Maybe try this first? Create a NEW admin user, use the new user to massage the old user's account. (Follow the first link as well.)
https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/226073/how-do-i-create-user-accounts-from-the-terminal-in-mac-os-x-10-11 <https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/226073/how-do-i-create-user-accounts-from-the-terminal-in-mac-os-x-10-11> > On Aug 3, 2017, at 11:06 AM, Chris Walker <[email protected]> wrote: > > It’s not my machine. A friend acts as Admin for his parents machine - an > iMac that dates from Snow Leopard or thereabouts which has been updated > several times. For this reason I doubt there is a recovery partition. It > now boasts about 24Meg Ram and has had a larger hard drive. Probably the > last upgradeable iMac before they went ‘thin’ and glued everything up. > > Somehow his parents have managed to corrupt the admin password - they insist > they haven’t changed anything - but either way he can’t do anything that > requires an admin password. > > I suppose we could try booting from one of his machines which should show the > iMac drive as a bootable drive on the desktop. No idea whether that would > advance anything. > > I suspect Macs R We is correct. A deep breath and dive into single-user boot > is probably best, but do a clone to another drive beforehand. Since I’m not > familiar with terminal commands, I’m guessing you substitute the actual name > for ‘usershortname’ in "chpass newpassword usershortname”. > > Can’t see why that wouldn’t work, but computers can be very obtuse… > > Thanks for the help folks. I’ll pass it all on. > > Chris > > > >> On 3 Aug 2017, at 18:34, Macs R We <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> Anything he could do from Target Disk Mode he could do more simply from a >> single-user boot (command-s). But he'd have to know the right commands, and >> how many other linked data structures he'd have to change to make the user >> account work. If you have absolutely no other choice, I'd do a single-user >> boot, then use "chpass newpassword usershortname", and hope it does enough >> to at least let you in. >> >>> On Aug 3, 2017, at 10:26 AM, Chris Walker <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>> Not sure there’s a recovery partition on this machine since I think it’s >>> been upgraded from somewhere around Snow Leopard, unless one of the >>> upgrades created one somewhere. >>> >>> Instead could he use target disk mode in any way? >>> >>> Chris >>> >>>> On 3 Aug 2017, at 18:19, Macs R We <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> >>>> The standard way is to boot into the recovery partition, use the Tools >>>> option to launch Terminal, then there is a simple command (not chpass, >>>> something custom) you use to reset the password. Sorry I don't remember >>>> the exact command, but I'm positive this is Googleable. >>>> >>>>> On Aug 3, 2017, at 9:17 AM, Chris Walker <[email protected]> wrote: >>>>> >>>>> Hi all: >>>>> >>>>> Is it possible to re-set the admin password on El-Cap? I know it was >>>>> possible to do a re-set on some versions of OSX but can’t find any >>>>> information on how to do it on El-Cap. >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> Chris >>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>> MacOSX-talk mailing list >>>>> [email protected] >>>>> http://www.omnigroup.com/mailman/listinfo/macosx-talk >>>> >>> >> >
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