I lost the master password for my mac. However, I still have the admin passwords. Any way I can recover it? There is a keychain, (filevaultmaster), but I can't access it. I tried all known passwords (except the master password because I lost it) but got nothing. I opened the keychain in textedit, but the password part is encrypted. Can someone help? Is there a way to crack the password or decrypt the textedit version? I remember the password was completely random (mix of letters and numbers). Anyone have an answer?

As far as I know, there isn't a way of doing this. If you've encrypted any of your data with FileLock, you should probably retrieve any that you can get based on your existing knowledge of user's passwords on the system. Once you've salvaged as much data as possible, then proceed to a reformat and reinstall of OS X.

I have no idea what filelock is. Do you mean filevault? No i don't have my home folder locked with filevault. Is there a way to access the keychain? (filevaultmaster) Is there any keychain decrypting programs out there?

Ah yes, sorry I meant FileVault.

No, I don't know of any programs that can decrypt or hack the keychain. I'd say the best thing is just to backup your data and do a reinstall.

Never mind. I figured out a way to reset the master password without using the original!

Hi,

Can you please explain how you did this? I'm in the same predicament.

Thanks

Scott

Nevermind - just discovered a way to do it - http://www.peachpit.com/articles/art...&seqNum=3&rl=1

Scott

how did you do it? plz reply.

~doormatt

it only says how to make one. not how to reset it

~doormatt

This is the part that I was referring to:

If you forget the master password, you can reset it, but you must know the passwords for any accounts with FileVault enabled:

1. As an administrator user, delete the master password keychain file (/Library/Keychains/FileVaultMaster.keychain). When the master password keychain is deleted, Mac OS X assumes that no master password is set yet.