How to Change Your Mac’s Admin Password

By default, your Mac’s administrator password is your iCloud password. This is a new feature introduced in OS X Yosemite, but one that not all users love, so here’s how to use an administrator password of your choice.

The nice thing about older versions of OS X was that you could create your own administrator password during the setup process when you first installed OS X, but OS X Yosemite no longer does this and just uses your iCloud password as the default administrator. This means that you have to enter the password every time your Mac needs your permission to open a certain app or change a certain setting.

If your iCloud password is long and complex, this isn’t really the way to go. But you can still reset your admin password and replace it with something a little easier to type, and you won’t have to use your iCloud password every time anymore.

Here’s how to change your Mac’s administrator password in OS X Yosemite.

1234 Not a Password

First, before you even change your Mac’s administrator password, consider an easy-to-remember password that’s also easy to type, but you also want it to be somewhat complex so that no one can easily guess.

I’m a big fan of using keyboard patterns for passwords, like “pqlamz”, which consists of replacing the last letter keys on each row of the keyboard. Something like this is complex enough, but also very easy to remember and write down.

Technically, you don’t really need a strong password for an admin password, since that password is really only used to authorize changes to settings and such on your Mac, but you do need a password in place even if you don’t enable login during startup. .

That said, here’s how to change your Mac’s administrator password.

How to Change Admin Password

The first thing you’ll want to do is open it (the icon with the gear in it). Then click on it.

From there, you’ll want to unlock the padlock in the bottom left corner, so click on it and enter your iCloud password. Once this is done click on it. You will see a popup giving you the option to use a password other than your iCloud password, so go ahead and click on it.

Next, you will be prompted to enter your iCloud password, and then type a new password of your choice below it. Retype this new password in the text box. You can also set a password hint to make it easier for you to remember your password if you forget it, but this is entirely optional.

When you’re done, click to confirm the change. Your Mac will use the new password you set. Once this window is closed, go ahead and click the padlock in the lower left corner to lock this settings window and then you can close it from System Preferences.

Now, when you go to enter your admin password, it will be enough to enter the new password you have set instead of using your complex iCloud password.