checked Disk Utility and to my horror, it told me that my Time Machine backups were unmountable so of course my first thought was that all my files were gone.
The TC was under warranty so I called support and they referred me to the local Genius Bar. The Genius was great and showed me that my files weren't lost even though the Time Machine backup was unmountable. They recommended I erase the partitions, starting from scratch and I would have to transfer the Time Machine backup files manually by directly connecting an ethernet cable from the TC to the computer. If that didn't work, the hard drive was bad and needed replacement which they could take care of.
I followed their recommendation and the hard drive is fine. I was so relieved to hear that my files were safe that I forgot to ask about all of the metadata that was lost in iTunes (de-selected songs, playlists, rankings, play counts) and iPhoto (geotags, names, etc). Any ideas / help? I sank considerable time into my music and photos and would love to have that time back.
FWIW, I'm in the process of buying an external hard drive as a secondary backup to the TC as my confidence is a little shaken on the product line - the first time I ever actually need a backup and the backup is unmountable. My whole point of spending a little more and buying into the Apple ecosystem for a backup solution was to streamline the backup process and avoid these types of issues.

Thank you for the reply. I tried the Disk Utility to repair my TC's Time Machine backup disk with no luck, it stopped with the message:
Disk utility stopped repairing "iMac"
Disk Utility can't repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.
It took a night but I was able to copy all the TC Time Machine files to the external hard drive as a backup to a backup just in case. I'm still pretty bummed the TC's backup didn't allow for Disk Utility's restore functionality. Fortunately, the iPhoto library backup I dragged to the iMac from the Time Capsule backup worked without a hitch. On the downside, the "iTunes Library.itl" backup I dragged over is locked so now I'm checking out the forums for any ways to fix that. I temporarily created a new iTunes library with all my apps and music but plan on reverting to the old iTunes library if possible so I can start syncing my iOS devices again.

Restoring from a Time Machine Backup on a new Hard drive

Hi,
I have a late 2009 iMac and I had the HD replaced (it was included in the recent HD recall).
Before I had it replaced, I made a backup using my time capsule and it was on the latest version of Mountain Lion.
My question is, since I have to install the OS using the original install discs which was Snow Leopard, if I use the restore from Time Machine using Mac OSX Utilities, will my Mac restore my Mountain Lion backup (and have everything like it used to before I had the HD replaced)? Or do I have to reinstall Lion then Mountain Lion then restore from there?
It would be a pain to re download everything.
Hope someone can help me out.
Thanks in advance

Please visit Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things Time Machine.
You will find that Mountain Lion stores an invisible copy of the Recovery HD. You can boot from your Time Machine backup drive by restarting with OPTION boot:
Boot Using OPTION key:
1. Restart the computer.
2. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "OPTION" key.
3. Release the key when the boot manager appears.
4. Select the disk icon for your Time Machine backup drive.
5. Click on the arrow button below the icon.
Your computer should boot into the Recovery HD. You will be presented with a main window of options. Select the option to restore from a Time Machine backup then click on the Continue button.

How do I reinstall Mavericks from a time machine backup? (Hard drive failure)

Ok, so I have a mid-2007 iMac and the hard drive finally died. It originally shipped with Leopard or something, but I had it upgraded to Mavericks. I have an external hard drive with a current Time Machine backup on it. I am about to replace the internal hard drive with a brand new (unformatted) hard drive. So here is the question: Is there a way to boot from my Time Machine backup and then reformat the drive and do a Time Machine recovery?
I have the old OS X install disks, but I don't want to have to upgrade through all of the old OS Xs. I also have a Macbook that I could create a bootable USB from--something like this (http://lifehacker.com/how-to-create-an-os-x-mavericks-usb-installation-drive-145 0280026)--and then I could reformat the drive and recover from Time Machine. But is there an easier way? Can I just boot straight from my external hard drive that has the backup on it?
Thanks for your help everyone, I'm hoping to be able to take care of all of this tonight.

You can try this. OPTION boot the computer.
Boot Using OPTION key:
1. Restart the computer.
2. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the
"OPTION" key.
3. Release the key when the boot manager appears.
4. Select the disk icon labeled Recovery HD.
5. Click on the arrow button below the icon.
This should boot the Mavericks Utilities Menu.
Drive Partition and Format
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
When the formatting is done quit Disk Utility and return to the Main Menu. Now select the option to restore/reinstall OS X from a Time Machine backup. Follow the directions.

I restored a Macbook Pro from a Time Machine backup and now none of my passwords are working (and I know they are the correct passwords). What can I do?

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