Password issues: Problems logging into accounts, rejection, more

We've received an increasing number of reports from readers who, for unexplained reasons, are suddenly unable to log in to previously working accounts. When attempting to enter their login and password information, users are told that the password is incorrect (when it is verified as correct), or that login simply failed.

In many cases, even creating a new user account with new login/password information then attempting to gain entry is problematic.

While we are still tracking down reliable solutions for this issue, we have identified a few workarounds that prove successful for some readers.

Use NetInfo Manager to change password The first thing to try is a password change through the NetInfo Manager application (located in Applications/Utilities) from an administrator.

Once you've launched NetInfo Manager, navigate to the /users directory, and then click on the account name with which you are having issues. Click the padlock and enter your admin credentials, then click the "passwd" field and re-enter the desired password. Re-attempt log-in.

Shareware password repair utilities Passwd Synchronization is a startup item to synchronize /etc/passwd and the NetInfo database. At every shutdown, the NetInfo database will be dumped in place of /etc/passwd, and at every startup, it will be the other way. And you can force it if you need it.

Log-in as root and change the password Another method you can try is logging in as root to change a user password.

First you need to enable the root user account if you haven't already, by going to the "Security" menu in NetInfo Manager. Then, log-out of your admin account, and log back in with the username "root" and the password you specified. After doing so, go to the "Accounts" pane in System Preferences and modify the desired user password. Re-attempt login with the problematic account.

Make sure special characters aren't involved Special characters, like em-dashes and others can cause problems with passwords. Make sure you are not using any special characters in the password and re-attempt login.

MacFixIt reader Nigel offers a case example:

"Trying to enable Windows sharing now (relative to 10.3.9) brings up a dialog requiring each user to be enabled and their password given. Trying this produced invalid password errors despite the passwords being correct. I tracked the problem to there being an 'unacceptable' character, which I cannot precisely define but in this case was an underscore ('_'), in the password."

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

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