Super weird issue - no admin account in Big Sur

[jonnysods]

Hey guys, super strange issue.

Went to update a 12" MacBook to Big Sur from High Sierra. The Mac just ended up in a 20 hour freeze on the boot up/update screen, so I tried to restart it, wouldn't boot normally. Tried booting in safe mode, however Big Sur treated the device like a brand new device. I had no option, so I created a simple admin/admin account, and the OS loaded up.

I needed to access files in the gregp main account to get them onto a new machine, but I couldn't. I checked under Users, and there was only the admin account, and it was a standard user!

I'm totally stuck - has anyone seen this before? I took it to Apple, they told me I was SOL.

Target disk mode won't work, as the OS won't boot normally, single user mode can't be used to create an admin account. Don't know what to do!

 

[casperes1996]

Have you tried deleting the SetupDone file to restart the setup and try setting up a new admin account that way?

 

[jonnysods]

I’ve never seen that before.

Can I do that as a non admin?

 

[casperes1996]

I’ve never seen that before.

Can I do that as a non admin?

Delete it from Single-User Mode. Then reboot the machine and the setup assistant re-runs

 

[jonnysods]

Something is very awry - I can't get it going in single user. Wish there was a way to clone the Mac and just use admin creds to unlock from another device. No way I can peel that drive off that mobo!

 

[hugohs]

Something is very awry - I can't get it going in single user. Wish there was a way to clone the Mac and just use admin creds to unlock from another device. No way I can peel that drive off that mobo!

I've got an almost identical situation. Booting into Single User mode doesn't work either - but I need to look into how to delete the .AppleSetupDone file in Big Sur.

 

[jonnysods]

I've got an almost identical situation. Booting into Single User mode doesn't work either - but I need to look into how to delete the .AppleSetupDone file in Big Sur.

I feel very stuck. I wish I could just yank the drive out and read it as an external! I miss the old days!

 

[casperes1996]

Can you get into Recovery? If you can, reinstalling macOS on the device, without first erasing the disk from Disk Utility, **SHOULD** preserve all user data

 

[TheLonewandererofvault101]

Can you install macOS on an external drive, then boot to the external drive macOS. Then you should be able to access the data on the internal drive so you can copy it to an external and then restore the internal macOS install.

 

[rossonet]

Hi,

I had the exact same issue after upgrading to Monterey. I was no longer able to change System Preferences or install new software because I would be asked for username and password. It SHOULD be the same password as you use to log into the computer, but alas, the computer doesn't accept it. Kept giving me the shaking-because-you-have-the-wrong-password thang.


After a bunch of online research, I figured out that the issue is that my username was switched to be a "Standard" user, not an "Admin" user. So... effectively there was NO admin user on my account, thus no way to enter an admin username and password.


The solution is you need to trick the computer into running Setup Assistant again, so you can create a new user. That new user will automatically have admin rights. And then when you log in with that user, you can turn on admin rights for your original username.


I contacted Apple Support, and did a ton more research, and the steps everybody tells you to do are:

1. Re-start your computer in Recovery Mode, by holding down Command-R during boot-up.
2. Open Terminal
3. Type this command. Exactly, including spaces and quotes: rm "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/var/db/.AppleSetupDone"
4. Then re-start your computer, and you'll be taken into the Setup Assistant in which you can create a new user.

BUT: the problem for me was, it kept returning an error message in Terminal: "No such file or directory" And then I'd reboot, and no dice. Issue still there.


So.... more calls to Apple Support... and more research.... and through trial and error, this is what I figured out.


After going into Recovery Mode, before going into Terminal, I first went into Disk Utility. For some reason the volume listed as Macintosh HD - Data was showing as "unmounted". So I simply hit the "Mount" button. And THEN I did the above steps, and it worked. Finally. Hallelujah.


It's a major bug. If you're having the same problem, and wanting to throw your computer out of the window, I get it. But hopefully this helps!


Apple, please fix in the next update! Thank you. Happy holidays.

 

[LirpaLynne]

Hi,

I had the exact same issue after upgrading to Monterey. I was no longer able to change System Preferences or install new software because I would be asked for username and password. It SHOULD be the same password as you use to log into the computer, but alas, the computer doesn't accept it. Kept giving me the shaking-because-you-have-the-wrong-password thang.


After a bunch of online research, I figured out that the issue is that my username was switched to be a "Standard" user, not an "Admin" user. So... effectively there was NO admin user on my account, thus no way to enter an admin username and password.


The solution is you need to trick the computer into running Setup Assistant again, so you can create a new user. That new user will automatically have admin rights. And then when you log in with that user, you can turn on admin rights for your original username.


I contacted Apple Support, and did a ton more research, and the steps everybody tells you to do are:

1. Re-start your computer in Recovery Mode, by holding down Command-R during boot-up.
2. Open Terminal
3. Type this command. Exactly, including spaces and quotes: rm "Volumes/Macintosh HD/var/db/.AppleSetupDone"
4. Then re-start your computer, and you'll be taken into the Setup Assistant in which you can create a new user.

BUT: the problem for me was, it kept returning an error message in Terminal: "No such file or directory" And then I'd reboot, and no dice. Issue still there.


So.... more calls to Apple Support... and more research.... and through trial and error, this is what I figured out.


After going into Recovery Mode, before going into Terminal, I first went into Disk Utility. For some reason the volume listed as Macintosh HD - Data was showing as "unmounted". So I simply hit the "Mount" button. And THEN I did the above steps, and it worked. Finally. Hallelujah.


