Q: Admin Account Has Gone
Hi,
I have a iMac 27 and for the last week had problems with everything running really slow. I purchased the clean my Mac 3 software and it initially improved performance. A few days later my computer turned of without my assistance.
When I turned the computer back on, I did not have the option to login to my Admin account, although I could still see my background picture was still there. The only option was to login as a guest.
I looked on the forums to assist and the I did the following to no avail.
Entered my Admin user name with password and it did not work. I then reinstalled Safari and nothing changed. I looked again on the forums and tried running the Terminal and typed in 1s/Users and the response was - command not found.
All of my programs are still present but I still have no option to login as a Administrator. I was going to update from OS X El Capitan version 10.11.6 to Sierra but without an Admin Im unable to do so.
Any help would be appreciated.
Cheers
iMac
Posted on Oct 6, 2016 4:58 PM
As I understand it, you have a Mac with no Administrator accounts. Of course that is not supposed to be possible, but the various "cleaning" apps work at privileged levels capable of limitless destruction. It may still be required to erase that Mac completely and reconfigure it as if it were new... the eventual result of using them.
You may be able to use the following technique to create a new, temporary Administrator account, the sole purpose of which will be to log in, create a backup, and eventually retrieve your normal User Account.
There are several caveats:
- The problem you originally encountered may have been an indication that your Mac's startup volume was already in a failed state.
- If that is the case, it should be replaced and its contents restored from a Time Machine or equivalent backup, which I understand was never created.
- It may not work with El Capitan and I no longer have any El Capitan installations with which to verify this procedure.
- It will not work in the following circumstances:
- If you configured an EFI Firmware Password, unless you know that password.
- If you encrypted your startup volume with FileVault.
Please read everything that follows before continuing. If you have only the one computer you will need to print this for reference.
- Power on or restart your Mac.
- At the chime or grey screen, hold ⌘ and S on your keyboard (two fingers) to enter single-user mode.
- At the localhost:/ root# prompt, type
fsck -fy
...and press Return.
This is a simple check for file system integrity and is optional. It may take a few minutes to complete during which time various messages will appear. None of them are relevant unless they indicate some unrecoverable error. Be patient. If you get concerned that the system has stalled or become unresponsive press the Return key. Nothing will happen other than to echo the Return character, advancing the text on the screen, confirming your Mac has not completely frozen. When the integrity check completes pressing the Return key will result in the localhost prompt again, waiting for your input.
- If the file system integrity check is not successful, it will conclude with an error. In that case there is no point in continuing. Contact AppleCare for repair options.
- If the file system integrity check is successful, it will return text similar to "The volume Macintosh HD appears to be OK". Assuming that's the case, continue below.
- At the localhost:/ root# prompt, type each of the following lines, exactly as written, including capitalization, one line at a time, each line followed by the Return key. There is a single space after the word mount in the first line, and preceding the first "slash" ( / ) character in each line. In other words the first line is mount space -uw space slash return:
mount -uw /
rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
reboot
The Mac will restart, and then take you through the entire setup and registration process that you have not seen since you originally unboxed it. Do not be concerned — none of the above deletes any information other than the hidden AppleSetupDone file whose presence indicates your Mac has been configured and is ready for use. All your pre-existing User Accounts will still available, assuming they were not already erased or corrupted prior to the start of this procedure.
Do not elect to transfer your information from another Mac: When you get to the "Do You Already Own a Mac" screen, select "Do not transfer any information now" and press Continue. Have your existing Apple ID and password ready. At the "Create a Computer Account" screen, create the new, temporary account using a different "Full name" and "Account name" than the one you already use. Remember the password you select.
When it completes, log in under that new account, and immediately create a Time Machine or equivalent backup.
Then, use System Preferences and change your normal account to "Allow user to administer this computer". Log out, log in under your normal account and verify you can use it without restriction. After that, you can safely delete the temporary account you just created.
If the above does not work for any reason, contact AppleCare: Contact Support.
Posted on Oct 12, 2016 8:21 AM