margaretfromredditch

Q: I deleted my admin account by accident now my password is not accepted

I tried to delete an account and accidentally deleted my admin. now I cannot access anything because start up wont accept my password

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

Posted on Jul 26, 2015 7:53 AM

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Q: I deleted my admin account by accident now my password is not accepted

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  • by Drew Reece,

    Drew Reece Drew Reece Jul 26, 2015 8:36 AM in response to margaretfromredditch
    Level 5 (7,485 points)
    Notebooks
    Jul 26, 2015 8:36 AM in response to margaretfromredditch

    Do you want to create a new admin account?

     

    That can be done by removing a file that will cause 'setup assistant' to re-run. All your apps & data will stay intact, but you get the chance to make a new admin user.

    This is a simple process, but involves some potentially dangerous actions, please read all of the message before trying anything…

     

    Boot into single user mode by holding cmd+s at startup.

    Eventually a command prompt will appear and you can begin by entering the next 4 lines, do not include the line numbers.

    fsck -fy /
    mount -uw /
    rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
    reboot
    

     

    Setup will run, reate a new user account (give it a new name, do not reuse the old admin name). This account will be an admin that can address whatever issues you created when the old one was damaged/ deleted.

     

    If you have no backups & want to make one before beginning please ask, it should be safe if done correctly, but mistakes within single user mode can be costly - you have access to the entire system with no undo.

     

    If yo get any errors record them (possibly a photo) & post them here.