A1466 EMC 2925 MBA - Determine Lockout Type

I sort of have an odd situation and Im not 100% sure what exactly has taken place within my MacBook air A1466 EMC 2925. I was attempting to boot into single user mood to set up new admin account, and it wouldn't allow me to without first entering standard log in password (I think is referred to as username password). I have had this same issue of not being able to boot into single user mode before with an older Macbook Pro, probably around 2011-2012. I know now there are many easier ways to solve this but for this old MacBook Pro, but I just booted into disk utility with option key and erased the hard drive. I then reinstalled OSX through the web and I was able to use it with zero issues.

With the MacBook air I was able to boot into disk utility as well, it is the only mode that worked other than the standard boot. So in disk utility I erased the hard drive. Next I rebooted and then was prompted to connect to the internet. (Dumb of me I Know), I connected to it and figured I would be able to reinstall OSX like with the older macbook. After sometime I got the standard EFI lock screen. Grey with a padlock in the middle and one solid bar for entering a password. (Not what I believe to be the icliid lock screen which has 4 or 6 different spots to enter your pin). So I have a few questions.

1. What caused the old macbook pro to not boot into single user mode? would it have been an EFI lock (firmware password)

2. If yes to question number 1, why then did erasing the hard drive work to full unlock the computer. Is it that the firmware password is stored differently in the older Macbook pros? I believe in the newer models the EFI password is stored in the actual logic board or the EFI chip, meaning that when the computer boots it takes instructions from that first and if EFI is activated then it will go into the lock screen instead of booting normally. (Sorry I know a lot of this is extremely basic , I just would really like to understand whats going on.)

Next questions are about what exactly has happened to my macbook air. I have two theories:

1. Even though I erased the harddrive, when I tried to reinstall OSX or when I connected to the internet to download OSX it received the message from the logic board to lock me out with the firmware password. And because it is stored in other places than the harddrive it was still present to be able to do so.

2. This theory doesn't make very much sense because it clearly is not the icloud lock screen I am brought too. But I ask this because It seems odd that I didn't get locked out until I connected to the internet, so perhaps iCloud FMM sent a lock signal to the computer which also implemented the firmware password as well. Is it possible that I am locked out now with both EFI and iCloud, and that if I was to remove the EFI that the iCloud would be lurking there waiting. And the reason that I only see the firmware lockout right now is because it goes to that screen first thus never allowing me to see the icloud lock behind. it

I think once I know exactly what has happened I will be able to choose the correct method to defeat it. I just want to make sure that I don't invest in a method to solve what I think is the issue to find out later that there is more stopping me.


I know this is a long question. I have searched quite hard on the web and this site clearly seems to have the highest quality of information out there. I truly appreciate any advice and knowledge anyone can share with me.

EDIT - The EFI lockout screen is black with the padlock, not the light grey the icloud lockout screen is. I don't know whether this means anything or if it is just because it is a newer version of OSX that was once installed on it.

Also another obvious point is that when I boot the computer normally it takes me to the screen with a file folder with a question mark in it. this is because I erased the hard drive. So there is no OS for it to boot to.


Additionally I have been doing some reading and I cam across someone who mentioned that when connected to the internet icloud can send a signal to activate the EFI password as well as (if activated) the icloud pin lock. So perhaps that is what happened. any help is greatly appreciated.