Cisco 2960x Switch Password Recovery Procedure

This short post details how to perform password recovery on a Cisco 2960X switch.

The biggest problem most people have with doing a password recovery on a 2960 or 3560 is knowing how long to hold the mode button down for.

The process is very simple:

STEP 1: Hold Down the Mode Button on the front of the switch

STEP 2: Power up the Switch whilst keeping the mode button held in

STEP 3: Let the mode button go at the right time and then enter a few commands.

 Cisco 2960X Password Recovery – Step 1

Ensure the switch is powered off and locate the Mode button as shown below.

Whilst holding down the Mode button power up the switch ensuring the mode button stays depressed.

You need to wait between 30-40 seconds or if watching the console until the text USB Console INIT appears, let go of the mode button when you see this and it will then drop you into the switch: prompt

Cisco 2960x Password Recovery – Step 2

Once you are at the switch: prompt enter the command

flash_init

Then at the next prompt enter

dir flash:

You should then see all the files in flash – you now need to rename the config.text file to config old

rename flash:config.text flash:config.old

!— The config.text file contains the password !— definition.

After this reload the switch with the following command

boot

When the switch reloads it will ignore the startup config and ask you if you want to configure this switch

Just say NO

Then rename the config.old file back to config.text

rename flash:config.old flash:config.text

Copy the configuration file into memory.

copy flash:config.text system:running-config

The configuration file is now reloaded, overwrite any passwords that you did not know

write the config and you are back into your switch