How can I tell if my macbook pro has a firmware password?

kendrick43
New Contributor

I'd like to reset NVRAM, but in the instructions it says, "If your Mac is using a firmware password, attempting to reset NVRAM causes your Mac to start up from macOS Recovery instead. Turn off the firmware password before resetting NVRAM."

So is there any way to know if I have a firmware password?

I reset SMC without issue.

Thank you, Lydia Running 10.9.5 OS X, late 2013

8 REPLIES 8

davidacland
Honored Contributor II
Honored Contributor II

Easiest way is to hold down "alt" on startup. If you have a firmware password, it will display a padlock.

mm2270
Legendary Contributor III

For something as old as 10.9, you would need to (try to) boot to Recovery HD by holding down Command + R at boot. If you don't get a firmware password prompt, then there's no firmware password. If you do get a prompt, then there's a password.
More recent versions of macOS have a command line binary built in to check the firmware state.

donmontalvo
Esteemed Contributor III

Have we tried

sudo firmwarepasswd -check
--
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mm2270
Legendary Contributor III

@donmontalvo Given the OS 10.9.5 mentioned, firmwarepasswd -check isn't going to work. That appeared in 10.10 I believe.

ant89
Contributor

I use an extension attribute to check. But like @mm2270 said, it will only work in 10.10 and above.

#!/bin/sh
result=`/usr/sbin/firmwarepasswd -check`

if [[ "$result" == "Password Enabled: Yes" ]]; then
echo "<result>Set</result>"
else
echo "<result>Not Set</result>"
fi

jpbuono
New Contributor

@ant89 sorry for being a noob here, but what is an extension attribute? where do I insert that script you posted?

ant89
Contributor

@jpbuono - Settings -> Computer Management - Management Framework -> extention attributes.

Once added. it should show up once the computer has done an updated inventory check.

cedric67
New Contributor II

Hi,
Can we add the command to set a password if result is Not set ?