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admin account missing from login screen

I have a mini running 10.4.11 I set it up so it would log in to my children's (really restricted) account automatically. But now I cannot log in to my admin account at all even when I log out of the kids account and go to the log in screen. I cannot reset any preferences or do much of anything from my children's account.

Mini, Mac OS X (10.5.6), mini 10.4.11

Posted on Mar 2, 2009 7:36 PM

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Posted on Mar 2, 2009 7:40 PM

Is your admin. account still showing up in System preferences>Accounts?
hpr3
8 replies

Mar 2, 2009 8:25 PM in response to malahavock

Hi malahavock, and a warm welcome to the forums! 🙂


Could be many things, but it's best to start with these two steps, which may fix it also, but it sounds like something is corruted on your Hard Drive...

"Try Disk Utility

1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc that came with your computer, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, *you must select your language first.)*
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5. Select your Mac OS X volume.
6. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."

Then see if it'll Safe Boot off the HD & use Disk Utility from there to Repair Permissions, reboot once more.

See if it'll Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it finishes.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107392

Get back f there are many errors or it doesn't work.

Mar 2, 2009 8:46 PM in response to malahavock

BDaqua's advice is good and is basically making sure nothing basic is wrong with the computer. If it works then that will be great. If it doesn't then you may need to take specific measures to at least regain administrator status. Some of these steps may seem intimidating but as long as you follow them carefully they should work.

[I lost my admin user (Mac OS X 10.4 and earlier)|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=121786&tstart=0]

[Regaining lost admin status on OS X|http://www.salingfamily.net/trav/osx/regain_admin.html]

[Running Mac OS X Setup Assistant again|http://superpixel.ch/articles/running-setup-assistant-again>

Mar 3, 2009 9:47 AM in response to Limnos

I think I am just going to have to reformat (grrr) And make sure I don't set the settings to open in "X account" anymore. since that's when I lost the option to get in the admin account. Although I know that it's still there on some level cause it let's me use that account to add bookmarks to the limited kids account. (it asks me for admin account and I enter info and it add the bookmark) I can't do most of this stuff (listed above) cause I don't have sufficient privileges with the kids account (duh) to even run disk utility. (and I don't think I will even attempt the single user mode stuff.) Well I will say I did a **** good job of locking THEM out of everything I didn't want them getting into.

Message was edited by: malahavock

Mar 3, 2009 9:56 AM in response to malahavock

No, no, don't do that yet. A lot of that stuff doesn't even involve logging into your computer normally so maybe you misunderstood some of the instructions. Several of the suggestions have you boot from your installer disc and run utilities from there. Others have you start in Single User Mode which is a command line (you type in commands) interface. This is only partially booting your computer and leaves you in a pretty powerful interface (with potential to do damage if you don't follow instructions carefully - read them first before starting).

Mar 3, 2009 5:51 PM in response to malahavock

Although I know that it's still there on some level cause it let's me use that account to add bookmarks to the limited kids account. (it asks me for admin account and I enter info and it add the bookmark)


It sounds as if your account still has admin status, and may be OK except that the login screen doesn't display it. I don't know what would cause that, but the following workaround might allow you to log into your account:
At the login screen, type the first letter of the children's account name, which should highlight that account. Now hold down the option key and then type Return. Hopefully you will get a new login window with blank fields for name and password - if so, enter your own username and admin password.

admin account missing from login screen

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