MacOS – How to unlock Mac password

filevaulticloudmacospasswordSecurity

I got a MacBook Pro (macOS 12.10.1) from my friend who I can't contact anymore, and here's the deal.

  1. It has only one administrator account with a login password (Which I don't know)

  2. It has FileVault enabled with a password (Which I don't know)

  3. It is linked to an iCloud account (Which I don't know)

I only need the Mac to be reusable, I don't need any documents or files.
I tried some methods through googling, but most of them failed.

I tried to start up in single-user mode.CommandS, but I got an error saying [Builduser() : error building a user type 0x20010008]

I tried ShiftOptionCommandR which is saying to reset password using iCloud account password.

I tried to reinstall macOS through macOS utilities window > Reinstall macOS but it is asking for my FileVault key

I tried to reset user account password through terminal $ resetpassword, but it is asking for the iCloud password.

I tried to erase disk utilities but it is throwing me an error.

I didn't try to install through Internet recovery yet. I don't think it will work either.

(I got a stupid idea while sleeping. Will this work?!!!. I thought to plug my hard disk which may be locked in some way, to another computer and erase the whole disk and plug it into my Mac, so the Mac will think it as a new hard disk)

Is there any other method I can try to reuse my Mac>

Best Answer

Boot to internet recovery and wipe / erase the drive. At that point all FileVault data and system are gone. You then can run the installer and drop a new OS on the Mac.

As long as there is not a firmware password (which you shouldn’t have since that prevents internet recovery boot and other changes to the OS boot) you can run the Mac in target disk mode and erase the drive or boot to internet recovery or recovery HD (external) and erase.

Here are the official steps for an erase install of macOS:

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