How to change standard user to administrator in mac without admin password

Creating new admin account is available in Users & Groups when you have admin privileges to access Mac. However, if you cannot sign in Mac, is it still allowed to create new admin account? Surely it is even though that is not so easy to do like in Users & Groups.

Create new admin account in single user mode when cannot sign in Mac

Single user mode is a special startup environment, which boots Mac to a terminal-like interface where users can run commands to do what they want on Mac, such as repairing startup drive or creating new admin account etc.

Step 1: Start Mac in single user mode.

To boot Mac in single user mode, just need to power on Mac and hold on Command + S. If you fail, try another time.

Step 2: Mount the startup drive.

While you see a command prompt in the form of a ":/ root#", type the command below to make files accessible in the startup drive. Press Enter to continue.

/sbin/mount –uw /

Step 3: Remove the file to force OS X to boot like the first time.

Now you have the privileges to remove the files from drive. Run the command below, and it will remove the necessary file that can recognize your Mac are not booted at the first time when Mac restarts.

rm /var/db/.applesetupdone

But once it is done, you can enter "reboot" to restart Mac, and OS X would think that it is the first time you boot the currently installed OS X. So you can create new admin account during the setup process.

Note: Don't worry about your data on Mac would be lost or damaged. It would just go through the system setup process again. Nothing would be changed on Mac besides the new settings you make in the process.

Step 4: Create new admin account in setup process.

Mac restarts and displays the Welcome to Mac screen. Follow the wizard to choose your location, set your keyboard, choose the way to transfer data, set your Apple ID and agree the terms and conditions. At last, you will be asked to create an account for mac.

1. Default name for this account has been shown there. Surely you can change it but do not use the same name as the old administrator on Mac. Otherwise, data about this account will be deleted from Mac.

2. Enter password and confirm it. Click Next and Mac will save these changes.

Few minutes later, Mac will reboot and sign in automatically with the account you just created. You have new admin account and could use it to reset forgotten admin password for Mac or do whatever troubleshooting steps.

Related Articles:

• How to Change or Remove macOS User Account Password
• How to Create Administrator Account in Windows 10 When Cannot Sign in

All You Should Know About Mac Admin Account

Summary: This post explains the Mac admin account, a type of user on macOS. After reading, you will know what you can do with the privileges of an admin account. Plus, you can find solutions for the no admin account on Mac issue.

Table of Contents:

• 1. Administrator - a type of macOS user
• 2. Check the administrator account on my Mac
• 3. Use the admin account to manage users
• 4. How to fix no admin account on Mac

Are you the administrator user on your MacBook Air/Pro/iMac? Perhaps, most Mac users don't know the answer to this question given that they have no idea what a Mac administrator is. But if you share the Mac with other people, it is necessary to read this post to understand the Mac admin account and use it to manage multiple users on Mac.

Administrator - a type of macOS user

An administrator account, as the name tells, can administer the Mac computer, and has more privileges compared with other types of users, including standard users, guest users, and sharing-only users. The user account that is created to set up the Mac for the first time is an admin account. 

Logging as an administrator on the Mac, you can manage other user accounts, install and uninstall applications, and change the system settings. Without administrator privileges, you can not access the Startup Security Utility, read Mac Console, reset network settings, etc.

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Check the administrator account on my Mac

For most Mac users, there is only one user on their Macs, themselves, then, they have become the administrator of their computers since they set up the new Macs at the very beginning. If your case is the same, definitely, you are the administrator of your Mac.

Perhaps, you share a Mac with your coworkers, families, or friends, and there are multiple users on the shared Mac. If you want to know which one is the admin account on your Mac, you can check it with the following steps: 

1. Click on the Apple menu > System Preferences.
2. Select the Users & Groups icon on the System Preferences pane.
3. Find the username accompanied by "Admin", this is the admin account on your Mac.

Use the admin account to manage users

An administrator account on Mac can add a new user on Mac, create groups to grant them privileged access to the shared files/folders, change a standard user to an administrator, and so forth. The admin password is always needed to make system changes. Here, we will walk you through how an administrator performs these tasks on Mac.

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Add a user

1. Head to the Apple menu > System Preferences, then choose Users & Groups.
2. Click the padlock and enter your admin password to make changes.
3. Tap the + button to add a new account. Here, you can choose Administrator, Standard, or Sharing Only based on your needs.
4. Then fulfill the requested information and click the Create User button. The newly added user account will show in the left list.

Delete a user

1. Open the Apple menu > System Preferences > Users & Groups.
2. Unlock the padlock with your admin password.
3. Select the user account you want to delete and click the "-" button.
4. Select an option to deal with the user's home folder, then click Delete User to confirm the operation.

Create a group

1. Open the Users & Groups window from the System Preference pane.
2. Tap the padlock and enter your admin password.
3. Click on the "+" button and choose Group as the new account.
4. Assign a new to the group and click Create Group.
5. Select the user and groups you want to add to the newly created group.
6. Use Sharing preferences to assign privileges to this group.

Convert a standard user to an administrator

1. Go to the Apple menu > System Preferences > Users & Groups.
2. Tap the lock and enter your admin password
3. Select the standard user account from the list.
4. Then, check the box "Allow user to administer this computer".
5. Click OK when it says you need to restart your Mac.

Besides, you can also turn on the Guest User to allow others temporarily access your computer, change the password of the admin account, and make changes to the Login Options to customize the login experience. It is not recommended to enable the Automatic Login to prevent unwanted access. With the FileVault turned on, the Automatic Login is disabled by default.

How to fix no admin account on Mac

An admin account is a must to guarantee the proper performance of your Mac. But some Mac users found that there is no admin account on their Macs. Such a problem may be caused by the accidental deletion of the admin account, hard drive corruption, macOS updating problems, etc., you can not access the admin account on your Mac.

To troubleshoot no admin account on Mac, you can create a new admin account via the setup assistant. Before that, you need to remove the setup file named AppleSetupDone with Terminal.

1. Boot your Mac into Recovery mode

2. Mount Macintosh HD - Data in Disk Utility

3. Back to the macOS Utilities window, tap Utilities on the top menu, then choose Terminal.

4. Enter the following command into the Terminal:cd /Volumes/Macintosh HD/var/db/

5. Hit Enter and type the following command: 

rm .AppleSetupD

6. Hit Enter again to run the command.

7. Restart your Mac to go through the setup procedure and create a new admin account.

Amanda Wong

Amanda is one of the main columnists at iBoysoft. She loves exploring new technologies, focusing on macOS, Windows OS, data recovery, data security, disk management, and other tech-related issues. She takes delight in providing technical and informative articles to help people out of problems and get the utmost out of their devices.

Jessica Shee

Jessica Shee is a senior tech editor at iBoysoft. Throughout her 3 years of experience, Jessica has written many informative and instructional articles in data recovery, data security, and disk management to help a lot of readers secure their important documents and take the best advantage of their devices.

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