Locked Out Of MacBook Pro! HELP!

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So, my husband has a macbook pro from around 2012, but bought sometime last year. He has used it once or twice and decided since it was not a good fit for him to give it to our daughter. Well, he can't remember his password... So, we tried logging in with his Apple ID. Every time we try to do that, it says, "error connecting to Apple ID server".

I have Googled, and Googled, and Googled... We have tried the command R, but that didn't work. Command S, again, nothing...

I called Apple and they said it could have something to do with the wi-fi security and we needed WPA2, not sure if we have that. The person I spoke with also said it may have something to do with FileVault being on. I have no idea if it is and neither does my husband. But if it is, he doesn't know that code/password/key either. And in my research, I realize that it should never be turned on by personal users.

We don't care about the information on the computer so if resetting it to factory settings is possible, we would like to do that. My daughter tried using it on guest settings and it just says something about security certificates and it makes going to nearly any website a headache.

I would appreciate any input you may have :)
 
M

MacInWin

Guest
Welcome to the forum.

Have you seen this? https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904

As for the WPA2, what Apple is saying is that to connect to Apple, you would need to make sure your wifi router is set to use WPA2 security. If it doesn't, you will need to get it set for that. Is your wifi router from you Internet Service Provider (ISP) or did you buy one? Can you connect to it by ethernet cable and do the Internet Recover process? Doing that would bypass the WiFi issue (although you still need to fix that eventually).

If it booted into Guest, FileVault should not be on. FileVault asks for a password as it boots, before you login to any account.
 
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Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6
Your Apple ID is completely different to the password. The Apple ID consists of your email address and a password, and gives access to the App Store and iTunes. The login password, which is what I think you are referring to, was used when he set up his Admin Account. And for FileVault you get a padlock come up on the login screen. Sure hope he never activated that as it can be the very devil to remove. Command R will only work with OS X.7 and later and if by chance it happened to be a 2011 model, it came with Snow Leopard OS X.6, which was before Recovery.
 
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Welcome to the forum.

Have you seen this? https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904

As for the WPA2, what Apple is saying is that to connect to Apple, you would need to make sure your wifi router is set to use WPA2 security. If it doesn't, you will need to get it set for that. Is your wifi router from you Internet Service Provider (ISP) or did you buy one? Can you connect to it by ethernet cable and do the Internet Recover process? Doing that would bypass the WiFi issue (although you still need to fix that eventually).

If it booted into Guest, FileVault should not be on. FileVault asks for a password as it boots, before you login to any account.

I haven't seen that link, but I will try it in a few minutes.
Is there a way to set the router for WPA2 security? We got it from our ISP. I will look and see if we have an ethernet cable.

Thanks so much!!
 
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Your Apple ID is completely different to the password. The Apple ID consists of your email address and a password, and gives access to the App Store and iTunes. The login password, which is what I think you are referring to, was used when he set up his Admin Account. And for FileVault you get a padlock come up on the login screen. Sure hope he never activated that as it can be the very devil to remove. Command R will only work with OS X.7 and later and if by chance it happened to be a 2011 model, it came with Snow Leopard OS X.6, which was before Recovery.

Thanks!!

Yes, I realize that it is different, but we were trying to reset the password by logging on with the apple id. Unfortunately, we get an error message. I will try the ethernet cable if we have one.
 
M

MacInWin

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You can probably set the router from the ISP to whatever you need, but you'd need to talk to your ISP about that. If you know the brand and model of router you have from them, we may have someone here who can help you, too. It's not normally a big challenge to change, if it needs to be changed.

Do you have any other devices that use wireless? You can check the security setup with them, if you do.
 

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