How to Change Your Password in OS X Through Single-User Mode

Apple's Mac OS X operating system is based on UNIX. Mac OS X and UNIX feature an underlying text-based console mode, referred to as "single user mode" in Mac OS X. All major UNIX commands are accepted from the single user mode command prompt. If a user password has been lost or forgotten in Mac OS X, it can be reset by restarting the Mac and booting into single user mode and issuing the relevant commands.

Instructions

1. Power on or restart the Mac computer.

2. Hold in the "Command" and "S" keys together until text starts to appear on the screen.

3. Type "mount -uw /" without quotes into the command line and press "Return."

4. Type "launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist" without quotes and press "Return."

5. Type "dscl . -passwd /Users/mac-user-name password" without quotes and replacing mac-user-name with the username to be reset. Replace "password" with the new password to be used. Press the "Return" key.

6. Type "exit" without quotes and press "Return" to restart the computer.