My Mac Not Recognizing my Password

Earlier this week I tried to log into my personal desktop computer, which is a Mac Mini from a few years ago. The machine is connected to the Internet but impossible to reach from outside my office, thanks to how I have set it up. As the only way to get on the computer is by being in my physical office in my house, I have a relatively easy password that I always remember. For simplicity's sake, let's assume that the password is "password" even though it is something different.

I went to log in and the computer didn't recognize my password. I thought I may have mistyped it so I tried again only to be denied access to my computer. I tried again making sure the caps-lock key didn't get inadvertently pressed. That didn't work either. I started to panic thinking that someone had hacked into my system. Then other equally problematic scenarios started running through my head. Fortunately I knew I didn't have to worry about my computer locking me out if I tried too many times. I took a deep breath and started applying my troubleshooting skills to the problem.

I looked carefully at the password field and started typing my password and it showed me the usual dots for each character. I typed "pass" but only saw 3 dots instead of the 4 I expected. I cleared the field and tried again watching the same result. For some reason, the first character I typed was not recognized and so I tried typing the first character twice. I entered "ppassword" and my computer let me in. I felt a huge wave of relief.

Eventually I stopped using my computer and the next time I came back to it, I had to enter my password to unlock it again. Fortunately the problem with the first character not being recognized did not happen. I counted the dots on the screen and they matched each key click I entered. I have not had the problem since that one time.

Should you find yourself trying to log into a Mac unsuccessfully, I suggest counting the dots and making sure all the characters are being recognized. If not, do what I did and double up on the first one. It may save you an anxious moment or two like I had.