MacBook Pro Administrator Account ???

[Pianoworldstage]

Hi

I'm the owner of a MacBook Pro and the administrator for the Mac itself, and I would like to change my name as the administrator, when attempting to do this a red warning sign appears confirming changing your name could cause potential issues to the account, therefore how do I go about changing the name safely?

Thanks.

 

[tensixturtle]

I didn’t have problems changing the account name. I just restarted afterwards. Here is an Apple support article: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201548 They suggest even backing up and have step-by-step instructions. Personally I did not back up but if you want to be extra careful, I guess.

 

[ignatius345]

Hi

I'm the owner of a MacBook Pro and the administrator for the Mac itself, and I would like to change my name as the administrator, when attempting to do this a red warning sign appears confirming changing your name could cause potential issues to the account, therefore how do I go about changing the name safely?

Thanks.

Are you talking about this Advanced panel under Users & Groups? If so, I think there's a lot of stuff in there you could change that would cause serious problems, so I think that's why they put the warning there.

 

[startergo]

Just be aware that some programs linked to the old account may need to be reassigned to the new account. I had some issues with onedrive after changing the account name.

 

[tensixturtle]

Are you talking about this Advanced panel under Users & Groups? If so, I think there's a lot of stuff in there you could change that would cause serious problems, so I think that's why they put the warning there.

View attachment 1965084

@ignatius345 you have a good point, I suppose my previous post was poorly worded. In the past all I changed was the account and full name, not the other things. Even just doing that, when my computer locked after going to sleep it wouldn't let me in, so I had to do a hard shutdown and restart it. Probably changing the other settings can cause bigger issues if not handled with caution.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

Think long and hard before you do this.
Tinkering with account names is like playing with fire.
You could get burnt !!!

 

[BrianBaughn]

OP:

Think long and hard before you do this.
Tinkering with account names is like playing with fire.
You could get burnt !!!

Right. Seems like in the past I experienced that it messed up using Time Machine.

 

[Pianoworldstage]

Surly changing one name on your computer should be a user friendly step, and not such a complexed process as described. I feel apprehensive now about the whole thing, thus not wanting to defragment the system operation of the Mac, hmm..

 

[tensixturtle]

Surly changing one name on your computer should be a user friendly step, and not such a complexed process as described. I feel apprehensive now about the whole thing, thus not wanting to defragment the system operation of the Mac, hmm..

I really think that just changing the name isn't such a big deal. It wasn't for me at all.

 

[ignatius345]

Surly changing one name on your computer should be a user friendly step, and not such a complexed process as described. I feel apprehensive now about the whole thing, thus not wanting to defragment the system operation of the Mac, hmm..

That "user name" provides the basis for the whole directory structure of your user account. It's not just some little random detail. That said, it sounds like @tensixturtle pulled it off, though not without some speed bumps.

Honestly if you're worried about it the simplest thing might be to just make a new user account on your Mac with the name you want. Sign in with the same Apple ID, let stuff sync and move your files over.