Reset admin password on external SSD

Question

Level 2

219 points

Reset admin password on external SSD

So I have Ventura 13.7.1 (yes been a while since I used it) on an external SSD. I had used it to verify some applications on Ventura before I upgraded my internal SSD from Monterey to Ventura.

I switched the startup disk to the external SSD but when I tried to login, I realized that I forgot the admin password. So I went searching for reset password solutions, finding the Apple article and a few others. I don't want to use the Apple ID reset because I think it would reset it on my internal SSD and not the external one. I tried to use single user mode but I when I did "mount -rw /" I think it mounted the internal SSD and not the external.

Then I went to recovery mode. I ran "resetpassword" from a Terminal window but I was not asked for the volume and so it defaulted to my internal SSD. So I can't reset the admin password on the external SSD that way either. Why would it default to internal if the external is set to the startup disk?

So at this point, I'm not sure how to reset the admin password on an external SSD with Ventura 13.7.1 on it.

iMac 27″ 5K

Posted on Jul 4, 2025 7:44 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

HWTech

Level 9

68,228 points

Jul 4, 2025 8:13 PM in response to RedWolf

RedWolf wrote:

So I have Ventura 13.7.1

I tried to use single user mode but I when I did "mount -rw /" I think it mounted the internal SSD and not the external.

Option Boot the computer so you can select your external SSD. As soon as you select the external SSD to boot, then immediately press Command + S for Single User Mode. If the external SSD is configured to be the default boot drive, then just holding those keys for Single User Mode should be operating on the external boot drive. You can always verify by just using:

diskutil  list

And:

mount

You should be able to see that "/" is the mount point for the internal or external drive by matching up the "diskXsY" device identifiers.

You can also create a new admin user account on the external Ventura boot SSD by using the instructions in the following article.....you will need to be careful you are accessing the correct drive when making the changes.....those instructions assume only a single boot drive so you may need to make a few slight changes to them to access the correct drive.

Restarting Setup Assistant to create Admin User Account - Apple Community

Reply