Fixing no Admin accounts in High Sierra

[WedgeTail]

In case anyone has this problem, I did a clean install of High Sierra 10.13.3 to test it, and found that my macOS user accounts were screwed. The user account I'd created as admin was recorded as Standard, and a new Admin account I created was hidden. As. one consequence, I couldn’t open my user account or have it accept approval of Nvidia driver installs with my password. Is it was screwed.

Apparently a lot of native/vanilla Apple owners have had this problem. I found a post in an Apple discussion group:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8238869

Using the Clover boot option for Single User, I was able to do as the post says and redo my macOS setup of user account etc., creating a new Admin user and then using it to edit my operating user account to give it admin powers. Then I could install the Nvidia web drivers and all was well.

 

[Chegelheimer]

In case anyone has this problem, I did a clean install of High Sierra 10.13.3 to test it, and found that my macOS user accounts were screwed. The user account I'd created as admin was recorded as Standard, and a new Admin account I created was hidden. As. one consequence, I couldn’t open my user account or have it accept approval of Nvidia driver installs with my password. Is it was screwed.

Apparently a lot of native/vanilla Apple owners have had this problem. I found a post in an Apple discussion group:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8238869

Using the Clover boot option for Single User, I was able to do as the post says and redo my macOS setup of user account etc., creating a new Admin user and then using it to edit my operating user account to give it admin powers. Then I could install the Nvidia web drivers and all was well.

Having same exact issue although I have everything installed and running on my Hack fine and don't want to reinstall to fix the issue... Basically I wanted to change the primary account user name to and when I did so It changed the original user as standard and no other account to log into that is the Admin...

I boot clover and hit S at boot screen and it loads single user mode but I must be doing something wrong as I found the same thread you shared but its not working for me, here is what I am typing and my response from the system....

what I have input and looking at:

Shell> mount -uw /
map: unknown flag - '-uw'
Shell> rm /var/db.ApplesetupDone
rm: Unknown flag - '/var/db/.AppleSetupDone'
Shell> reboot
'reboot' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program, or script file.
shell>_


any help would be appreciated thanks!

 

[WedgeTail]

Having same exact issue although I have everything installed and running on my Hack fine and don't want to reinstall to fix the issue... Basically I wanted to change the primary account user name to and when I did so It changed the original user as standard and no other account to log into that is the Admin...

I boot clover and hit S at boot screen and it loads single user mode but I must be doing something wrong as I found the same thread you shared but its not working for me, here is what I am typing and my response from the system....

what I have input and looking at:

Shell> mount -uw /
map: unknown flag - '-uw'
Shell> rm /var/db.ApplesetupDone
rm: Unknown flag - '/var/db/.AppleSetupDone'
Shell> reboot
'reboot' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program, or script file.
shell>_


any help would be appreciated thanks!

With clover, you don’t hit Cmd+S. At the Clover menu, press the space bar and select the boot single user setting. Then boot Clover normally. If you’ve done it right, you’ll see a black screen, white text and the “local host:/“ root prompt. Then follow the guide at that link..

 

[Chegelheimer]

With clover, you don’t hit Cmd+S. At the Clover menu, press the space bar and select the boot single user setting. Then boot Clover normally. If you’ve done it right, you’ll see a black screen, white text and the “local host:/“ root prompt. Then follow the guide at that link..

Ahhh thank you thought I was booting to something else... What was that that I was in?

 

[WedgeTail]

Ahhh thank you thought I was booting to something else... What was that that I was in?

Not sure. Just the normal terminal interface I think. I’m not a command line wonk.

 

[Chegelheimer]

Not sure. Just the normal terminal interface I think. I’m not a command line wonk.

Ahhh this actually has possibly inadvertently given me a solution to my initial attempt as to why I was replacing the user name... I was gonna create a user Identical to my Current MBP user and move my music and database files over (I produce music and DJ) so that my new hack would be identical to my work MBP and would be able to begin working with the Hack with all my music and database in tack as if nothing was any different. But using this command in Single user mode I am thinking I can just create a suer from my MBP time mach as it offers that option while keeping all the Hacks install kexts and plist unchanged so:

1. I went through and created a new parent admin user using this guide

2. Did the processes over again and have it create another admin user from my MBP time machine but once it loads the time machine files and user info and I select what files/folders to include it ask to set a password for the account... I do so then next prompt it says:

In order to add new users to this system, we need to collect a password from an existing user who is already authorized.

then asks for a "Volume Password" and a button: "Authorize..."

I would assume its asking for the current admin password of the account I created in the first go around but it does not allow me to move on when I input that password... any advice on this?



{Edit} -

I guess I may be making things harder then need be? haha lookalike I could just use "Migration Assistant"

See how this goes...

 

[WedgeTail]

Ahhh this actually has possibly inadvertently given me a solution to my initial attempt as to why I was replacing the user name... I was gonna create a user Identical to my Current MBP user and move my music and database files over (I produce music and DJ) so that my new hack would be identical to my work MBP and would be able to begin working with the Hack with all my music and database in tack as if nothing was any different. But using this command in Single user mode I am thinking I can just create a suer from my MBP time mach as it offers that option while keeping all the Hacks install kexts and plist unchanged so:

1. I went through and created a new parent admin user using this guide

2. Did the processes over again and have it create another admin user from my MBP time machine but once it loads the time machine files and user info and I select what files/folders to include it ask to set a password for the account... I do so then next prompt it says:

In order to add new users to this system, we need to collect a password from an existing user who is already authorized.

then asks for a "Volume Password" and a button: "Authorize..."

I would assume its asking for the current admin password of the account I created in the first go around but it does not allow me to move on when I input that password... any advice on this?



{Edit} -

I guess I may be making things harder then need be? haha lookalike I could just use "Migration Assistant"

See how this goes...

I must admit I have had problems myself with migrating or creating users. I have found the way that causes the least problems, is to create the new user, use migration assistant for the applications, etc. but copy my data to the user's home folder using Carbon Copy Cloner. But I'm not expert in this area.

 

[jazzman16]

I was working on a High Sierra hackintosh for a friend and he somehow managed to change his own account to a standard account and was left without an administrator account.

I followed this recommendation (single user mode, delete the setupDone file), but would run into errors saying the disk was locked or other things that didn’t allow me to delete the file even after mounting the disk for read/write access.

I resolved the issue by booting from the recovery partition and using terminal there to delete the file and everything worked great.

Hopefully this can help someone else who needs an alternative solution.

 

[logik]

to delete the file

To delete WHAT file?

 

[P1LGRIM]

To delete WHAT file?

Read the page linked in Post #1.
The file in question is /var/db/.AppleSetupDone