Hello,
Given that you had to log in first (after which a progress bar appeared) before Setup Assistant would open, it appears that FileVault is enabled on your Mac. Decrypting your Mac (turning off FileVault) would solve your issue; however, decryption can take a long time so maybe try these suggestions first:
- Try logging in as another user at the FileVault login window.
- If you chose to generate a local recovery key and have it ready, you can use it to unlock the startup disk and reset the password of any user. Select the user that you want to reset the password for, then click the question mark in the password field. Enter the recovery key when prompted.
- If you authorized your Apple ID to unlock your startup disk, you can use it to reset the password of the user that set up FileVault. Restart your Mac and do nothing at the login window for up to a minute, until you see a message at the bottom of the screen. Force your Mac to power off by holding down the power button, then power on your Mac again to boot the Password Reset Assistant.
- To get an inside look of what is going wrong with Setup Assistant enabled, boot Verbose Mode by holding down Command-V while you turn on or restart your Mac.
- Try waiting longer. If it still hasn't reached Setup Assistant after an hour has passed, something's wrong.
Method A: If you already have access to an administrator account and simply want to make a new admin account (multiple accounts can have admin privileges), then follow these steps.
1. Boot Single User Mode again. Hold down Command-S while you turn on or restart your Mac. Log in if necessary.
2. Mount the internal hard drive by executing mount -uw /
3. Disable Setup Assistant by executing mkfile 0 /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
4. Restart your Mac by executing reboot
5. Log into an administrator account.
6. Create a new administrator account by opening System Preferences, selecting Users and Groups, clicking the padlock icon and authenticating with administrator credentials. Then, do one of the following:
To make a new account and give it administrator privileges, click the + icon at the bottom of the list of users. Set the account type to Administrator.
To make an existing user an administrator, select that user and check the box next to "Allow user to administer this computer". Restart if necessary.
Method B: If you want to disable and then re-enable Setup Assistant, follow these steps:
1. Follow steps 1-4 for Method A.
2. Log into any account to verify that your Mac is working normally.
3. Restart and boot Single User Mode by holding down Command-S while you restart your Mac. Log in if necessary.
4. Mount the internal hard drive by executing mount -uw /
5. Enable Setup Assistant by executing rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
6. Restart your Mac by executing reboot
7. Try logging in again as any user.
Method C (not guaranteed to work): Try enabling the root user on your Mac and using that to restart (enable) Setup Assistant.
1. If you haven't already disabled Setup Assistant, follow steps 1-4 for Method A.
2. Boot Single User Mode. Hold down Command-S while you turn on or restart your Mac. Log in if necessary.
3. Mount the internal hard drive by executing mount -uw /
4. Enable the root user by executing dsenableroot (if this command works by prompting you for your password and the new root password, and doesn't exit with an error, keep reading.)
5. Exit Single User Mode by executing exit
6. Log out of your account and go to the login window. Click on Other... and log in as root.
7. Open Terminal and execute rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
8. Bypass FileVault once by executing fdesetup authrestart (enter any needed credentials, this command might fail since you're logged in as root and not a true administrator)
9. Your Mac should immediately restart to Setup Assistant.
Method D: Decrypt your startup disk if necessary
Decryption takes a long time; however, you can still access Setup Assistant while decryption is occurring.
1. Boot Password Reset Assistant. Restart your Mac and wait up to a minute on the FileVault login window until you see a message at the bottom of the screen. Then, force your Mac to power off by holding down the power button until it shuts off. Turn on your Mac again.
2. Select "My keyboard isn't working when typing my password to log in". Enter your password to disable FileVault when prompted.
3. Restart your Mac when finished. Setup Assistant should appear unless you disabled it.
Hope this helps!
