I need to change the Owner account on my Mac from one Admin account to the other Admin account.

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I need to change the Owner account on my Mac from one Admin account to the other Admin account.

When I upgraded computers to my new Mac mini M2 and transferred everything from my old computer I somehow ended up with Two Admin accounts (both me). I've been using one account and have done all registration and setups on that account (including Apple ID, iCloud, etc). BUT, I have just discovered that the never-used, non-active account is identified as the Owner account.

This is not a transfer of ownership of the actual computer -- I am the owner and the only user.

I need to make my active and fully setup admin account into the OWNER account because the computer won't allow me to upgrade to Sonoma and other things with my current active admin account (I don't want to have to reproduce all the setups again).

Mac mini (M2, 2023)

Posted on Nov 5, 2023 12:01 PM

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Answer 1

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MartinR

Level 7

25,050 points

Nov 5, 2023 6:04 PM in response to Scene24

Ownership is a new concept that arose with Apple Silicon. It is not publicly documented (to my knowledge) and as a result is not well understood (not even by me). It has unfortunately tripped up quite a few people.

Ownership was determined/applied when the M2 mini was installed and I do not believe there is any way to transfer Ownership to some other admin account.

My advice would be to accept the situation and keep both admin accounts. (It's a good idea to have 2 admin accounts anyway.) Reserve the "never-used, non-active account" for upgrading purposes. Yes, you will probably have to set up your AppleID again in the "never-used, non-active account" but you really don't have to do much of any other setup in that account.

Here is one of the few articles I had found that talks about Ownership -> Ownership of Apple silicon Macs matters ... as you will see it's quite complex.

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