How to reset the System Administrator password for Time Capsule?

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How to reset the System Administrator password for Time Capsule?

I need to do a system restore for my wife's 2008 MacBook from my 2014 Time Capsule, and I'm stuck at the System Administrator password prompt. It doesn't accept the base station password as revealed by Airport Utility > base station > show passwords on my own MBP, which is able to back up and enter Time Machine, although the TC is set up to use individual accounts rather than a single disk password. I'm nervous about any base station reset options in case I mess up my backup. How do I get in?

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch,Early 2015), OS X El Capitan (10.11.4), Time Capsule

Posted on May 17, 2016 3:08 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

LaPastenague

Level 9

67,226 points

May 18, 2016 1:19 PM in response to William-Robertson__

although the TC is set up to use individual accounts rather than a single disk password

You must use the correct user and password in that case. NOT the disk password.

I'm nervous about any base station reset options in case I mess up my backup. How do I get in?

Full factory reset.. it will not harm the backups in any way.. It will simply return to defaults.

Let me recommend if you wish to continue using the TC this way.. (pointless IMHO). Please do an export of configuration before you factory reset.

Using individual user and passwords in the TC is near to useless.. it only affects the router side..

If you need more security use encrypted backups.. but the reality is.. the more security you add the less useful the backup is likely to be. As you have now discovered.. when you need it .. you need it as clear and plain as possible.

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Answer 2

May 18, 2016 12:17 AM in response to LaPastenague

Thanks. I've tried the individual accounts and it doesn't accept them. For an incorrect sysadmin password or nonexistent account (e.g. user X, password X) it gives the rejection shake but for the user accounts it gives a "contact your system administrator" message (sorry, forgot to make a note of it and now it's making an archive backup which will take another 12 hours). Anyway it gave the vague impression that the account wasn't what it was looking for. The account name field is pre-populated with "System Administrator" which suggests that is what it needs (though it's editable which suggests it might allow something different. I wish it would be a bit more specific.)

I had a read through this:

Resetting an AirPort base station FAQ - Apple Support

and it confirms your advice to use a hard reset, although it's a bit light on details about my situation.

I'm also wondering what would happen if I changed the access setting from individual accounts to disk password. Shouldn't that have the same effect?

I've exported the setting as you suggested, so hopefully I'm a reasonably safe position.

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Answer 3

May 18, 2016 1:38 AM in response to William-Robertson__

I meant to add that the two user accounts on the TC are because we have two Macs and I didn't want them interfering with each other's backups. If separate backup streams don't require separate accounts I'll be happy to drop them, although my worry is that the backups will then be left in some named account subdirectory and not where it expects to find them. Let's hope I'm overthinking it.

Also, I made a full disk copy of the MacBook's hard drive from Disk Utility before I started the reformat-restore exercise. (I was a bit surprised this succeeded as it had unrepairable disk errors, but it did and I can open it.) Is there any way I can restore from this?

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Answer 4

May 18, 2016 1:19 PM in response to LaPastenague

I think I've got it, and it was me being an idiot. I noticed I couldn't connect to the TC using my wife's login in Finder and got the same message "there was a problem connecting to... contact your system administrator" but my own login worked. I reset the password for my wife's TC account using Airport Utility, hit "Done"/"OK" etc all the way back out and let it restart, and now I can connect (from Finder) as her. I'd swear I'd checked all this before. Anyway I'm guessing that was the problem all along and I'll now be able to run a Time Machine system restore using my wife's account. I'll know in about 3 hours as I'm currently creating a duplicate of the .dmg I made of the hard drive before I wiped it at the weekend (wishing I'd thought of that earlier) as I want to keep the option of using Disk Utility (Yosemite): Restore a disk image to a disk and I don't want to risk messing it up.

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Answer 5

May 18, 2016 2:41 PM in response to William-Robertson__

Sorry I have not contributed much but you seem to have cracked it.

I meant to add that the two user accounts on the TC are because we have two Macs and I didn't want them interfering with each other's backups. If separate backup streams don't require separate accounts I'll be happy to drop them, although my worry is that the backups will then be left in some named account subdirectory and not where it expects to find them. Let's hope I'm overthinking it.

There is absolutely no need to use accounts.. Time Machine creates separate sparsebundles for each computer and keeps them separate.

Each sparsebundle has to be under the main directory.. so you can backup several computers.. none will mix with others.

Also, I made a full disk copy of the MacBook's hard drive from Disk Utility before I started the reformat-restore exercise.

Using a disk image is excellent.

Let me recommend the next time you get into this kind of situation look at Carbon Copy Cloner. (Other 3rd party backup software can also do it).

CCC can produce a bootable backup of your main drive on an external drive. This will get you up and running in a few minutes. The DMG file that disk utility creates is also useful but cannot boot from it.

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Answer 6

May 19, 2016 6:56 AM in response to LaPastenague

Just to confirm and for the benefit of anyone else with the same issue:

When Time Machine system restore prompts for the "System Administrator" password and your TC is set up with individual user accounts, you need the TM user account, not the base station.
If the user account login doesn't work, you can reset the user's password from Airport Utility (on another device if necessary, e.g. an iPhone). Make sure you 'OK' it all the way back out so it restarts and applies the changes.
The other passwords (base station, WiFi) can be revealed by Airport Utility if you need them.
If still stuck at a password challenge, see Resetting an AirPort base station FAQ - Apple Support. (You can reset without losing your backup. Also use the 'Export configuration' option mentioned earlier, just to be on the safe side.)
You can restore from a disk image - see Disk Utility (Yosemite): Restore a disk image to a disk (equivalent docs exist for other versions but I think they all say the same thing). I was able to create one from Disk Utility in recovery mode even when it had told me the disk had unrepairable errors, which could be a life saver for someone with a corrupt disk and no backup. (I'm not sure how much validation it does as I used a TM system restore in the end, so I guess there's a possibility it will restore the same corruption and be no use. It might depend on what was wrong with the disk.) Carbon Copy Cloner seems highly recommended though I don't have it (yet). For example it can create a bootable disk image on an external drive (the ones Disk Utility creates aren't bootable).

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