Resolved macOS forced me to reset my password with complex requirements... what's going on?

[Eminemdrdre00]

I'm stumped on this issue and I'm hoping someone here knows what's going on...

My cousin says when she went to log into her MacBook Air, running macOS Sierra 10.12.6, she was prompted to change her password. She did, and it imposed a bunch of complex requirements on her.

That's never happened to me before, so I had her go into System Preferences, and change her password back to what it was. It wouldn't let her. The complex requirements were still in effect:

I checked my iMac, running macOS Monterey 12.2, and I don't have these complex password requirements. It just says my password needs to be longer than 4 characters.

Does anyone know what may have happened to my cousin's MacBook Air, and how to get rid of these complex password requirements?

 

[nicho]

I'm stumped on this issue and I'm hoping someone here knows what's going on...

My cousin says when she went to log into her MacBook Air, running macOS Sierra 10.12.6, she was prompted to change her password. She did, and it imposed a bunch of complex requirements on her.

That's never happened to me before, so I had her go into System Preferences, and change her password back to what it was. It wouldn't let her. The complex requirements were still in effect:

View attachment 1953530

I checked my iMac, running macOS Monterey 12.2, and I don't have these complex password requirements. It just says my password needs to be longer than 4 characters.

Does anyone know what may have happened to my cousin's MacBook Air, and how to get rid of these complex password requirements?

Is it her MacBook Air? These requirements can be imposed by a configuration profile installed by the owner. She may also have added a profile as part of BYOD at work...

 

[Eminemdrdre00]

Is it her MacBook Air? These requirements can be imposed by a configuration profile installed by the owner. She may also have added a profile as part of BYOD at work...

Thanks for the reply. Yes, it's her personal MacBook Air. That's the weird part. I have no idea where these password requirements could have come from, or how to remove them.

 

[Lihp8270]

Has she used her MacBook for work at all?

 

[Eminemdrdre00]

Has she used her MacBook for work at all?

I don't believe so, it's her presonal laptop, but that seems to be a recurring question. I'll ask her tomorrow. Appreciate the reply!

 

[appltech]

And how about creating a new admin User and checking it from there?
Also, if it wasn't for work or dodgy stuff, look for  System Preferences –> Profiles (and on menu bar View –> Customise –> make sure that there isn't Profile unchecked)

It can be if it was Mac OS Yosemite (there was an odd feature when iCloud/AppleID password was usable as Mac password)

 

[Eminemdrdre00]

Thanks for the help everyone! I appreciate the replies.

This is a personal laptop, but she does use it for work. They installed a "Profile" yesterday and that's where the new password requirements came from.

Mystery solved!

 

[DeltaMac]

I wonder how often your cousin will now be required to change the login password on her laptop?
Looking at the first requirement in the list, your cousin will also need to keep track of passwords that have already been used.

 

[pedzsan]

I would usually have two admin ids in situations like this. One for work and one for personal. It kept things a little better separated for me. If work wants me to spend / waste time changing my passwords, fine. But I didn’t want to spend my own personal time hopping to their music.

 

[Clix Pix]

Seems to me that it would be much better to not use one's own personal computer for work at all and simply go with whatever the workplace provides. If it does not provide a machine, then just buy something cheap and use it for work and keep personal stuff totally off altogether by having one's personal machine.

 

[Eminemdrdre00]

I wonder how often your cousin will now be required to change the login password on her laptop?
Looking at the first requirement in the list, your cousin will also need to keep track of passwords that have already been used.

The good news is she's retiring at the end of the month, so this will be a minor inconvenience.

 

[Clix Pix]

If she will be retiring soon, seems kind of pointless for the employer's IT to have put a work-related "profile" on her personal machine at this time.

 

[Lihp8270]

The good news is she's retiring at the end of the month, so this will be a minor inconvenience.

A “minor” inconvenience until it becomes time to convince her employer to remove it.

Call me a pessimist

 

[DJLC]

The good news is she's retiring at the end of the month, so this will be a minor inconvenience.

A “minor” inconvenience until it becomes time to convince her employer to remove it.

Call me a pessimist

If the profile was added correctly, all she needs to do at retirement is go to System Preferences > Profiles and delete their profile. Password requirements will be gone, and it'll forget whatever wireless network or other settings were in the profile.

I would bet they didn't enable supervision or enroll it into DEP, so removing this profile is no big deal. IMO, Apple has done a great job with Profiles — you can push out ones that can't be removed on company devices, and you can push out others that can be removed for BYOD scenarios. Spectrum even does this for their customers; you can download a profile to auto-connect to their nationwide network of wifi hotspots. Don't want it anymore? Just delete it.

 

[chown33]

If the profile is removable as @DJLC states, then I recommend trying to remove it at least a week before your friend's actual last day. That way, if it's not user-removable, there's a reasonable window of time to go in and have IT remove it.

If removal by IT turns out to be necessary, I suggest she take a thermos of coffee and some doughnuts, both to entice the IT folks into rapid completion, and to show that she's willing to park there for hours until they fix it.

 

[Eminemdrdre00]

Thanks guys. I'm actually going to do a clean install for her after her last day, and install Monterey.

 

[Bandaman]

Thanks guys. I'm actually going to do a clean install for her after her last day, and install Monterey.

This would be the best option, just so you’ll be sure there’s absolutely none of her work’s crap on there.

 

[pedzsan]

Seems to me that it would be much better to not use one's own personal computer for work at all and simply go with whatever the workplace provides. If it does not provide a machine, then just buy something cheap and use it for work and keep personal stuff totally off altogether by having one's personal machine.

If the work place only provides DOS (some people call it Windows but its really just DOS), then you have a choice of either quit or BYO.