login issues with “test” user on erased MacBook

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Level 1

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login issues with “test” user on erased MacBook

I am having trouble logging in, specifically to the “Test” user profile that was on the computer after supposedly being sent to Apple to be reset. I believe it’s late 2013 (maybe 2015 if I’m mistaken) and macOS Mojave version number unknown at the moment(I’m currently reinstalling)

•Upon purchase from a private party who just got it back from Apple, we opened the computer to a login screen for “Test”(referred to from here on out as u/Test). They had no idea what this was nor the password and using the terminal, we reset the password and logged in without issue.

•used for a week without logging out of u/Test and no problems until I changed the user name from Test to, a shortened version of my name, “Log”.

•reset to update changed made and upon start up I was redirected now to a user/password login screen and my accounts icon was replaced by the 3 head icon that indicated either shared or group(can’t remember) in the system preferences.

—(There was test with a rose icon, guest (which was off) with a single grey silhouette 👤 icon, and group or shared was somewhere depicted with 3 silhouettes in the bubble)

•Now, no combination of my password and the word test, or log, or anything I could fathom would allow me to login. Terminal/“resetpassword” took me to u/Test (maybe log idr) and let me reset such, however using that name and the new or old password was unsuccessful. I was frustrated and nothing was working.

•finally startup utility was the answer when I believe I reinstalled OS and was brought back to u/Log-u/Test and could sign in.

•once again edited a user related setting and once again same impossible login.

•I am reinstalling Mojave again but need to circumvent this in the future.

it seems a setting related to auto log-In, and required user/pass or icon and pass for login would be possibly to blame but in the startup utility the disk has been partitioned or at least 2 disks are shown; one Macintosh HD and mounted/ejectable is I believe mac base system or something similar. I am reinstalling currently or I could provide more accurate information.

hope that explains it thoroughly

MacBook Pro

Posted on Jan 16, 2023 3:11 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

HWTech

Level 9

69,092 points

Jan 23, 2023 9:38 AM in response to tHug-life

If you want to reinstall the OS, then perform a clean install of macOS by first using Disk Utility to erase the whole physical drive before selecting the "Reinstall macOS" option. This will get around any user account issues. Within Disk Utility you may need to click "View" and select "Show All Devices" so that the physical drive appears on the left pane of Disk Utility. Erase the physical drive as GUID partition and APFS (top option) assuming you are installing macOS 10.13+, otherwise erase the physical drive as GUID partition and MacOS Extended (Journaled).

When you changed the macOS user account name, you most likely changed the short name as well which requires being performed from a second admin user account since multiple extra steps are needed.

I've never seen an "override" message when performing the steps @BDAqua suggested, you may be asked to confirm the deletion of the file, but that should be all. This makes performing a clean install of macOS a much more attractive option. Keep in mind you also don't know what Apple may have done with that installation of macOS during their testing. Personally, I would want to know I have a pristine installation of macOS before using it, but that may just be me.

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

250,253 points

Jan 16, 2023 1:23 PM in response to tHug-life

See if you can create a new administrator account by restarting the Setup Assistant:

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.)
Check and repair the drive by typing /sbin/fsck -fy then ↩ enter - as directed by the on-screen text.
Mount the drive as read-write by typing /sbin/mount -uw / then ↩ enter.
Remove the Apple Setup Done file by typing rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone then ↩ enter.
Reboot by typing reboot then ↩ enter.
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, except all your data will still be there. Your old accounts are all safe. From there you just change all other account passwords in the account preferences!!

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