How can I reset a Mac's password from Single User Mode?
Try loading com.apple.opendirectoryd.plist instead.


Hold command-S on startup.
Run mount -uw /. (fsck -fy is not necessary.)
In 10.7 and later, run:

 launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.opendirectoryd.plist


or in 10.6 and earlier:

launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist

Run passwd username and reset the password.
Run reboot.


A second way to reset the login password of an account is to use Reset Password.app from the recovery partition:


Hold command-R on startup.
Open Terminal from the Utilities menu.
Run resetpassword, which opens the Reset Password application.
Select the volume and account and reset the password.


A third way is to create a new admin account:


Hold command-S on startup.
Run mount -uw /.
Run rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone.
Run reboot.
Go through the steps of creating a new account.
Reset the password of the old account from the Users &amp; Groups preference pane.


None of these options resets the password of the login keychain.

If FileVault 2 is enabled, you have to enter a password to start up in single user mode, and you can't use Reset Password.app to reset the password of an account.