Here’s how to create an admin account without knowing the current administrator password.
This is nothing new to people familiar with unix, and can’t really be classified as a “hack”, but it’s an easy way to make an admin account without a password. This particular method is used if you, for some reason, can’t get into your account at all, for example: you lost MAC Admin password and you account is protected with FileVault. This process basically forces your computer to re-run setup, which is what you see when you setup a new Mac.
This process will take about 5-10 minutes. If you have a password, or WEP code for your network or internet, be sure to have that at hand.
If the computer doesn’t have an Open Firmware Password, that this should work fine. If it does, than you’re out of luck
Step 1: Boot in single user mode (Single user mode bypasses the GUI, which is all the visual stuff, and gives you something called “root access”) by pressing Command + S (Apple+S) when the first shade of blue appears on the screen, and holding it down until the screen turns black with white text.
Step 2: Wait for all the code stuff to load. Now, the first thing we need to do in single user mode is mount the hard drive so we can edit it. You enter this command in : /sbin/mount -uw /
It should say something about removing orphaned unlinked files.
Step 3: We are going to delete a little file that tells your computer every time you start up that you’ve completed the setup by entering this command: rm /var/db/.applesetupdone
It should just bump down, waiting for the next command if it worked.
Step 4: Now type, reboot
Step 5: It should shut down and reboot. Than, a setup window will appear, asking you what language you want your computer to be in, just like you see when you setup a newly purchased Mac.
A welcome video will play after you select the language. It has some pretty cool music, but if your in a room with other people, I’d mute it right after the video starts, or have headphones handy.
Step 6: Setup the computer. Select “DO NOT TRANSFER MY DATA”. Don’t worry, all your old stuff will still be there. Choose your internet connection and network, here is where you need your WEP or security password if you have one.
Step 7: Create a new local account to administer that computer. You usually want to enter the name of the computer as the longname, and the shortname what you’ll log in as. Say your computer’s old name was “Frank’s Computer”, than just put Frank as the longname, because it will automatically as ” ‘s Computer” at the end. MAKE SURE THAT BOTH USERNAMES ARE DIFFERENT FROM THE EXSISTING ONES, OTHERWISE IT WILL OVERWRITE.
Step 8: Finish the setup, and you should automatically be logged into your new MAC administrator account.
MAC Admin Hack,
When you delete the ‘little file’ that tells your computer it has completed setup every time you start up, when you reboot the computer after you have deleted the file, will the file be gone forever? Would that mean that every time you start up after deleting the file you have to reset the language?
Also what is the WEP or Security Password and how do you find what it is?
Just done the following and worked like a charm. Thanks
@Katie: It wont keep asking for language selection only the one time, once you have completed the process it recreates the file you deleted.
when i enter step one i see “root_device on / (local, read only, journaled)
devfs on /dev (local)
fdesc on /dev (union)
then i type up step two and get
-sh: rm/var/db/.applesetupdone: No such file or directory
ANY HELP WILL BE MUCH APPRECiATED anyone else with this problem? thank, you in advance **re-entered e-mail
I had the same problem – but noted that the last 2 or 3 letters of the first line
/sbin/mount -uw / did not coincide with the ones the machine was giving me when starting the console, so I replaced them with those and worked
After running the commands in single user mode, I am able to begin the setup but it never finishes. It just freezes after asking the primary use of the lpt (school, home, business, etc.) I can go back but can’t move past this step. PLEASE HELP
Thanks! but before I typed in /sbin/mount -uw / I had to type in fsk -fy , otherwise It wouldn’t work.
I have the same problem and i tried this procedure and when it rebooted it just went straight back to the username and password screen again. What am i doing wrong?
I’ve been trying to do the first step but it keeps going to the log in screen and I’m pretty sure I’m doing it right but the command just doesn’t work.
my teacher can look at my screen at school. will she find out about this?
@Dave unfortunately that maybe a yes if she has to look over your laptop and so. that’s why it’s best to find out how to find the password rather than reboot your computer to get a new account. you’re gonna have to extra careful now that your teacher will have the ability to look at your screen now :l
Holy crap! Where’s all my stuff?! Ok. I followed the steps and everything is gone. How do I get my files back? Please help!
Holy crap! My files are gone! How do I get them back?