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I cannot unlock the lock on administrator account

Despite beeing logged into administrator account I can't unlock the lock when I go to System Preferences>Accounts , Time Machine, etc. Problem started since I lost my password. I managed to login into my account by logging as a guest and changing password for my own account (strange, but in fact it is possible to do that). I tried many solutions, but none worked (e.g. I set new account with administrator rights, but that one also is not allowed to unlock the lock).

I hope there is a proper solution. I need my Time machine working back 🙂

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on Jan 11, 2012 11:18 AM

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Posted on Jan 11, 2012 11:38 AM

You might try resetting the admin password as described here:


Changing or resetting an account password

12 replies

Jan 11, 2012 1:05 PM in response to mikolajjj

Boot up with command - S as you did before, once at the prompt enter these lines, one at a time (hit return after each line)


  • mount -uw /
  • rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
  • shutdown -h now


Then restart, you will be in a new administrator account which will allow you to make the changes you need to the old account.


If you can't do this (because it does work) take your Mac to the Apple Store.

Jan 11, 2012 1:32 PM in response to Csound1

Yep, I tried that too 😟 As I wrote, on the new administrator account I also cannot unlock the lock.


Why do you think should I take my Mac to Apple Store? Does it seems to you as a hardware problem? Or do they have some tricky ways to undo everything?


Acctually I found kind of a tricky way on a web, but I follow its steps as a monkey so again with no succes. These are unix commands to abstract for me. Do you understand the logic? Do you think it might help with my problem?


Or maybe I can login as root (somehow) and that could let me change password of my account?

Jan 11, 2012 1:38 PM in response to mikolajjj

mikolajjj wrote:


Yep, I tried that too 😟 As I wrote, on the new administrator account I also cannot unlock the lock.


Why do you think should I take my Mac to Apple Store? Does it seems to you as a hardware problem? Or do they have some tricky ways to undo everything?


Acctually I found kind of a tricky way on a web, but I follow its steps as a monkey so again with no succes. These are unix commands to abstract for me. Do you understand the logic? Do you think it might help with my problem?


Or maybe I can login as root (somehow) and that could let me change password of my account?

I understand that all the usual methods have failed for you, even though they work everytime for me, that being said there are only 2 reasons for this, there is something else wrong with your Mac or you are not able to type the commands as needed (I am not choosing which, just stating the obvious).


Either way you now need hands on help, I do not advise tampering with the machine as the Root User, mistakes in Root mode will certainly make things worse.

I cannot unlock the lock on administrator account

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