zPass Keeps Locking

My account is locked out

If your account gets too many failed logins in a row, your zPass will be locked - this is to stop people from brute-force guessing your password.

Unlocking your zPass

Go to the UNSW webpage to Unlock your zPass.

If this keeps happening

If your zPass keeps getting locked, it's probably because your computer, phone or tablet is using an old saved password that no longer works.

This is very common after you've changed your zPass, but haven't updated all your saved passwords to match

zPass affected systems and saved passwords

When you update your zPass, you will also need to update the saved passwords on all your devices.

If any of the systems or apps that save your zPass don't get updated, they will probably keep trying, and lock your account again.

Useful things to check include:

  • UNSW Services; IDM, MyUNSW, etc.
  • Uniwide wireless service (inc. Eduroam)
  • UNSW mail; Office365 / Apple Mail / etc.
  • UNSW Print Service
  • UNSW or CSE file servers
  • UNSW Software resources; Azure dev tools, etc.

Updating saved passwords

Mac OSX

You can manage your saved passwords using the Keychain Access utility:

  • GoUtilitiesKeychain Access
  • Select the Login keychain, and Passwords Category
  • Delete any entries for UNSW printers, and any entries containing unsw.edu.au

Next time you connect to them. you will be prompted to enter your zID and zPass.

(remember that username for printers is ADUNSW\ plus your zID.)

Windows

You can manage your saved passwords with the Credential Manager in the Control Panel.

  • Click on Windows Credentials
  • Delete any entries containing unsw.edu.au

Next time you connect to them. you will be prompted to enter your zID and zPass.

(remember that username for printers is ADUNSW\ plus your zID.)

Ubuntu

Reconfigure Printer Password

Locate the current printer in "System Settings" -> "Printers", open "Printer Properties" of this printer then in "Settings" tab click on "Device URI" to authenticate with your new password.

Remove Password(s) saved in Password Manager

Stored passwords in Ubuntu 'Unity' and 'Gnome' desktop environment are maintained by the Passwords and Keys (seahorse). Search for Passwords and Keys from Application or type command seahorse in Terminal to launch this application.
  • Locate the password(s) entry: e.g. for MPS print queue it will be engpwps001
  • Select (single-click) the entry to show the password, and select the Edit option.
  • Be sure to Save changes before exiting.

Still having problems with your zPass locking

If your account is locking frequently, you should thoroughly check all your computers, tablets and phones and and double check that every application that uses a zPass has been updated. Turn off stored passwords for applications you don't use frequently. This is probably the easiest way to fix the problem.

You can ask UNSW IT Services to check on what might be causing a bad password to be used. It may take them some hours to check this and they maybe able to identify the device that is causing the problem, however you may just get a message such as: "A device on Uniwide made several bad password attempts."

They may ask you to speak to an IT specialist so you will need to organise a time to do that. You will also need to bring all of the devices that might potentially be using a bad password to that meeting.

Last edited by jbc 12/05/2022

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password, zpass, locked, disabled, unlock