I started up new Macbook Pro with "trial" account and now want to start fresh... not sure how?

[Miss Terri]

Hi folks,

I bought a new (refurbished) Macbook Pro to replace my trusty old one (friend spilled lemonade on it). I wanted to fire it up without doing my usual transfer with setup assistant, because I wanted to see if it had Photos or iPhoto on it (doesn't have Photos, which made my day).

I know from past experience that if you start up a new computer with a "test" user name, and then later move your stuff over, then you become a "secondary" user. I had this happen once at (of all places) a Genius Bar. They started up a replacement computer with my user name, then moved my stuff to it, which resulted in me becoming "User Name 2" instead of "User Name." The answer to that ended up being wiping the whole computer, and then starting fresh with setup assistant WITHOUT setting up any prior account. A headache, but not a big deal after I did the research and figured it out.

So okay, I get my new Macbook Pro (Yosemite 10.10.1) and I want to fire it up and see if it has Photos or not, so I start it up with an account named "Trial" and poke around a bit, planning to wipe it and start fresh so I can use Setup Assistant with my *real* user name as the primary one.

But I guess in doing some researching that it's not the same procedure with Yosemite? I guess this makes sense as there is no startup disc. The instructions I found didn't make me feel really confident, and I hope I didn't mess up by assuming I could do this "trial" user name and then start fresh again?

Thanks for any help,
Miss Terri (typing on disabled, lemonade-infused, Snow Leopard machine, sorry for any typos).

 

[Miss Terri]

Sorry, I somehow made a duplicate. Please go on to next one.

 

[Miss Terri]

PS: If I do Command-R and re-download Yosemite from the Internet (Apple), does that mean they will "force" Photos app onto it? Or will it be just exactly the same as it was when I tried it out (has iPhoto and no Photos which is exactly what I want)?

Sorry to seem stupid, but I know that sometimes there are "gotchas" and then you can't go "back." I just wish I'd actually just moved my stuff over with my Username, but in the old days I could just start up a new computer and test it out, then wipe it, use my disc, and it would easily all be back to what it was. Not sure that's the case if doing it over the Internet through Apple?

Or, can I somehow make my own disc (or stick or something) to reinstall myself without going to Apple? This would be doubly good as I am traveling and have limited data bandwidth. Also I would be sure nothing new would "sneak" on.

 

[Miss Terri]

I'm researching on my own while this thread matures, and I'm finding ways to use command line to force setup assistant to start again and make my real user name the #501 "top dog," which is what I want. BUT, it seems these instructions are for Mavericks, and so I'm not sure if I can do this for Yosemite?

So to be clear, it's not that I necessarily want to reinstall Yosemite (if I don't need to), but what I really want to do is make the computer have "no user" again, like when it was new (an hour ago), so that I can have Setup Assistant run and then make my real user name the first/primary/most powerful one (not the silly "trial" one I used to check out the computer).

Thanks so much for any help!

Miss Terri

(With computer in signature disabled and trying to set up refurbished Macbook Pro 13" Retina that came with Yosemite 10.10.1 and iPhoto, which I really want! I'm happy that Photos is not on the computer at all and would simply like to keep it that way.)

 

[Miss Terri]

Okay, after this I promise I will stop answering my own thread

Following some instructions on Apple, it seemed like there *might* be a Recovery capability on the computer itself, which would mean I didn't have to use Internet Recovery. So I decided to boot up with Command-R WITHOUT an Internet connection, to see if it would "recover."

Apple explains that you hold down Command-R while starting up, and you should then see "a desktop with an OS X menu bar and an OS X Utilities window with the options listed above. If you see a login window or your own desktop instead of the Utilities window, it's possible that you didn't press Command-R early enough. Restart your computer and try again."

