Earlier than Apple refreshed safety on Intel Macs with the T2 Safety Chip and FileVault, the corporate supplied a special option to deter sure sorts of bodily assaults. Intel Mac house owners can set a firmware password, which prevents a quantity aside from the one set to begin up the Mac from getting used on restart or from a chilly begin.
Apple did away with the issue completely with Apple silicon by including low-level safety insurance policies and different system drives that stop 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 exhausting drives.)
When you have or are planning to purchase an Intel Mac and wish to know the way to take away the firmware password, it’s a simple 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 buy the Mac or plan to buy it, the vendor should present it. There’s no manner by yourself to bypass or reset it (an exception is under).
- Stop 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, for those who’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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