Recover lost admin rights on OS X 10.10 and 10.11_allow user administer this computer
If you lost your administrator rights on macOS 10.13 High Sierra, macOS 10.12, Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite or Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan, you can recover the admin privileges easily by rebooting into Apple’s Setup Assistant tool. This will run before any accounts have been loaded, and will run in “root” mode, allowing you to create accounts on your Mac. Then, you can recover your admin rights via the new administrator account. After that, you can reboot into your recovered admin account and delete the interim administrator account.
Note (Updated February, 3, 2021): The following fix applies to macOS High Sierra 10.13 and earlier. For macOS Mojave 10.14, macOS Big Sur 11 and later, fixing Mac no admin account via the “Command – S” (SUM = Single User Mode) route is not possible anymore. The updated fix therefore is found here: Fixing Mac No Admin Account On macOS Mojave Or Later
Recover lost admin rights on OS X 10.10 and 10.11_create a computer account
Normally, when you set up Mac OS X / macOS for the first time, your initial account will be an administrative one, allowing you to configure the system and install applications. Sometimes rare, errors that occur when upgrading, e.g. from OS x 10.10 Yosemite to OS X 10.11 El Capitan, or restoring from backup, or otherwise when making heavy modifications to the system, could result in your admin account being destroyed so you cannot log in to it or use it for changing system settings.
If it happens then one quick but well-known and convenient trick for recovering administrative status on a system trigger Apple’s Setup Assistant tool. This will run before any accounts have been loaded, and will run in “root” mode, allowing you to create accounts on your Mac.
Even though the Setup Assistant only runs once when you first install Mac OS X / macOS, it remains on your computer and is prevented from running by the presences of a hidden file called ‘.AppleSetupDone‘ in a system folder on your Mac. Therefore, to have the Setup Assistant run again so you can create a fresh admin account, you simply need to remove this file:
At the command prompt, run the following command to make the filesystem writable: mount -uw /
Run the following command to remove the hidden file: rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
When completed, enter ‘reboot‘ and the prompt to restart the system, and you will now see the Setup Assistant load when OS X starts up.
Proceed through its various screens, and create your new account. You might consider using a different username than any previous accounts on the system, to ensure there are no conflicts with the present and faulty accounts.
Now you can log into the new admin account, and better manage the prior ones on your system, including deleting and recreating them accordingly.
Recover lost admin rights on OS X 10.10 and 10.11_allow user administer this computer
Notes:
You should be aware that this method can be used to get administrative access to your Mac OS X / macOS system. This means it is a potential security risk. Anyone can reset account passwords or get admin access in this way, and be able to access all files on your computer.
For getting a higher security level, be sure that all sensitive material on your system is password-protected or even better, encrypted. Even if someone gains access to your account, without your keychain password or the password for the encrypted files, they will not be able to access them. Consider to enable Apple’s FileVault and encrypting any external drives you use with your Mac (including Time Machine backups), to secure access to your files.
The next option is to set a firmware password for your Mac, which will prevent booting to alternative boot modes and external disks. To do this, reboot to the OS X installation drive (be it a DVD or the Recovery HD partition in OS X Lion or later), choose your language when prompted, and then choose the ‘Firmware Password‘ option in the Utilities menu. Enter your password in the appropriate fields, and then nobody will be able to reset PRAM, boot to Safe Mode, Single User mode, or to alternative boot drives unless they either disable the password or supply it when prompted.
Easily recover lost admin right on Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite, Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan, macOS 10.12 Sierra, and macOS 10.13 High Sierra by reactivating Apple’s Setup Assistant tool. Be aware that this option is also a security risk to your mac.
Hi there,my name is Gee Are, blogger and analyst. Blogging is my Passion! I’m the founder and owner of the two blogs called pabst.socialmedia and miapple.me - Tech.Blog.My work experience as a blogger and analysist (Internet Intelligence, SEO and social media) is the basis of the services of pabst.socialmedia.Find more about me.
Hi Gee!
So I’ve gone through the process again and when I entered the ‘rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone’ it says there is no such file in the directory. Does that mean that removing it worked the last time? Why would it not turn all the way on now?
Went into recovery mode to see if users still show on disc image and everything is still there. When doing reset password command in terminal as Apple support instructed still doesn’t show users. So creating a new user account as you said seems the next step but I just can’t get to that point.
Rebooted and it only took a min or less for the loading bar to fill up but still seems stuck here. I don’t want to keep force turning it off and on and mess it up more. I’ve scheduled an appointment with Apple Support today but I would rather fix it before then.
So I’ve gone through the process again and when I entered the rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone it says there is no such file. Does that mean it worked the last time? Why would it not turn all the way on now?
Going into recovery mode to see if users still show on disc image. Have not tried to reboot and see if it starts up all the way yet. But I will be checking next. Fingers crossed.
Hoping this helps. Thank you!
Hi! I think my Mac hid/deleted my users due to it running out of space.Tried to do this process. It gave me message this it was illegal command so I stopped and rebooted.
Now my computer is stuck on loading bar.
I contacted Apple Support and they suggested waiting it out and not restarting as it could damage the drive.
I have all of my work and files I can’t afford to lose on there. What can I do?