Okay, so here goes. I did what they said and got a black screen with just a white Apple logo, plus a horizontal, capsule shaped white progress bar for a few moments (longer time than the usual startup). Then, up popped the "Welcome, please choose your language" screen" that I associate with a brand new computer and Setup Assistant. But.... is this really true? I didn't do any "recovery" like they describe here:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314

I'm thrilled if this is all it took, and my "Trial" username (#501) is gone and I can start fresh; but it seems too easy and doesn't agree with the Apple page, so I'm unsure. Since I was not ready to migrate over at the moment, I just closed the lid on the "choose language" screen for now. But if this is for real, then I'll proceed.

Miss Terri

 

[Weaselboy]

There is a trick here to make the setup assistant run again and that will allow you to make a new admin account and import your data, but the 501 UID account will still be there and the new account will be UID 502. Depending on the UID on you old machine and you backup, this may cause problems importing.

Here is what I suggest for you. First, under the existing trial account, login to the App Store app with your AppleID and "claim" all your free iLife and iWorks apps. This way you can always get them back under a new install.

Next... there is no way to avoid getting Photos. It was part of the 10.10.4 update, and any reinstall of Yosemite you do now will be 10.10.5 and come along with Photos.

The recovery system actually downloads the OS over the Internet and the OS is not actually on the recovery partition like on a Windows system. This causes you to always get the latest point version of the OS. So if you Mac came with 10.10.1 and you run recovery you will get 10.10.5 now.

So command-r boot to recovery and use Disk Utility from there to erase Macintosh HD to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Then quite Disk Util and click reinstall OS at the top. That will get you a clean install of Yosemite 10.10.5. When the setup assistant runs, use that to import your old data from the other machine or backup. That will import the old account and all its data.

Once the import is done, login to the App Store with your AppleID and run software update.

 

[Miss Terri]

Thanks for your reply. What a major bummer. If it comes to being forced into a newer Yosemite and Photos so that I can move things over and not have a mis-match/problems, I guess I'll put the computer on eBay and try to get my old one fixed. What a bummer this is. I'm just crushed. Especially since I have right in my hands a "new" computer with the exact Yosemite and iPhoto I want. And it's so thin and the Retina screen is sooo nice.

It just seems crazy that there is no way to "fix" the fact that I started it up once to see what programs were on it.


The weird thing is, there are threads where people explain how to force setup assistant to "re-do" (terminal commands). But I guess you still become a 502? But that seems illogical, because then what would be the point of re-running Setup Assistant at all?

I guess I just want to be REALLY sure before I give up on this computer. And there is enough conflicting information that I'm not sure. I do appreciate you replying, thank you.

 

[dsemf]

Thanks for your reply. What a major bummer. If it comes to being forced into a newer Yosemite and Photos so that I can move things over and not have a mis-match/problems, I guess I'll put the computer on eBay and try to get my old one fixed. What a bummer this is. I'm just crushed. Especially since I have right in my hands a "new" computer with the exact Yosemite and iPhoto I want. And it's so thin and the Retina screen is sooo nice.

It just seems crazy that there is no way to "fix" the fact that I started it up once to see what programs were on it.


The weird thing is, there are threads where people explain how to force setup assistant to "re-do" (terminal commands). But I guess you still become a 502? But that seems illogical, because then what would be the point of re-running Setup Assistant at all?

I guess I just want to be REALLY sure before I give up on this computer. And there is enough conflicting information that I'm not sure. I do appreciate you replying, thank you.

Have you tried renaming your trial account? See https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201548.

In terms of iPhoto/Photos, an upgrade to 10.10.4 does not remove iPhoto and you don't need to run Photos at all. Since I don't know what you currently have on your 10.10.1 machine or how you originally purchased iPhoto, I am not going to make any predictions in that regard.


DS

 

[Miss Terri]

I want to update because I did successfully "re-set" Startup Assistant, and I was then able to re-start-up with my desired user ID as if it were a brand new computer. I then moved everything over via Time Machine. After that was done, I checked, and my chosen user name is UID #501 (primary) and there are no others (except for the Guest that Apple provides). I didn't involve the Internet or the App store in any way, but only used the computer itself.

