Chosen Solution
I believe my keyboard is faulty, so I plugged in a usb one. However no matter what I do, no password for iCloud or startup disk is working and I simply cannot get into my old computer. I’m willing to reset and wipe everything if I have to, I just want to use it again.
This is a tricky one. The encryption password is generally the password used to log in. Now comes the tricky part, it is not really looking for a password but the keystrokes used on the original keyboard. So you can enter the correct password all day long on another external keyboard and it still not work. I discovered this when changing a keyboard for a different language. So if your keyboard is damaged, you will need to replace it to get into it. Then decrypt it.
Yes, this can be confusing! What password do I need to use? You have three! Or even four! When you start your system and are greeted with a padlock this is the system hardware passwordWhen your system has booted up you have your user account password (if you have a second user account which is setup as the system admin account you may need it as it will have the higher rights level.And when you access the Apps or iTunes applications you are using your iCloud account passwordThe last one is if you’ve encrypted your drive! And that’s what you are being asked for here! The encryption password!
