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I bought a used Mac-2014 w/ High Sierra. I have admin control but I wanted to create a new admin user and delete the existing. When I unlock and attempt to create a new user, the Mac creates a new group instead of a user. When I tried to erase the group it doesn't get erased. I saw someone offer a solution but the various links were dead.
iMac with Retina 5K display, macOS 10.13
Did you erase the physical drive and reinstall macOS before starting to use the computer? You should never use a system without doing this since you have no idea what nasty surprises may be waiting for you. Here is what the previous owner should have done for you, but you can follow the link to erase & reinstall macOS.
Did you erase the physical drive and reinstall macOS before starting to use the computer? You should never use a system without doing this since you have no idea what nasty surprises may be waiting for you. Here is what the previous owner should have done for you, but you can follow the link to erase & reinstall macOS.
You can create a new administrator account by restarting the Setup Assistant:
1. Boot into Single User Mode: Start/restart your Mac. As soon as you hear the startup tone, press and hold ⌘ + S until you see a black screen with white lettering. (If you end up back on the login screen after a flash of the black screen with white lettering, enter your password and it will return to the black screen.)
2. Check and repair the drive by typing /sbin/fsck -fy then ↩ enter - as directed by the on-screen text.
3. Mount the drive as read-write by typing /sbin/mount -uw / then ↩ enter.
4. Remove the Apple Setup Done file by typing rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone then ↩ enter.
5. Reboot by typing reboot then ↩ enter.
6. Complete the setup process, creating a new admin account.
Be very careful to notice the spaces in those Terminal Commands.
Once you've done that the computer reboots and it's like the first time you used the machine. Your old accounts are all safe. From there you just change all other account passwords in the account preferences!!
Unable to create a new user, admin or otherwise
