How To Delete Original Adm. User Account from iMac?

[jazz1]

My spouse and I once shared an iMac. I have my now iMac now, and successfully transferred my account to the newer iMac.

The once shared iMac Late 2012 (my spouses) is running out of space. She is also the second administrator of the once shared iMac. I have been unable to delete my account (as the original administrator). Is there a way to do this without deleting everything on the iMac and bringing back her account from Time Machine?

I'm guessing there is no way around this. Thanks for the help.

 

[0128672]

It's been a while since I've done it, but I'm pretty sure if you're logged in under the other admin account (your wife's in this case), you can manage and remove the first-created admin account. You'll be presented with options about completely deleting or saving some of that user's data.

 

[jazz1]

Many thanks! I tried to delete the user account for the third time, and after being on hold for 20 or so minutes with Apple the actual button to delete finally appeared.

Now it is saying something like deleting user. This message has been up for sometime. I'm just going to wait it out. The computer isn't frozen, but it won't close the System Prefs/User pane, saying it is deleting. So I guess that is a good sign.

I suppose the data is spread out all over the hard drive and that is why it is taking awhile? I probably should have just reformatted and recovered my spouse's account from Time Machine.

Poor iMac, I just updated it to Catalina yesterday from Mojave.

 

[dickie001x]

How did it go? Deleted OK?

 

[jazz1]

Thanks all, I let it run all night and into the morning, as the System Prefs/User pane still showed it was running. In checking the available space, it seemed to have run its course of deletion.

I finally re-booted and wow what a difference in speed for this Late 2012 iMac! It does have a Quad-Core Intel i7 3.4 GHz. Heck it has better specs than my late 2015.

Long story short I bought the late 2015 for her, but then she decided I could have the (then new) Late 2015. Had I know that at the Apple Store I would have bumped everything up

In the end I think both the iMac Late 2012 and my Late 2015 will serve us well, fingers crossed, until the new non-Intel Cpu iMac makes its debut.

Again, thanks all. These forums almost take the place of the old, in person, user group meetings! I said almost