How can I make my Mac accept a user password of 8 characters?
I just unboxed my new MacBook Pro, running Yosemite 10.10.5. When I went through the setup procedure, it didn't ask me what password to use for my account, and just set it to that of my AppleID. (I only discovered that by trial and error.)
I now want to set my password to the same one that I use on the old Mac; but the password (eight characters, includes some digits, which BTW is also exactly true of my AppleID password) is rejected.
When I simply run passwd while logged in as myself, it fails saying:
passwd: general failure
And when I run it as sudo passwd mike, it is more precise:
passwd: Password change failed because password is too short. Password change failed because password is too short.
(Yes, it says it twice.)
It also does this when I use 13-character password. It doesn't say how long a password it requires and I am not minded to determine this by trial and error.
How can I force my Mac to accept the password of my choice?
Solution 1:
Try to change it by going to System Preferences -> Users & Groups -> your account, and click on Change Password...
Solution 2:
Password policy is only enforced on OS X if you have a profile setting it or if the machine is bound to a directory server.
- Checking profiles is the easiest - Open your System Preferences and go to the Profiles preference pane.
- Checking binding can be done by opening terminal and showing the status:
dsconfigad -show
Delete any profiles that are setting password policy / restrictions and you will then be able to choose your desired password. Or you can reach out to the people that set your password policy and see what can be done to change the restrictions they have placed on your Mac. This isn't something that Apple defines as the out of the box experience as local passwords can be as short and insecure as you wish. You could have no password by pressing enter in the Users & Groups preference pane where you change the password using the normal graphical interface.