Entered Wrong MacOS Password - Locked Out?

[elytron]

A family member just entered the wrong password into our shared Mac Mini. She has a standard account and is unable to login now because too many incorrect attempts. I think that is whats going on. I am the system admin and can still login to my account. We are currently on Ventura.

Curious how many wrong attempts she entered before it locked? And how long do we have to wait until she can try again? 24 hours?

 

[Slydude]

Here are Apple's tips for managing similar situations. It occurs when incorrect passwords are entered three times.

If you forgot your Mac login password

Since you are the admin user and can access your user account you can do the following:
1. Log into your login account as you normally would.
2. From System Settings GOP to Users & Groups
3. Find the little bubble to the right side of the account that needs to be changed/fixed and click there.
4. A new sheet pops out with a reset password option. Click here and enter the new password in the sheet that appears.

 

[elytron]

This was helpful, she has access to her account again. Thank you

 

[Slydude]

You're welcome. Glad that sorted things out. There are other ways that might have solved things but they involve Terminal commands. Terminal commands give me the hives.

 

[IWT]

@elytron

One thing I'm interested in:

After following Sly's excellent advice and resetting the Log In (Admin) PW, can you tell me whether the lady still has her original Keychain with all its PWs - or was a new Keychain created?

Ian

 

[Jimmysb]

@elytron

One thing I'm interested in:

After following Sly's excellent advice and resetting the Log In (Admin) PW, can you tell me whether the lady still has her original Keychain with all its PWs - or was a new Keychain created?

Ian

Interesting question

 

[elytron]

@IWT

Keychain is Apple's password manager right? I took the screenshot below because I wasn't sure what the message meant. At the moment we are using an offline, cross-platform manager KeePassXC

Have I done something wrong? What do you recommend?

 

[IWT]

OK. Thanks very much for that post. So, the answer is that she has retained her original Keychain.

I'm happy with your answer and thank for that.

If you/she ever want to check the Keychain or access its stored passwords:

Finder > Applications > Utilities > Keychain Access app.

Click on it to open. Then Click on Passwords. You should then see all her passwords. You can search for a specific PW by inputting the site for which you are interested into the Search Field.

But that all seems unnecessary now given your post above.

Ian

 

[elytron]

I will take a look at Keychain Access and learn about it. Thank you @IWT