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I lost the administrator in Users

When I open my MacBook Air Mavericks, there is a Guest sign in and Others sign in. My sign in is gone. When I go to Users and Groups in Preferences there is no Administrator. I have a working Apple ID. What are the steps to add me as the Administrator of my MacBook Air?

MacBook Air, OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

Posted on Apr 5, 2014 12:47 PM

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Posted on Apr 5, 2014 12:52 PM

Reinstall Mavericks if you never had an account. Or create a new account by trying this:


How to Create a New User Account if You Cannot Access Your Admin Account


Reboot the computer. At the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-S keys to start into Single-user Mode.


You will boot to a black screen with scrolling white text, release the keys and wait for it finish.


Enter the following lines at the command prompt pressing RETURN after each:


mount -uw /

rm /var/db/.applesetupdone

reboot


After you reboot the computer you will be taken to the Setup Assistant. When you get to the point where you are asked to setup your new user account, create a new admin account. Be sure to name this user account something different than the admin user account that already exists on the system. When you finish the Setup Assistant, it will automatically log you into the new account.


You can transfer your files from the old account to the new one. See: Transferring files from one User Account to another. Once you have moved all your files into your new account, you can delete the old account using Accounts or Users & Groups preferences.

1 reply
Question marked as Best reply

Apr 5, 2014 12:52 PM in response to JayDowns

Reinstall Mavericks if you never had an account. Or create a new account by trying this:


How to Create a New User Account if You Cannot Access Your Admin Account


Reboot the computer. At the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-S keys to start into Single-user Mode.


You will boot to a black screen with scrolling white text, release the keys and wait for it finish.


Enter the following lines at the command prompt pressing RETURN after each:


mount -uw /

rm /var/db/.applesetupdone

reboot


After you reboot the computer you will be taken to the Setup Assistant. When you get to the point where you are asked to setup your new user account, create a new admin account. Be sure to name this user account something different than the admin user account that already exists on the system. When you finish the Setup Assistant, it will automatically log you into the new account.


You can transfer your files from the old account to the new one. See: Transferring files from one User Account to another. Once you have moved all your files into your new account, you can delete the old account using Accounts or Users & Groups preferences.

I lost the administrator in Users

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