I have somehow changed my admin details and now I can't update or load any software. What can I do? I don't know if the user or password is wrong. When I try to authorise any changes the dialogue box just shakes and nothing happens. Is there anything I can do?
are you talking about your user acct/admin password for the mac itself or your apple id password?
The actual admin password on my mac. The one you use to allow changes to the mac.
what OS are you running?
Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5 (11G63)
restart the computer holding down the command+R keys, this boots you to the internet recovery
once booted to this if you look on the main menu bar you will see the word utilities (not mac os x utilities) click on this
choose terminal from the drop down menu which will open a small window that already has text in it
type the words resetpassword all together w/ no space between and in lower case letters then hit return
this will open the password reset window
under volume choose mac HD
select your name from the list of users
type in the new password 2 times in the spaces provided and hint if you want one then click on save
hit the red circles on this window and the terminal window
restart the mac and at login window use the new password
you will get message regarding the login keychain choose the option to create new keychain and it will be reset! 🙂
OK, here goes. I must admit to being somewhat apprehensive. Thanks (I hope). Hopefully I will return when this is done.
just follow my instructions and you will be fine! 🙂
I am back. It didn't work. There were three passwords. I reset mine then tried to reset the one called "admin" but it wouldn't let me (or system admin... I can't remember.) I got back into the computer fine but I still can't make changes. For example, I can't instal anything from my apple store update tab.
It used to update on my user name. Now it seems to want something else. It is a leased computer that came set up. My employer, from who I lease is not hugely helpful.
you definately don't want to reset the system admin password!
try booting to recovery again and follow the same instructions i gave you but this time when you open the password window select the mac HD under volume
select your name from the list of users and then don't enter anything for the password this time instead click on the button at the bottom of the window that says reset home folder and ACL permissions once you see a "done" button whether it's black or grayed out restart the mac and try it again.
also go into system prefs/users and look next to your name in the list, if your account doesn't say that it's an admin acct that is why you can't install anything on the mac since it requires an admin password.
in that case you will need to contact who you lease the mac from and let them know that an admin acct on the mac needs to install your updates or they need to make your account an admin account.
It is a standard account. Thing is it used to be admin. I somewhat stupidly activated parental controls on my account then couldn't deactivate it. something got changed in all the fixing of that. so no amount of stuffing around is going to change my account back into an admin is it?
Am I able to set an admin account through recovery?
Would this work? http://www.hackmac.org/tutorials/how-to-create-a-new-administrator-account/
you have to be logged into an admin acct to change an acct from standard to admin.
can you contact the person you lease it from and see who the admin on the mac is so they can change your account?
There is no admin account on the user list, so unless they have a tricky entry I am stuffed. I will ring them. As I said, my account used to be the admin account and I managed to change it somehow. Thanks by the way.
your welcome and if nothing else you can do a backup of the data on the mac and then do erase and reinstall of the OS and then when you create your acct you can do so as an admin user.
I don't know my admin password?!