Hi! Thanks for the reply. I’m running High Sierra 10.13.6.
Trying the process again. When I do the first command there is not many lines of code or anything much happening after. Just same ‘localhost:/ root#’
I’m not sure if I should continue. Or keep entering the same command. My computer turned on to the login screen no problem before trying the commands. I think I messed it up more.
When I did reboot it powered back on to the Apple logo and loading bar. Once the bar was full it stayed there. I had it sitting all day trying to see if it wld eventually get back on to the login screen but it did not.
I eventually turned off and unplugged for a few hrs. Thank you for any help you can give me.
Great job! Thank you this works fine on my Mac which just upgraded to Montery.
I have been searching for all kinds of solutions they all told me to start the Singer-user-mode.
But this has been disabled after Mac OS 11.
This helped me a lot! Do you mind if translate this to Chinese and share it with the Chinese community?
Cause I don’t find any solutions in Chinese, I will refer to this page in the article.
I have completed all the instructions and managed to creat a new admin, but when I reboot and the machine starts up with the new admin name, the old admin account does not show nor is accessible. I have not deleted anything, but I am at my wits end trying to access the data and files from my original admin account.
Any suggestions?
Thanks
hi sir, my Mac would not accept my admin password or I have lost my privileges to have access on it. I followed the instruction but mine is not working. is there any alternative ways to restore my admin account even if my filevault is on. thank you
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If you lost your administrator rights on macOS 10.13 High Sierra, macOS 10.12, Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite or Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan, you can recover the admin privileges easily by rebooting into Apple’s Setup Assistant tool. This will run before any accounts have been loaded, and will run in “root” mode, allowing you to create accounts on your Mac. Then, you can recover your admin rights via the new administrator account. After that, you can reboot into your recovered admin account and delete the interim administrator account.
71 Comments
Hi Gee!
So I’ve gone through the process again and when I entered the ‘rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone’ it says there is no such file in the directory. Does that mean that removing it worked the last time? Why would it not turn all the way on now?
Went into recovery mode to see if users still show on disc image and everything is still there. When doing reset password command in terminal as Apple support instructed still doesn’t show users. So creating a new user account as you said seems the next step but I just can’t get to that point.
Rebooted and it only took a min or less for the loading bar to fill up but still seems stuck here. I don’t want to keep force turning it off and on and mess it up more. I’ve scheduled an appointment with Apple Support today but I would rather fix it before then.
Hi Gee!
So I’ve gone through the process again and when I entered the rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone it says there is no such file. Does that mean it worked the last time? Why would it not turn all the way on now?
Going into recovery mode to see if users still show on disc image. Have not tried to reboot and see if it starts up all the way yet. But I will be checking next. Fingers crossed.
Hoping this helps. Thank you!
Hi! I think my Mac hid/deleted my users due to it running out of space.Tried to do this process. It gave me message this it was illegal command so I stopped and rebooted.
Now my computer is stuck on loading bar.
I contacted Apple Support and they suggested waiting it out and not restarting as it could damage the drive.
I have all of my work and files I can’t afford to lose on there. What can I do?
Hi,
what kind of macOS have you installed and how long is it rebooting? How does the screen look like?
Hi! Thanks for the reply. I’m running High Sierra 10.13.6.
Trying the process again. When I do the first command there is not many lines of code or anything much happening after. Just same ‘localhost:/ root#’
I’m not sure if I should continue. Or keep entering the same command. My computer turned on to the login screen no problem before trying the commands. I think I messed it up more.
When I did reboot it powered back on to the Apple logo and loading bar. Once the bar was full it stayed there. I had it sitting all day trying to see if it wld eventually get back on to the login screen but it did not.
I eventually turned off and unplugged for a few hrs. Thank you for any help you can give me.
Great job! Thank you this works fine on my Mac which just upgraded to Montery.
I have been searching for all kinds of solutions they all told me to start the Singer-user-mode.
But this has been disabled after Mac OS 11.
This helped me a lot! Do you mind if translate this to Chinese and share it with the Chinese community?
Cause I don’t find any solutions in Chinese, I will refer to this page in the article.
Again Thank you very much!
I have completed all the instructions and managed to creat a new admin, but when I reboot and the machine starts up with the new admin name, the old admin account does not show nor is accessible. I have not deleted anything, but I am at my wits end trying to access the data and files from my original admin account.
Any suggestions?
Thanks
2021 here, this solution still works. Thank you.
Hi Laci,
thanks for your feedback. Indeed, old content, but still valid. 🙂
Cheers,
Gee Are
When I finish the .AppleSetupDone step, it says no such file or directory. Any advice?
Hi Brooke,
on which macOS is your Mac running? For Mojave or later try this fix: https://miapple.me/fixing-mac-no-admin-account-macos-mojave-later/
Best regards,
Gee Are
hi sir, my Mac would not accept my admin password or I have lost my privileges to have access on it. I followed the instruction but mine is not working. is there any alternative ways to restore my admin account even if my filevault is on. thank you
Hi Arjay,
on which macOS is your Mac running? If it is Mojave or later, try this link.
Worked perfectly for my old High Sierra iMac and saved many hours of work – THANK YOU 🙂
You’re welcome!?
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