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User profile for user: christomac
christomac Author
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MacBook 2015, system password problem

My wife’s MacBook does not allow system preferences to respond to the computer username and password following her work admin trying to update her os yesterday. Apparently he tried to install Monterey, and the machine would not work at all. I re-installed Big Sur last night and the machine is now working but I cannot access system preferences at all. lots of trouble shooting, have reset passwords successfully but still same problem. Have tried terminal in Recovery mode and tried to enter rm “/Volumes/Macintosh HD/var/db/.applesetupdone.” That results in No such file or directory. Also tried that with AppleSetUpDone, with the same result. Have spent some time with Apple Support but our poor mobile reception ended the call before any resolution. Does anyone have any ideas?

MacBook

Posted on Mar 30, 2022 7:13 PM

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User profile for user: pkeenan
pkeenan
User level: Level 1
22 points

Posted on Apr 5, 2022 11:11 AM

christomac,

Did you resolve this? The instructions I received were the following:

  1. Restart your computer and boot up in "Recovery Mode" (Command-R) Once you see the Apple logo you can release the keyboard buttons.
  2. Select Disk Utilities and make sure that your hard drive (Macintosh HD if that's what it's called) is mounted. If not, mount it.
  3. Quit Disk Utilities which will take you back to the Recovery page and select "Terminal" from the menu above under "Utilities"
  4. Once Terminal opens up, you should see -bash-3.2#
  5. Type rm press return
  6. Type "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/var/db/.applesetupdone" Use the quotes. Ideally, if you see -bash-3.2# you should be good.
  7. Quit Terminal and Restart.
  8. At this point, you will be in the Setup Assistant phase. The important part here is NOT to set up your Apple ID. Skip that part. I think that's where the bug is. When you skip it, the Setup Assistant will allow you to set up as an Administrator.

Set-Up Assistant

  1. Do the normal setup by using "Test" as an Admin with whatever password you want to use and skip the rest.
  2. Restart and login as "Test". (should be an Admin)
  3. Go to System Prefs and select "Users & Groups"
  4. Select "Test"
  5. Select the padlock on the lower left and type in "test" (no quotes) in the username and the password you created.
  6. Select your wifes profile and check "Allow user to administer this computer".
  7. Select the padlock and lock it.
  8. Restart the computer.


Hopefully, this will allow you to avoid divorce court.

Good luck!

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User profile for user: pkeenan
pkeenan
User level: Level 1
22 points

Apr 5, 2022 11:11 AM in response to christomac

christomac,

Did you resolve this? The instructions I received were the following:

  1. Restart your computer and boot up in "Recovery Mode" (Command-R) Once you see the Apple logo you can release the keyboard buttons.
  2. Select Disk Utilities and make sure that your hard drive (Macintosh HD if that's what it's called) is mounted. If not, mount it.
  3. Quit Disk Utilities which will take you back to the Recovery page and select "Terminal" from the menu above under "Utilities"
  4. Once Terminal opens up, you should see -bash-3.2#
  5. Type rm press return
  6. Type "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/var/db/.applesetupdone" Use the quotes. Ideally, if you see -bash-3.2# you should be good.
  7. Quit Terminal and Restart.
  8. At this point, you will be in the Setup Assistant phase. The important part here is NOT to set up your Apple ID. Skip that part. I think that's where the bug is. When you skip it, the Setup Assistant will allow you to set up as an Administrator.

Set-Up Assistant

  1. Do the normal setup by using "Test" as an Admin with whatever password you want to use and skip the rest.
  2. Restart and login as "Test". (should be an Admin)
  3. Go to System Prefs and select "Users & Groups"
  4. Select "Test"
  5. Select the padlock on the lower left and type in "test" (no quotes) in the username and the password you created.
  6. Select your wifes profile and check "Allow user to administer this computer".
  7. Select the padlock and lock it.
  8. Restart the computer.


Hopefully, this will allow you to avoid divorce court.

Good luck!

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User profile for user: christomac
christomac Author
User level: Level 1
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Mar 31, 2022 4:07 PM in response to danakayw

No this is my partner’s Mac managed by yours truly. Not a professional but have have owned many Macs for many years, and living fairly remote have managed fairly well thus far. This is a mystery though, can log into the Mac, but not access system preferences, which now means I cannot finalise the Monterey upgrade. This was one of the fixes proposed by others. The MacBook has been working fine till this unprompted upgrade.

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User profile for user: christomac
christomac Author
User level: Level 1
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Mar 31, 2022 5:23 PM in response to Jeff_888

I tried booting in safe mode when the computer first had problems. At that time the computer would not start, the progress line would just hang after logging in, and not complete its progress. I managed to reload Big Sur (I am not sure which OS he tried to load) and managed to be able to log in, but now cannot access system preference control, and now that i have just tried starting safe mode, the problem has not resolved, still cannot access system preference changes, and still cannot finalise loading Monterey. I also tried a VMC reset, holding down power, shift, control & option for 10 secs but that did not do anything either. I appreciate your help here.

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MacBook 2015, system password problem

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