Are you tired of the need to enter your firmware password when trying to start your Mac in recovery mode? Maybe you need to disable it because it is causing an issue with something, such as booting in safe mode, or perhaps you are selling your Mac or giving it to a friend and want to remove the firmware password.
Whatever your reason, if you have a Mac with an Intel processor, there is an easy way to do this using Mac Terminal. All you need is the password to your user account with admin permissions and the firmware password.
To do this, you will run the following command from Mac Terminal.
sudo firmwarepasswd -delete
My name is Eric, and as a software engineer, I often find the need to perform tasks using a command line interface such as Terminal. It allows you to perform them quickly and easily and is great for doing something like removing your firmware password.
If you have an Intel-based Mac and want to learn how to remove your firmware password, keep reading below, and I will show you how.
Contents
This Only Works for Intel-based Macs
As you may or may not know, Macs can have one of two different types of processors. Some models, mostly older ones, have an Intel processor. Most newer Macs have an Apple processor, or some refer to it as Apple Silicon, which has the names M1, M2, etc.
Newer Macs with Apple silicon do not support or use a firmware password. Apple relies on FileVault to secure the system instead of a firmware password, so there is no firmware password to worry about, and the firmwarepasswd command is, therefore, not supported on these systems.
Running the firmwarepasswd command on a system with Apple silicone will give you an error message stating that firmwarepasswd is not supported. This is a quick way to determine that you have a Mac with an Apple processor.
There is a firmware password for Intel-based systems, and the command is still supported and works, so it will be possible to remove your firmware password if you have one set.
Remove Firmware Password on Intel-Based Mac
I have briefly shown the command above, and it is relatively simple but let’s go through the steps to remove the password below. Remember you will need the password of your admin user that you usually log in to your Mac with, and you will also need the firmware password.
Step 1: Start Terminal using your preferred method.
Step 2: Type the firmwarepasswd command with the -delete parameter.
sudo firmwarepasswd -delete
Type the command and then hit the return key.
Step 3: Enter your regular login password
This will be your normal password to log in to your Mac. Type the password and hit the return key.
Step 4: Enter your firmware password
You will then be prompted to enter another password. You will enter your firmware password for this one and then hit the return key.
Step 5: Reboot your Mac
You will need to reboot your Mac for the changes to take effect.
The firmware password will then be removed. If you see an error message stating that the command is not supported. This means that you probably have a Mac with an Apple processor, so it does not have a firmware password.
FAQs
Below are a few questions frequently asked when discussing how to remove a firmware password using Mac Terminal.
What If I have a Mac with Apple Silicon?
If you have a Mac that has an Apple processor instead of an Intel processor, there’s no need to worry about a firmware password because Apple processors do not have a firmware password. They rely on FileVault for security instead of a firmware password.
What if I Don’t know my passwords?
If you don’t know your login password, you can check with Apple support to find out how to recover it. If you can’t remember your firmware password, you need to contact Apple support to recover it.
Are there other commands that can be used with firmwarepasswd?
Yes, the firmwarepasswd command has parameters to set the password, delete the password, verify the password, and more. You can see all the parameters for the command by taking a look at the man page. Just type the following command.
man firmwarepasswd
Conclusion
Removing the firmware password from your Intel-based Mac using the Terminal application is quite simple as long as you know the admin and firmware passwords. You just need to use the sudo firmwarepassed -delete command, enter your passwords, and reboot your system.
As usual, let me know if you have any questions or comments. I would love to hear from you!