It's a major bug. If you're having the same problem, and wanting to throw your computer out of the window, I get it. But hopefully this helps!


Apple, please fix in the next update! Thank you. Happy holidays.

Hi! I tried this and my disk was mounted and I'm still getting the same error message as you did. This is so frustrating! I can't update several programs I use since I'm not the admin. I'm the only user of this computer! Any other Suggestions?

 

[rossonet]

Hi! I tried this and my disk was mounted and I'm still getting the same error message as you did. This is so frustrating! I can't update several programs I use since I'm not the admin. I'm the only user of this computer! Any other Suggestions?

Hi! So sorry! I missed a backslash before "Volumes". Do the above steps, but here is the correct Terminal command:

rm "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/var/db/.AppleSetupDone" (I'm going to now edit my post above to add that dang dash! Hope that works, lmk.)

 

[LirpaLynne]

Hi! Thanks so much for letting me know. I will try this later tonight and let you know what happens!

 

[LirpaLynne]

Hi again! I did try the corrected command and it still isn't working. I did notice that when I open Terminal that it has -bash -3.2 as the first command? I'm not familiar with terminal and coding at all but thought I'd mention this since I thought I recall that previously when I've had to use terminal it has something with root in it? Hope I'm making sense!

 

[LirpaLynne]

Delete it from Single-User Mode. Then reboot the machine and the setup assistant re-runs

Hi I've tried numerous times to delete the single user mode and create a new user (myself) as admin and I'm getting an error. Any other suggestions to make an admin user? This all started when I updated to Monterey!

 

[casperes1996]

Hi I've tried numerous times to delete the single user mode and create a new user (myself) as admin and I'm getting an error. Any other suggestions to make an admin user? This all started when I updated to Monterey!

Might be easier to just reinstall the OS at this point.

But could you show us exactly what you wrote and what output you get? Image please

Also please the output of this command
ls -a /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/var/db

Doesn't have to be from recovery or Single User Mode. Can just be run from a regular Terminal

 

[LirpaLynne]

Might be easier to just reinstall the OS at this point.

But could you show us exactly what you wrote and what output you get? Image please

Also please the output of this command
ls -a /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/var/db

Doesn't have to be from recovery or Single User Mode. Can just be run from a regular Terminal

I will do that now and try to do a screen shot.

 

[LirpaLynne]

Here is what happens when I input the script in terminal. I think I'll try to reinstall monterey.

 

[casperes1996]

Here is what happens when I input the script in terminal. I think I'll try to reinstall monterey.

Reinstalling the OS should work, but the issue with the command is that you didn't put a space after rm.
rm = remove
What you write after that is the path to what should be removed.
In the command line, arguments are space-separated, unless the space is escaped or in a quoted item.

 

[LirpaLynne]

Here is what happens when I input the script in terminal. I think I'll try to reinstall monterey.

 

[LirpaLynne]

Okay I reinstalled Monterey and it automatically made me a standard user. UGH So frustrated!!!!

 

[LirpaLynne]

Reinstalling the OS should work, but the issue with the command is that you didn't put a space after rm.
rm = remove
What you write after that is the path to what should be removed.
In the command line, arguments are space-separated, unless the space is escaped or in a quoted item.

I also tried to put in the space and now this is what has come up:
Last login: Thu Dec 30 15:48:18 on console

The default interactive shell is now zsh.
To update your account to use zsh, please run `chsh -s /bin/zsh`.
For more details, please visit https://support.apple.com/kb/HT208050.
iMac:~ aprilcasey$ rm "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/var/db/.AppleSetupDone"
override r-------- root/wheel for /Volumes/Macintosh HD/var/db/.AppleSetupDone?


Not sure what to do now?

 

[casperes1996]

Okay I reinstalled Monterey and it automatically made me a standard user. UGH So frustrated!!!!

Did you erase the disk when you reinstalled?

I also tried to put in the space and now this is what has come up:
Last login: Thu Dec 30 15:48:18 on console

The default interactive shell is now zsh.
To update your account to use zsh, please run `chsh -s /bin/zsh`.
For more details, please visit https://support.apple.com/kb/HT208050.
iMac:~ aprilcasey$ rm "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/var/db/.AppleSetupDone"
override r-------- root/wheel for /Volumes/Macintosh HD/var/db/.AppleSetupDone?


Not sure what to do now?

You did not run the command from Recovery or Single User Mode. You cannot delete the file when you're logged in as a non-admin user, so you need to run that command from the recovery terminal. When I said the thing about using a normal terminal, I was talking about the ls command that was just intended to see if the file was there because you previously mentioned file not found. Now it's evident the file does exist.

 

[rossonet]

Also, while in Recovery mode, go into Disk Utility, and make sure this drive is showing as 'mounted': Macintosh HD - Data

 

[LirpaLynne]

Did you erase the disk when you reinstalled?

You did not run the command from Recovery or Single User Mode. You cannot delete the file when you're logged in as a non-admin user, so you need to run that command from the recovery terminal. When I said the thing about using a normal terminal, I was talking about the ls command that was just intended to see if the file was there because you previously mentioned file not found. Now it's evident the file does exist.

Hi! I did run it from recovery mode as well but it still came up with an error. I did not erase the disk. A box came up showing reinstall so that's what I had done. Is there a way to go back to the previous software?