Apostolos S. Makedon

Q: Admin Password Issue

I wanna change my admin password but I can't because I don't know what it is.. I have never encountered any problems in terms of downloading/installing/updating/moving/ etc.. When prompted, I just type in my users account password.

 

It's not the same as the User account passwd and not the same as the Filevault passwd.

 

Is there a way to reset it without losing my data?

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

Posted on May 10, 2014 1:01 AM

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Q: Admin Password Issue

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  • by benwiggy,

    benwiggy benwiggy May 10, 2014 8:30 AM in response to Apostolos S. Makedon
    Level 4 (1,430 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 10, 2014 8:30 AM in response to Apostolos S. Makedon

    If your user is an Admin user account, then the password that you supply for installing things IS your admin password. What happens when you try to change it in System Prefs > Users & Groups?

    You can reset the admin password following the steps here:

    http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1274

     

     

    Or are you talking about your AppleID password?

    http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5787

  • by Apostolos S. Makedon,

    Apostolos S. Makedon Apostolos S. Makedon May 10, 2014 10:50 AM in response to benwiggy
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 10, 2014 10:50 AM in response to benwiggy

    Thanks for the reply.

     

    I know it's strange. When I try to change password there I get prompted with a message saying "Wrong password".

    (At the change Administrator password box). But I have no trouble at all changing my user account password in "Security" or something, I don't know how it spells in english.. Get my point?

  • by Christian A. Burkert,

    Christian A. Burkert Christian A. Burkert May 12, 2014 4:23 PM in response to Apostolos S. Makedon
    Level 2 (305 points)
    May 12, 2014 4:23 PM in response to Apostolos S. Makedon

    hi there,

     

    if you can install software or apply Updates from Apple, your user account does have admin privileges.

     

    Unfortunately benwiggy gave you a support link for older versions of OSX. With Mavericks the said menu entry is gone from the Utilities menu. Therefore an extra step is necessary to regain access to the program which allows you to change passwords without knowing them.

     

    To do so, press the ALT key at system startup. You will be presented a choice of boot options. Select "Recovery 10.9" there, select "Terminal" from the "Utilities" menu and finally enter "Resetpassword" (without the quotation marks) at the terminal's prompt.

     

    A new window will open where you can choose Administrator from the drop down menu. The Administrator will be the first entry in the menu and have the account short name in brackets next to it

     

    There are two things to be cautious about here:

     

    First, make sure you select "Administrator" and not "System Administrator" in the user selection menu. The later is the root account which is only needed if you want to make changes to the FreeBSD basis of OSX. Unless you have specifically enabled this root account, it is not active on your system and its password cannot be altered.

     

    Or could it be that you are trying to change the root password without having activated the root account beforehand. In that case you would receive exactly the  error message you are referring to

     

    Second, I am currently not sure whether this way of password retrival is possible, if FileVault is active. See these articles from Apple's knowledge base for further information:

     

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5077

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4790

  • by Apostolos S. Makedon,

    Apostolos S. Makedon Apostolos S. Makedon May 12, 2014 7:20 PM in response to Christian A. Burkert
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 12, 2014 7:20 PM in response to Christian A. Burkert

    Skjermbilde 2014-05-13 kl. 03.42.38.pngSkjermbilde 2014-05-13 kl. 03.51.59.pngO

    Skjermbilde 2014-05-13 kl. 03.52.20.png

     

    *Picture no.1 is a sign that I'm the administrator because the checked box says: " Require administrators password in order to do system-oriantated changes ".

    The password I type in when there's such changes to be done is the same as my user account's.


    There I can also change my password without problems. ( User account password ).


    *Pictures 2 & 3 is where I'm stuck. There, I type in my current user account's password but it's not accepting it.
    ( This is at User groups ). You probably know that, just wanted to make it clear.

     

    I tried to do what you decribed but the only thing that shows up are two similar icons of a HDD. ( The silver HDD )
    The one says "Mac", which is where my files are located and the other one is called ifob or ifboo or something.. I don't recall. I didn't select that because I don't know what it is and to be honest I don't even know if it's clickable.

     

    Anyways,

     

    I hope I explained it clearly enough and thanks for taking the time!

  • by dominic23,

    dominic23 dominic23 May 12, 2014 11:07 PM in response to Apostolos S. Makedon
    Level 8 (41,810 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 12, 2014 11:07 PM in response to Apostolos S. Makedon
  • by andyBall_uk,

    andyBall_uk andyBall_uk May 12, 2014 11:52 PM in response to Apostolos S. Makedon
    Level 7 (20,495 points)
    May 12, 2014 11:52 PM in response to Apostolos S. Makedon

    Try to create a new user account by clicking the + button

     

    OS X Mavericks: Konfigurer brukere på Mac-maskinen

     

    Give it administrator privileges.

