Remove Firmware password on MBP 2010

A password entry space and Firmware (pad lock) icon appears on the screen when trying to perform a clean usb os x lion 7 install pressing keys- (command + R). I don't remember ever setting up a firmware password. Question is how do I remove it?

Did you buy this Mac new back in 2010? If not then it was set by the previous owner.
Apple is the only source of help. Make an appointment with a G-Bar.

Similar Messages

Remove firmware password by removing RAM which models are not effected?

One could reset in the past by removing the RAM etc. I heard this changed at some point.
From what model MBP is this no longer possible? Or is this still the case?
I have a MBPi5 and a MBPi7.

ChangeAgent wrote:
Thanks Csound1, good to know.
However, here, http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57520874-263/how-to-set-a-firmware-password -without-rebooting-in-os-x/ I found that it is since 2011 (4th Para). I had also found other dates in other articles, so confusing. or does somebody know better?
Message was edited by: ChangeAgent
Ignore cnet

Can't remove firmware password

Hi Guys,
I have big time trouble with my first MacBook Pro(2011 i7 2.2ghz 8gb ram 6750m), i can't remove the firmware password(i need to boot up Apple Hardware Test because of problems with my HDD). I booted the Snow Leopard disc that came with my MacBook and opened the firmware password utility and pressed remove password but i doesn't remove it. PLEASE help me, i already have an broken screen(out of the factory is getting fixed soon) and it keeps hanging every day 4 times:(
So please tell me how i can i remove the password.
Greetings,
TNAJanssen

According to http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3554
"Only Apple retail stores or Apple Authorized Service Providers can unlock a MacBook Air (Late 2010), MacBook Pro (Early 2011), or iMac (Mid 2011) computer protected by a firmware password.
If you cannot remember the firmware password for your MacBook Air, schedule a service appointment with either an Apple Retail Store or an Apple Authorized Service Provider. If you plan to visit an Apple Retail store please make a reservation at the Genius Bar using http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/ (available in some countries only)."

Removing firmware password G5 2.7

Need to remove a firmware password on a G5 2.7 Powermac bought on ebay.
Have removed half of the ram and tried to reset pram no help. Removed battery, no help.
Please Help. Former owner forgot password, never logged out.
Help Dan

PRAM reset, CMD+Option+p+r...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238

Will restoring from time machine restore a removed firmware password?

Hi all,
I purchased a used Macbook Air a few months ago and recently tried to reset the pram but could not proceed because a firmware password had been set. The original owner did not remember what he used so I took it into the genius bar and they removed it. However, part of their work required that they reformat my computer so I was wondering, if I restored my computer using my time machine backup, would that restore the firmware password?
Thanks in advance.

It won't. Time Machine doesn't interact with the EFI hardware (the successor to the BIOS, if that helps), which is where Firmware Passwords are set up.
HTH.

MBP Retina Firmware Password Reset

I purchased a MBP Retina 13.3/2.5/8GB/128GB back in Nov 2012 and all was fine.
Last year I installed Orbicule Undercover software, in case it got lost & stolen and it recommended I set a Firmware Password, which I did and now I have forgotten that password.
I want to reset my MBP but without the firmware password I am completely locked out at the reset screen.
It works fine day to day, and I know the password to lock & unlock features or settings, etc.
It is running the latest operating System, Yosemite. I have had no trouble upgrading the OS System as they have been made available.
Many post say to take the MBP to an Apple Store so they can reset it with a special CD/DVD, only my MBP has no optical drive.
Clearly it is out of warranty coverage, as I did not purchase the extended warranty.
I don't have the skills to take the thing apart, my past history with old window based laptops is not good! (Although I did have more parts left over when I was done)
Does anyone know if I schedule a Genius Bar appointment, if they can help me? And the approximate cost they would charge me??
I have my original receipt & packaging to show that it is mine, and not a stolen unit.
Any Advice or information on the above questions will be gratefully received!!!

