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Help! Login password not working!
- Thread starter Gravydog316
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- error login issue macos password
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I have never seen the hard drive hidden by default??
There is myself, my sister & my mom who have User accounts,
what is the point of hiding the hard drive by default??
i made a new Apple ID password, erased the HD & reinstalled macOS, made a new User ID & Password, & that is all working now (i hope!),
but the hard drive not showing is another issue, & checking Reddit & Google, people have had the same issue for at least a year
& I had both issues at exact same time, so there is some OS bug(s) that has been happening for a long time
...at least it is mainly working now, just had to erase the Mac HD!
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it's mainly working; at least i can log in
my mom said, "Just erase the hard drive & reinstall, since we have everything on the external hard drive" 😂
The Hard Drive icon goes to the root directory where you usually do NOT want to be. You normally want to be in /Users/YourAccount. At least I normally want to be in my personal account.
This thread should have been shorter:
- if you did not panic
- you used the macOS password and not the Apple ID or Apple Account password unless they are the same for you
- macOS, Windows, and Linux distributions hide the main storage disk from the desktop but can be shown after changing a setting (at least for macOS and Linux distributions)
- from the initial screenshot, it seems to be macOS Ventura but you did not mention the macOS version you were running, meaning it could still be using the Ventura wallpaper but you could be running Sonoma or Sequoia
- you did not even mention the version number your Mac is running which you can check at least once in About this Mac
At least you got it running although that is not really the fix you were expecting.
- if you did not panic
- you used the macOS password and not the Apple ID or Apple Account password unless they are the same for you
- macOS, Windows, and Linux distributions hide the main storage disk from the desktop but can be shown after changing a setting (at least for macOS and Linux distributions)
- from the initial screenshot, it seems to be macOS Ventura but you did not mention the macOS version you were running, meaning it could still be using the Ventura wallpaper but you could be running Sonoma or Sequoia
- you did not even mention the version number your Mac is running which you can check at least once in About this Mac
At least you got it running although that is not really the fix you were expecting.
Not showing the internal drive on the desktop DOES NOT mean it is not mounting. All these posts and all this panic for a simple glitch. All your important data is on the cloud or external drives as you said, so there was no need to panic. Erasing the internal drive, reinstalling the OS (I don’t know why you stuck with Ventura instead of moving up to Sequoia since you were reinstalling anyway) and you’re back in business but back to default settings. Set things up how you want including showing the internal drive on the desktop and you’re good to go. And breathe!
I forget at what point this behavior was introduced but if you've upgraded over several OSes you probably never saw that behavior by default. Since this is setting up as a new user temporarily, you're getting the new default to not show it. Apple is slowly trying to get people away from the idea of doing anything outside of your users and application folders and one of the ways they're doing it is hiding the internal disk by default.
When I set up a new Mac, I always create a dummy user and run migration assistant to import my normal user without any conflicts. I've had to go and enable the option to show the internal disk for several years now with that dummy user. When migration assistant finishes, my normal user account shows the internal disk without changing any settings. But I've been migrating my user folder like this since at least Mojave.
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He did mention it is Ventura somewhere in there. Somewhere.
But I wholeheartedly agree with your summary.
At first I thought, that OP was not finding the correct tab.
But in his screenshot i quoted, you can see, that he has the "Hard Disks" checked, and you can also see, that the Macintosh HD is NOT showing in the iMac's root folder. And also nowhere in the Sidebar.
So OP is right: There is another problem somewhere.
@Gravydog316:
My suspicion is that you installed the new system on the "FreeAgent GoFlex" external hard drive. (instead of the internal Macintosh HD)
Can you please try to eject the external Hard Drive and tell us what happens?
Alternatively:
Can you click on Documents (in the Sidebar) and send us a Screenshot of the Finder Window (including the Path at the bottom of the Finder Window)?
You can go into recovery mode and open terminal. Something like “pw-reset” and change the password by putting your username afterwards. I’ve done it a ton for clients.yes thanks;
yes, tried my Mac password like 10 times,
but before & after I changed my Apple ID password,
& wasn't accepting either.
have a 2019 Intel iMac 21" with Ventura.
Am reinstalling Ventura right now.
Some awful Apple bug.
People are saying their Macs are now useless expensive paperweights.
I just hope you checked the caps lock before doing all this.
Try resetting your password using the 'Forgot Password' link — it usually works.
Make sure Caps Lock isn’t on and you're typing the correct email.
If nothing helps, contact support—they're pretty quick to respond!
Make sure Caps Lock isn’t on and you're typing the correct email.
If nothing helps, contact support—they're pretty quick to respond!
You’re actively using the Mac HD so of course it’s mounted. You just don’t have the icon on the desktop.
As someone above mentioned it’s that way by default. You should be able to access it from Finder sidebar and to add to desktop the instructions were Finder > Settings (or Preferences)> check Hard Disks.
I think you said you already tried that but I’m not certain.
A similar thing happened to me a couple of years ago. I had to wipe the SSD and reinstall macOS. Luckily, all my files were in the cloud, so I just needed to redownload everything. It was a really scary and stressful experience overall.