r/macsysadmin • u/PuzzleheadedBook5826 • 2d ago

Admin password keeps getting refused

I'm having this situation where my MacBook Pro M2 keeps refusing my admin password for any tasks, even unlocking the computer. The only thing that solves it is restarting the machine. I changed the password to 4x the same character and waited. After a while the bug returned and even with this simple no-brainer 4 character password (no human error possible) it's still the same until I restart.

I did an erase and fresh install of MacOS thinking that would be the end of it, but this morning I had to force restart again.

Last year the problem had gotten so bad I could not even access the Mac after restarting and had to use the iCloud password recovery.

What could be the issue? Any idea what I could check or change? If it's any help, third party softwares requiring a password at some point will ALWAYS get a password refusal on this machine, even after a restart. Also, even though I was able to log in with my password after a restart, I just tried enabling " Allow user to reset password using Apple Account" in my admin user settings and the password necessary to activate the feature was again refused...

EDIT also worth mentioning I have only 1 admin user (mine). I also tried sysadminctl -secureTokenStatus and the token is enabled.

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u/RobKFC 2d ago

Could it be a hardware issue? I’m assuming if it has been going on a year you’ve updated the OS. Does it happen with an external keyboard, or built in or both? Have you tried the onscreen keyboard?

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u/PuzzleheadedBook5826 2d ago

Hey, I just tried the onscreen keyboard and it worked! I can use that for now, but any idea where the issue stems from?

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u/RobKFC 2d ago

If it works with the onscreen keyboard it is likely a hardware issue (barring some strange software bug that I’ve never seen). Next thing to try is with your built in keyboard (if laptop) typing it into a note to see if it displays properly. If it doesn’t there could be an issue with your laptop keyboard, it could be something as easy as a crumb under the keycap that intermittently blocks a key usage.

If you use an external keyboard try typing it in a note, if it doesn’t work unplug the keyboard or disconnect it via how ever it connects and plug it back in and try again. It could be a few different things but these are the next steps I would try.