MacBook asking for password, never set one

[Teri Pettit]

I have a MacBook Pro running OS 10.12.6 Sierra, bought a couple of months ago, transferred data from my previous MacBook via restore backup. I have never set a password on it. It was working just fine for months.

I went away for vacation, leaving it at home. When I came back, it is asking me for a password to log on to my user account. I can't provide one since it was never set.

I can access the Guest User account, but what I want is all the data on my real account. I imagine I might be able to restore from the backup (on an external Passport drive), but that would cause me to lose all the data that I've entered since I bought the new machine.

What would cause a MacBook to start asking for a password if I never set one?

 

[chscag]

Welcome to our forums.

Did anyone else have access to your MacBook Pro while you were on vacation? If you never set a password for your new MacBook Pro, as soon as it boots up it should boot right to your desktop. Did you do anything to your MacBook Pro before leaving for vacation? Did you setup FileVault before leaving?

 

[Teri Pettit]

The MacBook was left powered on and plugged in under my bed. I did not have to reboot it, it just acts as if I had logged out of the account, even though I didn't.

I rarely turn it off unless I plan to unplug it. Generally I just close the lid and let it go to sleep, so that all my open apps and windows will retain their status. The power did go off for almost a full day due to a storm while I was gone, so it is possible that the power ran down and then charged back up, but it is at 100% now.

The only person with access to the house was a trusted employee that we had watering our plants, etc. I cannot imagine him using my computer, let alone setting a password on it.

I have never heard of FireVault.

 

[ferrarr]

Do you have the option to restart the MBP, or force power it off, then turn it back on? Have you tried an SMC or NVRAM reset?

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063

 

[Teri Pettit]

Ok, I figured it out and got in.

Apparently I really did set a password when I bought the computer, and just never realized it because in the two or three months I've had it, I have never once shut down or even logged out, just let it go to sleep, and the "require password after sleep" option is off.

I had tried all my usual passwords to log on, but they weren't working because the caps lock was on. When I turned off the caps lock, my lowest security default password worked. It opened to the same state it was when I last closed the lid, with the text cursor even in the same data field, so it hadn't been shut down.

Apparently the power outage was enough to trigger the password request, unlike a normal sleep.

 

[chscag]

OK, thanks for posting back the solution. Write you password down somewhere so you don't forget it.

 

[Rod]

The "Hint" option is good too. No matter how simple my password is I always put in a password hint.
Speaking of hints the dialogue box for your password tells you if Caps Lock is on. At the right hand end of the text box you will see the caps Lock symbol, an upward arrow with a line at the bottom.


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