MacOSX El Capitan: admin password only working from login screen Since a week or so, I have a very strange issue on my Mac... I can login from the login screen, but any further action that requires my password fails: from a terminal if I try to sudo, or from any system preferences pannel that prompts for my password. I cannot add "Show Input menu in login window" because this requires to enter my password... I have only one keyboard configured in System preferences so it is not even an issue of different keyboard layout as far as I can tell. And since my account is not bound to my appleid (and I need my password to do it) I am really stuck...

Is formatting the only option ?
Open Textedit and type there your password
to check which problem might be yours:


typing errors,
bad repeating tuning,
num lock,
keys problems,
session configuration error.


If you think you have a typical problem with just the login window,
just configure your login so as to take advantage of your name
part of the login window to check how your keyboard and your software
are behaving.
Configure System Preferences &gt; Users &amp; Groups as follows:


Within the Name: part of the login window, type all the characters
contained in your password and check for:


bad repeating tuning,
num lock,
keys problems.