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I purchased a fairly used Mac Book Pro 15" mid 2012 which works well, however, I noticed that the past user is still logged to the system which I don't have the password.

Is there anyway I can change the admin password without the access to the current password?

Thanks.

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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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You need to wipe the machine & start afresh.

Currently, everything on the machine belongs to the previous owner - including the OS itself. Eventually you will need their Apple ID & password before you can update things.

Additionally - you have no idea what spyware, keyloggers etc they may have put on it. The chances may be low but they are not impossible.

See Apple KB - What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your Mac The previous owner should have done the first 5 steps; you'll have to start from step 6.

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  • Thanks but he logged out of Apple cloud but not the system admin. By wiping the machine you mean formating, right?
    – user354576
    Commented Nov 28, 2019 at 15:45
  • Yes, completely clean, nuke & pave, start fresh.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Nov 28, 2019 at 15:55
  • OK, thanks. I need to read how to do that. Coming from Widows, my first time with Mac.
    – user354576
    Commented Nov 28, 2019 at 16:02
  • The Mac ownership paradigm is quite different from Windows. First, the OS is free, but belongs to you not the computer. The same is so for all the software on it. You are free to move it all from machine to machine as much as you like, but you cannot give it to anyone else (aside from Family Sharing ). btw, the instructions to wipe & start over are linked from that step 6 I posted in the answer.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Nov 28, 2019 at 16:20
  • I will go through the article. Thanks for your help. Please, are can you estimate the size of the new os?
    – user354576
    Commented Nov 28, 2019 at 16:35
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Can you establish if there is anyone logged into the iCloud system? Otherwise you could use the recovery partition and reset the password that way. Don't exactly remember how to do that but I've done it before and im sure you can do it too now

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  • No, the icloud is logged out but the system admin is still logged on. I think installing new os will be the best solution as I also need to get the new os. Currently on os x 10.8.5
    – user354576
    Commented Nov 28, 2019 at 16:39

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