You probably bought a Mac that was stolen. I sure hope a 2011 model, whether the Early version or the Late version (There was no MID 2011 model), would certainly sell for much more than $515. That should of been your first clue there was something up with this noteboook and the seller.
Apple can remove the firmware password but only for the rightful owner.
The best thing you can do is take back into an Apple store and ask them to look up the serial number to find the original owner, if possible, and see if there is any contact info for them and return that system to them. Yes you would still be out the $515 but you would be doinig the right thing. Do the right thing and the right thing happen.

Open Firmware password works or doesn't work on MBP?

I'm confused...
This article describes how to set up Open Firmware Password on Macs, including, Intel-based Macs and even states what OFP disables on Intel-based Macs when enabled:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106482
just to finish the article at the bottom with the following sentence:
"Note that Intel-based Macintosh computers do not use Open Firmware. Thesesteps do not apply to Intel-based machines."
So, what is what? OFP works or not on MBP? If yes then what works and what doesn't?
I've read one post here stating that it didn't stop booting from CD at all.
An expert advice will be appreciated.

I'm another confused MBP user.
I have a 15" MacBook Pro (MBP) and want to protect the Intel based machine using Apple's Open Firmware Application.
Since the MBP doesn't have an open firmware layer, how do you apply a firmware password? Apple's site is of no help and has conflicting information.
I tried the OF Application (V 1.1) from the Tiger install DVD and receive a message about my firmware being too old to use with the application. The MBP SMC version is 1.2f10 and the Boot ROM is version MBP11.0055.B03. Both are current.
Has anyone been successful???
thanks

How can I remove an EFI firmware password in a 2012 MacBook Pro Retina?

This computer was bought used. The SSD in it is dead, and it has an EFI firmware password blocking all my boot options. How can I remove it? The closest store is 400 miles away.

"YOU" CAN'T. You need to take the system to an Apple store or possibly an Apple Authorized repair center and ask them to remove it.
If you bought it used contact the original owner and ask for the password. Once you know that "YOU" can remove it.
If you come back with I can't get in touch with the original owner then I have no more help for you. Take it to your nearest Apple store.

Known freshly set firmware password, not being accepted on new MBP with retina. Locked out of bootmenu.

Hello,
I have a MBP 15" with retina display and 16GB of RAM.
I bought it end August/early september and it has worked great so far, really happy with it.
After encountering some people that have had theirs stolen, i figured it was a good idea to enter a firmware password so that people can't use external drives to boot up from.
I just rebooted holding the alt key, clicked utilities -> firmware password and I set myself a password. It is one word, starts with a capital letter and has 2 numbers incorporated in it.
I then immediately rebooted and held alt again to test it. I enter the exact same password (100% sure) and for some reason it just deletes the entered password when i click enter/the ok arrow and it does nothing.......
Please tell me this is a known MAC problem, I am 100% sure i'm not going mad, but this kind of problem is annoying me! I have a dualboot windows 7 partition that I would like to continue to use without working virtually from within MAC OS X.
Thanks, any ideas appreciated!
Best regards,
Nick

Sigh i found it ....
Apple you could have mentioned that you enter it as QWERTY instead of AZERTY -_- My letters were coincidently all the same, however the numbers need shift pressed in the latter which they don't in the former.
Oh well, Back to enjoying my wonderful machine now
Bye and sorry for the unnecessary read! Hope it helps some with the same problem.
Greets

How can I remove a firmware password?

Bought a MBAir in a pawn shop, clean unit, otherwise empty, wanted to take it back to factory specs at a genius bar. No can do, locked at the firmware password. How do I get that removed. Perfect working, don't like not having complete control over it. Data loss not an issue, just want it restored to factory original. Period. Help?

Only Apple can do this. Call in at your local Apple Store.

I have a macbook pro (13inch). I had a firmware password set on it and updated the firmware when apple update told me to. I cannot change the firmware password or remove it now.

Hello,
I have a macbook pro which had a firmware password set on it (security-mode = command).
Update asked me to install updates and one of them was an EFI update. I proceeded and the macintosh booted just fine.
I've tried changing the firmware password, and removing the password without success so far. It's almost like the nvram terminal command does nothing as far as security is concerned.
Help would be appreciated!
J

Apparently the newer macbooks use a different utility than the older macbooks.
setregproptool will ask for the current password, and nvram is not used for these anymore.
J

Fix for RAM removable Open Firmware Password?

