Earlier than Apple refreshed safety on Intel Macs with the T2 Safety Chip and FileVault, the corporate provided a unique method to deter sure sorts of bodily assaults. Intel Mac homeowners can set a firmware password, which prevents a quantity aside from the one set to start out up the Mac from getting used on restart or from a chilly begin.
Apple did away with the issue solely with Apple silicon by including low-level safety insurance policies and different system drives that forestall an M-series Mac from beginning up with an arbitrary quantity. (This additionally made it troublesome to have a bootable backup in case of a drive failure, however SSDs—the one built-in choice for M-series Macs—are way more dependable than laborious drives.)
If in case you have or are planning to purchase an Intel Mac and need to know tips on how to take away the firmware password, it’s a straightforward course of:
- Energy up your Mac or restart it, after which instantly maintain down Command-R till you see the progress bar underneath the Apple icon.
- In macOS Restoration, the particular boot mode, select Utilities > Startup Safety Utility (or, for older Macs, Utilities > Firmware Password Utility).
- Click on Flip Off Firmware Password.
- When prompted, enter the firmware password. If you are going to buy the Mac or plan to buy it, the vendor should present it. There’s no method by yourself to bypass or reset it (an exception is under).
- Give up the utility.
- Select > Restart.
Apple can reset the firmware password in individual at an Apple Retailer or a retailer that’s a licensed service supplier. Nevertheless, the corporate has at all times required proof of buy by the unique proprietor after which proof of id for the individual with that receipt (digital or paper). So far as I can inform, when you’re a secondary or later purchaser, Apple or third-party personnel is not going to unlock the firmware.
This Mac 911 article is in response to a query submitted by Macworld reader Anthony.
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