Need to enter administrator password

Question

Need to enter administrator password

Just purchased a refurbished Mac Pro Tower. I have a Mac Mini that I connected and used Migration assistant to transfer my apps and other files.

This is the problem I am having - while trying to simply copy a folder from an external drive to my main internal hd, this message pops up - "You may need to enter the name and password for an administrator on this computer to change the item named *************." (I deleted the file name.) I have NEVER had to do this before. When I ran the migration assistant program, I did have to reboot the tower with the Mac OS CD (10.6) to change the admin to myself with a new password. I am a photographer and I use a program called Media Pro. The program won't let me do anything, except open it, saying that I don't have privileges. I used the "get info" command on the program/various folders to confirm that I could "read & write". Nothing is helping. I did contact the company that sells Media Pro, but there is obviously something else I'm missing when I can't copy a folder from an external hd to the main one without asking for my password. Whatever is causing that problem is probably the root cause for my photo program. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

Rich Green

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Dec 31, 2013 9:38 AM

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Answer 1

Dec 31, 2013 12:20 PM in response to Richard Green2

Update. Discovered that the persmissions denied me are in effect in the original account in the "system accounts" panel - the account that was in effect before I took ownership of the refurbished computer and transfered it to myself.

So how do I transfer those permissions to myself?

Thank you.

Rich Green

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Answer 2

Dec 31, 2013 12:32 PM in response to Richard Green2

The easy way is to reset the password on the old Admin account so that you have control of it.

The other way is to create a new Admin account. You can only do this if you have Admin access (and it should say so in Account/Users&Groups).

Then if you like, you can login with the new Admin account and delete the old Admin account. This only works if you have genuine Admin access, so it is the "acid test".

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Answer 3

Dec 31, 2013 12:36 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

My account has my name and "admin" is under it. It's the other account, the one that came with the computer that I changed to "standard account" under the name. This second account is the one with the permissions denied me even though it states that I am the "admin".

So, if I deleted the "standard account", the one with the permissions I need, will those then revert to me?

Thanks for the feedback.

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Answer 4

Dec 31, 2013 12:39 PM in response to Richard Green2

It should, but you may want to ask Disk Utility to do a (Repair Permissions) first. Your Mac sounds like there may be something amiss in Permissions.

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Answer 5

Dec 31, 2013 12:44 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

thanks. I'll do that first. And I'll do it in both accounts. Will let you know in a few.

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Answer 6

Dec 31, 2013 12:52 PM in response to Richard Green2

Nope. It didn't help. I repaired permissions in both accounts and I still have the permissions problem. I realize that it's probably a guess, or just a hope, but if I eliminated the original account, would that help? I don't understand how I can be the "admin" yet I don't have all the permissions needed.

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Answer 7

Jan 1, 2014 11:43 AM in response to Richard Green2

I would create new Admin account, and plan on using it just for Administration. There may be something quirky about that imported Admin account that does not give it all the rights it should have.

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Answer 8

Jan 2, 2014 3:54 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried it but it didn't work. I also tried deleting the original account that's giving me the problem but it won't delete. The message says "Unable to delete the user account. An error occurred while backing up this user's home folder."

The aggravation continues...

Rich Green

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Answer 9

Jan 4, 2014 7:44 AM in response to Richard Green2

Update - First I want to say that with any/every computer I own/have owned, I have a backup/cloned hd. I don't use Time Machine but use SuperDuper. Returning to my problem, after trying all suggestions that didn't work, I decided to reboot the computer from the backup/cloned hd and test that hd. Then I discovered that even though the backup hd was cloned, the "problem admin/account" didn't copy to the backup. I don't understand why it didn't, but I decided not to question when the universe was being nice to me. With that fact, I reversed cloned the backup to the main hd hoping that would elimate the problem. And it did! Everything is now back to normal.

Thanks again for trying to help.

Rich Green

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