How to Disable the Login Password on Mac

Passwords are crucial for security. But entering them over and over again can be infuriating. This post is for those of you that want to do away with the security benefits and learn how to disable the login password on Mac entirely.

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Macs are getting faster and smarter every year. If you’ve got an Apple Watch, you don’t even need to type in your login password to unlock your Mac anymore.

But for everyone else, passwords are a tiresome chore. Correctly entering a cryptic code into the box every time you want to check your emails or surf the web — to hell with that! This post is about how to disable the login password on Mac so you can spend more time being awesome and less time answering security questions.

Before we get started, let me point out the obvious: passwords are a good thing. I’ve had this conversation with my Mom a thousand times and I’m sure you know it as well, but… without a password, anybody in the world can access your technology. That means they can steal your data, browse your photos, or take your identity. They could even wipe your computer clean and claim it as their own.

Macs require a password for a reason, and you should only consider removing it if you’re confident your computer won’t fall into the wrong hands.

Okay, the warnings are out of the way… Let’s get started. This guide uses macOS High Sierra but it shouldn’t be too different for older or newer software.

The password can be disabled in three places on a Mac:

1. Booting up
2. Waking up
3. Switching users

How to Disable the Login Password on Mac When Booting Up

Otherwise known as Automatic Login, this option makes it so your Mac goes straight to the desktop after booting up. No user selection, no password requirement.

It’s still possible to have other user accounts on the Mac, but you’ll need to Switch Users from the menu pane at the top of the screen to access them.

Before enabling automatic login, you must first ensure FileVault is switched off. FileVault is an encryption service that protects your data.

Follow these steps to turn off FileVault encryption:

1. Launch System Preferences and go to Security & Privacy > FileVault
2. Click to lock and enter your administrator password
3. Click Turn Off FileVault

Follow these steps to enable automatic login:

1. Launch System Preferences and go to Users & Groups
2. Click to lock and enter your administrator password
3. Click Login Options and open the Automatic Login drop-down menu
4. Select your account from the list and enter the login password

Unfortunately, you can’t enable automatic login if you use your iCloud password as your login. To fix this, simply change your password to something different in the Users & Groups settings.

That’s it! You’re done.

The next time your boot you Mac it’ll go straight to your desktop screen. However, you’ll still need to enter a password when switching users, changing administrator settings, or waking from sleep. Keep reading to change that!

How to Disable the Login Password on Mac when Waking Up

Macs go to sleep to conserve power and protect the display from screen burn. Annoyingly for some, when you wake a Mac from sleep it needs a password before allowing access to it again.

This can be particularly tiresome for MacBook users who need to enter a login password every time they open up the laptop!

To fix it, you simply need to adjust the Security & Privacy settings on your Mac.

In doing this, you can choose to remove the login password entirely or make it so the Mac requires a password after 5 minutes or so. This second option allows you to put your computer to sleep for short periods without needing a password again.

Follow these steps to disable the password when waking up:

1. Launch System Preferences and go to Security & Privacy > General
2. Click to lock and enter your administrator password, if needed
3. Uncheck Disable automatic login
4. Select your username under the drop-down for Automatically log in as: 
5. Enter an admin password and tap OK
6. Uncheck the Require password box
7. Enter your Mac administrator password
8. Select Turn Off Screen Lock or choose a time period
9. Decide whether you want Keychain Passwords available to whoever uses your Mac

How to Disable the Login Password on Mac When Switching Users

If you’ve followed all the steps before then you’ll have come a long way but still won’t be entirely free of entering passwords. Your Mac still requires it when logging in, switching users, or changing administrator settings.

On a first look through the settings, it may seem that there’s no way to change this.

In a way, you’d be right to think that. But there is one little handy trick that can still make your life easier.

Although it’s not possible to remove the need for entering user passwords, you can choose to make your password blank. That means you just hit the enter key whenever asked for a password and the annoying prompt will vanish.

Unfortunately, several readers report that you can no longer set up a blank password using macOS High Sierra and above. Instead, you may see a warning that “the password is empty” and the password can not be changed.

We tested this on macOS Mojave and were successfully able to set-up a blank password but on an older MacBook with macOS High Sierra it did not work, so results are mixed.

Follow these steps to create a blank password on your Mac

1. Launch System Preferences and go to Users & Groups
2. Click to lock and enter your administrator password
3. Click your username on the left and select Change Password
4. Enter your Old Password but don’t put anything under New Password
5. Click Change Password and agree to have a blank password

Creating a new Mac user and want a blank password?

You have to first generate a password to create a new Mac user. Once created, you can then select that user, change the password and leave the New Password and Verify Password fields blank. macOS then lets you save that blank password without issuing a warning about not having a password.

With all that done, on the rare occasion that your Mac does require a password, you can satisfy the beast with a quick tap of the enter key. If you’re one of the brave few that follow the steps above and took the plunge into a land without passwords — how is it?

Always have an additional Mac Admin account as a backup!

We recommend that you do not use a blank password but rather set up your Mac to auto-login to that user’s account.

However, if you insist on having a blank (or no) password for your account, make sure you first create another admin account that has a password, just in case you are locked out for not having a password.

Don’t have another account you can log into and change the passwords on other accounts?

If you don’t have another account on your Mac, boot into Recovery Mode using the keys Command+R. Apple includes a Recovery partition on newer Macs. And this recovery partition contains a feature to reset your password. You ONLY this feature in Terminal when booting from the recovery partition.

After startup, open Terminal from the Utilities menu and run the command: resetpassword

Dan Helyer

Dan writes tutorials and troubleshooting guides to help people make the most of their technology. Before becoming a writer, he earned a BSc in Sound Technology, supervised repairs at an Apple Store, and even taught English in China.