Admin login username empty

I am writing for my sister, who cannot login to her Macbook Air running OS 10.7. She installed an Adobe update of some kind, and when the computer restarted, it took her to a gray screen with just an Apple logo and two white fields for Username and Password. She does not remember her Admin username, but has tried all usual suspects. The only other options appear across the bottom: Sleep, Restart, Shut Down.


Is there a way around this screen? A universal login name? A way to restart and get back to the original login screen which allowed her to select her Admin account? Any ideas?

MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7.1)

Posted on Sep 6, 2012 12:23 PM

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3 replies

Sep 6, 2012 12:27 PM in response to CLWaltrip

Her username is the filename of her account folder located in the /Users/ folder on her hard drive. She can change the admin password as follows:


Boot to the Recovery HD:


Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.


When the menubar appears select Terminal from the Utilities menu. Enter resetpassword at the prompt and press RETURN. Follow instructions in the dialog window that will appear.


Or see Reset a Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Password and OS X Lion- Apple ID can be used to reset your user account password.

Sep 6, 2012 2:26 PM in response to CLWaltrip

Boot to the Recovery HD:


Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.


When the menubar appears select Terminal from the Utilities menu. At the Terminal prompt enter:


cd /Users

ls -al


Press RETURN after each command.


You should see a display something like the following:


total 16

drwxr-xr-x 6 root admin 204 Aug 29 13:48 .

drwxr-xr-x 30 root wheel 1088 Sep 5 18:31 ..

-rw-r--r--@ 1 skapplin wheel 6148 Sep 2 13:11 .DS_Store

drwxrwxrwt 5 root wheel 170 Sep 3 22:54 Shared

drwxr-xr-x@ 12 skapplin wheel 408 Aug 10 17:39 her_user_name

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Admin login username empty

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