how to unlock macbook air without password

Log in and then use the great Mac Spotlight feature to search for “touch id”:Īs you can see, it’s a System Preference. You can see above it indicates you can log in with either Touch ID or you can enter your password. If it’s enabled when you go to log in you’ll doubtless see something like this: Still, let’s disable fingerprint login from your Mac system anyway, just so you can rest easy at night. It isn’t possible for someone to reverse engineer your actual fingerprint image from this stored data.”

Touch ID doesn’t store any images of your fingerprint, and instead relies only on a mathematical representation. “The chip in your device includes an advanced security architecture called the Secure Enclave, which was developed to protect your passcode and fingerprint data. I should note that Apple stores your fingerprint data in an encrypted format so it should be pretty darn safe. Certainly takes some of the risk out, without any sharp objects or crude surgery being involved. At the simplest, you can also delete it all and simply not have your fingerprint scanned and saved on your computer. Then again, perhaps you do work for the National Security Agency or some foreign equivalent and it is a legitimate concern! (Of course those agencies have much more stringent identity and credential systems, but that’s another story…)Īnyway it turns out that you can gain control over your biometrics and what they can control on your MacOS X system and your iPhone too, for that matter. You must have some hella interesting or valuable data on your Mac to worry about the risk of someone using your finger – detached from the rest of you! – to log in to your computer! Maybe Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible or Jason Bourne or James Bond might face that risk, but even then outside of Hollywood special effects, I’m not convinced it’d work or be worth the effort anyway.

How to unlock macbook air without password