What I did was use Terminal to delete the "trial" user ID, and then undo the AppleStartupDone so that Setup Assistant would run again.

I used the information in this link:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7007231?start=0&tstart=0

As you notice (if anyone interested reads it), the initial instructions were for Mavericks, and didn't work in Yosemite for the OP. But then Mike JM added a detail that makes it work in Yosemite. I followed this combination. I can't remember now (because I had to try a few things) but I think I may have ended up taking "private" out of step 8.

I was also temporarily foiled by the same "no such file" type response to AppleSetupDone (as the original poster mentioned) but then I realized that there was not supposed to be a space between the forward slash and the dot right before AppleSetupDone (it just looked that way to me because of how a slash makes space after itself). Once I eliminated that space it found ASD and all was good. I then gave the reboot command (as detailed) and Setup Assistant fired up and away I went. I don't know if that accidental space may have had something to do with the original poster's issue (but there was still the "users" detail that Mike JM added).

I'm a happy camper!

Miss Terri

PS: DS, thanks for the iPhoto info.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

If it comes to being forced into a newer Yosemite and Photos so that I can move things over and not have a mis-match/problems, I guess I'll put the computer on eBay and try to get my old one fixed.

why would you not want security updates and bug fixes?

And you can just continue using iPhoto, no need to ever open Photos.

 

[Miss Terri]

It's not that I don't want security and bug fixes. Rather, I just wanted to be able to start up the new computer as it came, with Yosemite 10.10.1, and iPhoto (and not Photos). Then, once I get a chance to use it a bit, and look at the new (to me) iPhoto (even though it's dead to Apple it's going to be somewhat new to me as I've been using iPhoto '08 up till now) and maybe read up a bit more on Photos and/or alternatives if I don't like it, I'll go onward from there.

Good to know I can continue using iPhoto and not open Photos. There seemed to be some mixed info on whether an update would "kill" iPhoto or not (another reason I wanted a bit of time to research at my leisure).

I didn't want to be forced into going immediately to the newer Yosemite/Photos for the above reasons, and too, I have very limited cellular bandwidth at the moment (traveling), and didn't want to have to do a ~5-6 GB download. OTOH, I *did* want to start using the new computer, and I did not want my UID #501 to be "trial" (ugh!).

I hope that explains it a little more clearly.

 

[brtova]

Hi,

I am having a similar problem. I upgraded to yosemite 10.10.4 and can no longer use iPhoto, Photoshop or, mword.

Photo app has replaced iPhoto and it is a poor cousin to iPhoto.

What can I do?

 

[brtova]

Have you tried renaming your trial account? See https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201548.

In terms of iPhoto/Photos, an upgrade to 10.10.4 does not remove iPhoto and you don't need to run Photos at all. Since I don't know what you currently have on your 10.10.1 machine or how you originally purchased iPhoto, I am not going to make any predictions in that regard.


DS

Hi DS,

Can you expand on that? I would like to have iPhoto back and do not want Photo.

 

[dsemf]

Hi DS,

Can you expand on that? I would like to have iPhoto back and do not want Photo.

Referring back to post #12, it appears you have other issues since Photoshop and Microsoft Word also do not work. Hopefully someone can address those issues since they might actually be your root problem with iPhoto.

Assuming not:

If iPhoto was on the machine before your did the 10.10.4 upgrade, it should still be there. See if it is in the /Applications folder. It should also still be in Launchpad. The icon may have been removed from the Dock.

If you go to your Pictures folder in Finder, you may find that you have two photo libraries.

Hi DS,

Can you expand on that? I would like to have iPhoto back and do not want Photo.

The first question that I have is whether iPhoto is still in the /Applications folder and/or the Launchpad. The upgrade may have removed it from the dock.

DS