If You Can't Log In To OS X After Restoring From A Time Machine Backup...

This has happened to me twice since I started taking Time Machine backups. Something went horribly wrong, you want to restore from a Time Machine backup and after all those hours of waiting for everything to be transferred over you're presented with the login screen...

But you can't log in. You type your password 3 times to make sure it's right but it doesn't let you log in. Here's how to fix it:

Reboot the Mac and hold down cmd+s -- This will boot into single user mode. Black screen, white text.
Mount the hard drive as explained at the prompt. -- Most likely: mount -uw /
Type: passwd [your user name] -- For example: passwd jeroen (jeroen is my username on the machine)
Enter your password, and confirm it by entering it again.
Type: exit

The machine will reboot and you'll be able to log in again. *phew*

Comments

John Dorlin (not verified)

Thu, 2011/11/10 - 09:42

Hello,
I had the same problem but this did not work for me at all. I still got the same issues as before and doesn't it have to be the command "passwd" instead of "password" ?

Jeroen

Sun, 2011/11/20 - 17:13

Hey John,

Thanks for the proofread, it is indeed passwd instead of password of course. I've changed it in the post. But you're telling me it didn't work? It should, really. I hope by now your problem has been fixed though.

DAC (not verified)

Fri, 2012/04/20 - 04:44

Hello,

I was so excited to have found this suggestion, but it didn't end working for me either. Is there any other trouble shooting things I may do?

My situation is that I had to replace my internal hard drive in my MacBook. So, I've got it replaced, got Snow Leapord reloaded, restored my profiles and things from my Time Capsule via Time Machine, and now it's not accepting my password.

It's really starting to frustrate me. I was expecting this to be such a smooth transition with the Time Machine restore and everything. Now it's just turning out to be a big hassle being so close to having my laptop functional again. Any help you can offer will be greatly appreciated.

veriz (not verified)

Tue, 2012/04/17 - 09:09

How can I restore Mac OS X after installing Windows 7 without Boot Camp?

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