Hello people from Apple Discussions,
I have a burning question that has been tormenting me for years.
Mac OSX is branded as supposedly the safest operating system around today.
What completely astounds me though is that any user password can be quickly hacked, by booting into the Single User Mode where you immediately gain root access.
In my search for a fix I have come across semi-solutions like:
"install an open firmware password!"
I felt relieved, reassured and assumed my problem was solved.
Unfortunately this is bloody useless because one could remove a RAM module and voila! Gone is the Open Firmware Password.
What alternative (other than to permanently glue to ram module in place) is there to this security hole that exists today?
Thank you all very much for reading.
I hope this gets fixed, for the sake of all mac users.
Very Kind regards,
Luuc.

I don't believe Open Firmware passwords are stored in RAM. I believe it's an electrically programmable EAROM. Pulling a RAM module shouldn't affect the security of the computer.
You can take it to ridiculous levels. What's to stop someone from just removing the disk drives? If someone has physical access to your computer then they can get into it and see anything that's not encrypted.

Removing open firmware password -- too easy?

I've had an open firmware password set on my computer for the last two years to provide some protection for client data stored on it. But last night I had to do some troubleshooting using startup commands, so I wanted to temporarily remove the password. I found instructions for removing it by booting into open firmware (command-option-o-f), but this startup sequence did nothing.
Eventually I booted from the Snow Leopard system CD and opened the Open Firmware Password utility. This utility had a simple checkbox that let me remove the password, without entering the current password. Is it really that easy to remove the open firmware password? If so, I don't think it's worth the occasional inconvenience of keeping it on there.

There's nothing you can do to prevent a determined hacker with physical access to your machine from getting access to everything on your hard drive. What you should do, however, is make sure that any information that is sensitive is encrypted. You could use an encrypted disk image made with Disk Utility for this purpose... many do. Also, note that your keychain is encrypted and thus passwords and other things stored there are safe... but only as long as you do not auto-login with an auto-unlocking keychain or leave yourself logged in with the keychain unlocked. Although your account password could be reset by someone with the right knowledge who wanted in, this does NOT affect the keychain password.

Removing EFI Firmware Password

When I bought my MacBook Air in February 2011, it came with OSX 10.6.6. Since then I have set the firmware password, and then upgraded to 10.7 and now 10.8. Currently at 10.8.2.
I now have to do something that requires me to boot in safe mode. To be able to safe boot I have to unset the firmware password (fortunately, I know the password).
But how do I go about removing the firmware password? Do I use the USB key with 10.6.6 software on it? Or do I use software from the Recovery partition on the HD?
Do I have other options?
Thanks for your comments.

You can use the one you want, but as you are running Mountain Lion, you can use Recovery HD.
1. Press Command and R keys while your Mac is starting to start into OS X Recovery.
2. When it has started, go to Utilities menu and select the option to set up the firmware password.
3. Turn it off and restart your computer

Firmware password Removal

Hi guys,
Please read details below, but for those who can't be bothered, I would like to REMOVE my firmware password on my mac.
I have a strange problem. I recently put in the Mac OS X install disk (10.6.1) and set up a firmware password from the 'utilities' menu on the disk. Everything went as planned, and now I cannot start up using Verbose mode (Cmd V on start up) or start up from a disk on start up (C), this is what I wanted, and expected. All seemed ok, but today, I wanted to remove it, as I wanted to use Verbose Mode. I Put in the mac os x install disk, went to system preferences and chose to boot from the CD. I did, and then went back to the Utilities menu on the disk, and went to the firmware password option, however I see no option to remove the password. Infact, there is no sign of a firmware password in place. How do I remove it, (I do know the password) or change it!
Please Help, I do not want to have to take an iMac on a long journey to my nearest apple store!
Nathan

im not sure whether it worked
It should be easy to tell - just restart while holding down the option key. If you can choose a startup disk without first getting a screen with a padlock and a password entry field, then the firmware password has been removed.

Remove Firmware password on MBP 2010

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for