Want to highlight a helpful answer? Upvote!
Did someone help you, or did an answer or User Tip resolve your issue? Upvote by selecting the upvote arrow. Your feedback helps others! Learn more about when to upvote >
Did someone help you, or did an answer or User Tip resolve your issue? Upvote by selecting the upvote arrow. Your feedback helps others! Learn more about when to upvote >
I tried to change the admin username on my Mac, but it accidentally changed the account to Standard, how can I get the admin account back? It’s refusing to take the old and the new user name
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Earlier Mac models
Here is an article written by a respected forum contributor which should allow you to do what @PeterChrisM was suggesting:
Restarting Setup Assistant to create Admin user account - Apple Community
If these instructions don't help to create a new admin user account, then you will need to perform a clean install of macOS as mentioned by @PeterChrisM.
FYI, after creating a new macOS user account, you will then need to fix what you broke on the old admin user account by using the instructions in this Apple article as a guide:
Change the name of your macOS user account and home folder - Apple Support
Keep in mind a clean install of macOS will destroy all data on the drive, so make sure you have a backup of your data. If you don't have a current backup, then you will have to do a lot more work to be able to access the data to back it up now that you don't have a valid admin user anymore. How this can be done may depend on the exact model of Mac involved since it may be impossible to access that data on a 2018+ Mac if you are unable to authenticate when accessing Recovery Mode.
Here is an article written by a respected forum contributor which should allow you to do what @PeterChrisM was suggesting:
Restarting Setup Assistant to create Admin user account - Apple Community
If these instructions don't help to create a new admin user account, then you will need to perform a clean install of macOS as mentioned by @PeterChrisM.
FYI, after creating a new macOS user account, you will then need to fix what you broke on the old admin user account by using the instructions in this Apple article as a guide:
Change the name of your macOS user account and home folder - Apple Support
Keep in mind a clean install of macOS will destroy all data on the drive, so make sure you have a backup of your data. If you don't have a current backup, then you will have to do a lot more work to be able to access the data to back it up now that you don't have a valid admin user anymore. How this can be done may depend on the exact model of Mac involved since it may be impossible to access that data on a 2018+ Mac if you are unable to authenticate when accessing Recovery Mode.
You need to create a new admin user,
reboot into Single User mode:
Boot to single user mode while powering up hold down (⌘-S)
Launch Terminal and type exactly
sbin/fsck -fy and press run or return
/sbin/mount -uw / and press or return
m /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
Restart
Setup Assistant should display and prompt you to create a new user. New user will automatically have admin rights. Should work for you.
A clean install,
Follow all the prompts
and you'll create an Admin account
Migrate all your files. (hoping you have a backup)
You should have 3 accounts, your old, the Admin (new) and a User. (No privileges)
but give your original account Admin privilages
It's a pain, however, but that should do it for you.
it didn’t help is there another option?
Make my MacBook Air user account admin again