    Log out of your usual account, into the new one, then try to change your normal account's password.

     

    Backup first.

  • by Apostolos S. Makedon,

    Apostolos S. Makedon Apostolos S. Makedon May 13, 2014 12:29 AM in response to dominic23
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 13, 2014 12:29 AM in response to dominic23

    This just reset my user account password..

  • by Apostolos S. Makedon,

    Apostolos S. Makedon Apostolos S. Makedon May 13, 2014 12:31 AM in response to andyBall_uk
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 13, 2014 12:31 AM in response to andyBall_uk

    And this didn't work. I still get prompted: " Wrong password "  ( Pic no.3 )

  • by andyBall_uk,

    andyBall_uk andyBall_uk May 13, 2014 1:39 AM in response to Apostolos S. Makedon
    Level 7 (20,495 points)
    May 13, 2014 1:39 AM in response to Apostolos S. Makedon

    Presumably, the new admin account is able to change its own password ?.

     

    If so, then after backing up  I would

     

    1: Delete the user but don't change the home folder.

     

    then

     

    2: Restore a deleted user using 'Restore the home folder from a saved folder'

  • by andyBall_uk,

    andyBall_uk andyBall_uk May 13, 2014 1:48 AM in response to Apostolos S. Makedon
    Level 7 (20,495 points)
    May 13, 2014 1:48 AM in response to Apostolos S. Makedon

    let's clarify what happened first :

     

    you said >>This just reset my user account password..

    Isn't that what you wanted to do ?

    >>I wanna change my admin password

     

     

    >>this didn't work. I still get prompted: " Wrong password "

    But you don't have to enter the original password when using another admin account to change the first one.

     


  • by Apostolos S. Makedon,

    Apostolos S. Makedon Apostolos S. Makedon May 13, 2014 2:42 AM in response to andyBall_uk
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 13, 2014 2:42 AM in response to andyBall_uk

    Sorry but that last message confused me a bit. ( "But you don't have to enter" etc. )

     

    I am able to change my users account password but I am not able to change the password in picture 3, if you scroll up a littlebit..

     

    That password is called " Main Password ". The one I am able to change is the user password, the one I log in with on a regular basis.

     

    They are not the same obviously...

  • by Christian A. Burkert,

    Christian A. Burkert Christian A. Burkert May 13, 2014 3:06 AM in response to Apostolos S. Makedon
    Level 2 (305 points)
    May 13, 2014 3:06 AM in response to Apostolos S. Makedon

    Let's try a different approach:

     

    if you have not enabled root beforehand, the following eleven steps will activate it

     

    1. in Finder click on Go in menu at the top of the Screen
    2. from the Go menu select Computer
    3. there click on Macintosh HD
    4. click on System
    5. click on Library
    6. click on CoreServices
    7. open the app named Directory Utility
    8. in Directory Utility click on Edit in menu at the top of the Screen
    9. from the Edit menu select Enable Root User
    10. you will be asked  to enter a password for root
    11. if you want to keep the root account active afterwards, choose a secure and strong password

     

    Now let's get back to the original problem:

     

    1. Log out of your current account and log into the root account
    2. Now open Terminal from the /Programs/Utilities folder
    3. Enter the following command into terminal
    4. cd /Users
    5. there memorize the name of the account whose password needs to be reset
    6. now enter this command
    7. passwd <name-of-user>
    8. enter a new password and reenter it to confirm
    9. your password is now reset
    10. since the keychain in which OSX stores all user related passwords requires the old password, you will need to create a new keychain. unfortunately you will lose the existing keychain
    11. you can however save the file login.keychain from /Users/<name-of-user>/Library/Keychains in case you remember the missing password at a later time
    12. now log out of the root account and log into your regular user account 

     

    If you want you can now disable the root account again by selecting Disable Root Account from the Edit menu

    of the Directory Utility

     

    Hopefully your problem is solved now 

  • by Christian A. Burkert,

    Christian A. Burkert Christian A. Burkert May 13, 2014 3:24 AM in response to Apostolos S. Makedon
    Level 2 (305 points)
    May 13, 2014 3:24 AM in response to Apostolos S. Makedon

    <<That password is called " Main Password ". The one I am able to change is the user password, the one I log in with on a regular basis.>>

     

    Now that is a really important piece of information!

     

    That  might render my previous posting somewhat off topic:

     

    The main or master password is the password that is needed for FileVault disk encryption. Let me do some quick research on that.

  • by andyBall_uk,

    andyBall_uk andyBall_uk May 13, 2014 3:25 AM in response to Apostolos S. Makedon
    Level 7 (20,495 points)
    May 13, 2014 3:25 AM in response to Apostolos S. Makedon

    It sounds as if you have a legacy Filevault encrypted home folder and are not using Filevault 2

    OS X: Om FileVault 2

     

    is that right ?

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