No Administrator Account 10.3.9
Hoping someone knows an easy way around this. I seem to have lost administrator privileges for my account, leaving me with no administrator account on this computer. Any idea how I can upgrade my account to administrator again without an existing administrator name/password?
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I don't remember exactly what I did, but using DiskWarrior I somehow managed to overwrite the admin password without knowing it. At the momment, thats all that I can remember, if I remember something else, I'll post it.
[EDIT]Seconds after posting I also remembered another way to overcome a lost password. Boot from your original OS X install disc. At some point (I don't remember exactly where), there is an option called "Reset Password". This is somewhat dangerous because anyone with an OS X install disk can reset your admin password....[/EDIT]
Originally posted by jasondotcom
Hoping someone knows an easy way around this. I seem to have lost administrator privileges for my account, leaving me with no administrator account on this computer. Any idea how I can upgrade my account to administrator again without an existing administrator name/password?
Do you mean that the account is completely gone, or just that you can't log into it because the password doesn't work?
Originally posted by jasondotcom
The account is still there and I can log in to it with the password, the problem is that it has become a standard account. It still works fine, but it was my sole administrator account, so now I can't install new apps etc. I didn't notice when it changed from an administrator account to standard.
Something is majorly messed up with the Netinfo database - Mac OS X is always supposed to have at least one administrator.
What happens when you go to the Accounts preference pane? Is there a checkbox to make it Admin?
This might require either a Netinfo guru or a reinstall.
If you can get into Utilities -> Netinfo Manager, click Groups on the left column and then Admin on the middle column and see what it says. You have to be Admin to do this so it may not work.
I went into NetInfo Manager. Clicking on Groups, there's no Admin in the next level. Clicking on Aliases there is though. Aliases/Administrator brings up the following info in the lower pane: Property: members; Value: root. And Property: name; Value: administrator.
Funnily enough I can use my "administrator's short name" and password to unlock the lock and make changes in NetInfo, but still not in System Prefs or the Finder.
Originally posted by jasondotcom
Thanks for sticking with me on this. In the Accounts System Pane there's no check box next to my account. There's the "click the lock to make changes" lock icon, but that requires an admin name and password so I dunno if that enables a check box. Probably! I saw someone else post elsewhere with the same problem, then two days later they said "never mind I fixed it", then the thread was locked.
Did you try your name and password?
reg
reboot the computer into single user mode (hold down the Apple and 's' keys).
when you arrive at the command prompt follow the directions on-screen to mount the hd
type in:
nicl -raw /var/db/netinfo/local.nidb
this will get you to a different command prompt "/ >", from here type in these commands (one at a time):
cd groups/admin
read
append . users <insert your short name here>
read
quit
Of course you do not have brackets around your short name... and you should be able to figure out what the output of read means... Once you are done with this reboot the computer with the command "reboot now", and you should be all set.
I appreciate that this is a difficult situation to get yourslef into and out of. I'm buggered if I know what I could have done that caused it. Karl's instructions sound pretty straight forward and logical, so I'll let you know how it turns out.