Admin password not resettable

Question

Admin password not resettable

I have had this problem with both 10.5 server and 10.5.8 of the OS.

In both cases, my admin account is locked out. I have tried every reset trick in the book, including starting with the OS X disk and resetting the password and doing the command-line reset from single-user mode (mount -uw / , etc....).

In each case, the password appears to reset. The hints reset. But when I reboot and try to log in with the account's new password, the OS treats it as if I have the wrong password.

Again, this has happened with BOTH my server and my OS 10.5.8 box. The non-admin user is unaffected (but I can't change the admin password from that user without using the admin password, which...it doesn't accept).

At this point, I'm just about ready to wipe the entire box and server and try to reinstall, although I have about 8 years of software detritus and it would be an amazingly time-consuming chore for an OS that's no longer supported (and I can't afford an upgraded machine to handle the upgraded OS's!!

Has anyone ever seen this issue - that the admin password acts as if it has been reset, but is not actually reset? I can't find any suggestions anywhere I look on the web.

Thanks -

Mike

Posted on Sep 5, 2014 7:36 PM

Reply

Answer 1

griff w

Level 4

3,622 points

Sep 8, 2014 12:27 PM in response to Michael Ashton

Hi there Michael Ashton,

You may want to try either resetting the password via the restore disk, or enabling the root user so you can change the admin password that way. Take a look at the article below for more information.

Mac OS X 10.5: Administrator user changes to standard

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1278

-Griff W.

Reply

Answer 2

Sep 8, 2014 12:43 PM in response to griff w

Great, Griff...I will try that. Every other thing I read said to be careful to leave the root user alone, but I kept wondering if that was the trick. I will try it and report back! Thanks!

Reply

Answer 3

Sep 8, 2014 1:10 PM in response to griff w

Griff -

That was useful - it permitted me to make another user an Admin user, which will doubtless be useful. But when I try to reset the password for the user that is affected, I get "reset password failed."

Interestingly, the affected user had somehow gotten "Parental Controls" turned on, so I turned them off, but I still can't do anything to that user. Is it possible for the password file, wherever it is, to get corrupted so it can't be read? (But again, weirdly, this affects TWO of my computers, a server and a regular OS box).

There was also a MobileMe username for that user. Since MobileMe is no longer alive, I deleted that username but still...nothing.

Any other ideas? I really thought that one was quite promising and I appreciate the creative thought!

Mike

Reply

Answer 4

Nov 6, 2014 11:27 AM in response to Michael Ashton

I still don't have any answer to this on OS X server.

I am able to use Disk Utilities, or passwd from single-user mode, to reset the root password. Or any other password.

But when I try to log in, it does not recognize any password for any user.

It seems that the password file somewhere must be corrupted. Can I delete the password file and re-create it blank? Where is that file? Maybe then these methods would "take."

Please help!

Reply