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How Do I Remove the Previous Owner’s Account From a Second-Hand Purchased Macbook?

I recently purchased an older Macbook Pro from an online seller. The previous owner is still signed in as the administrator, and the seller does not have their password. How do I remove that account and create my own?

MacBook Pro

Posted on Nov 7, 2019 10:54 AM

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13 replies

Nov 7, 2019 11:04 AM in response to MeliciousM3

You and/or the owner need to do this:

What to do before selling or giving away your Mac - http://support.apple.com/HT201065


You can erase it as suggested earlier, but depending upon the age there may be certain unpleasant things waiting for you. The owner may have set activation lock. The owner may also have set a firmware password.


About Activation Lock on your Mac - https://support.apple.com/HT208987

"What to do if your Mac starts up to an Activate Mac window

If you've purchased a Mac from someone other than Apple or an authorized Apple reseller and the device starts up to an Activate Mac window, the device is still linked to the previous owner's account. You'll need to ask them to remove the device from their account."


How to set a firmware password on your Mac - Apple Support - including how to remove a lock and what to do if you forgot your password.

https://support.apple.com/HT204455



Nov 7, 2019 10:20 PM in response to MeliciousM3

I'm not seeing where you told us exactly which model computer this is other than "older MacBook Pro". Nor am I seeing the system version information anywhere which means we are doing a lot of guessing form our end. Anything with Lion should be able to boot to Mac Recovery, though not all can boot to Internet Recovery (which you have not been using).

Nov 8, 2019 7:36 AM in response to MeliciousM3

There's the problem. 10.5.8 is too old, and does not have a Recovery Mode.


You will need the original Leopard discs for your model of Mac to reinstall macOS, or a set of retail Snow Leopard install discs to install Snow Leopard from scratch.


Unfortunately Apple no longer sells Snow Leopard. You may need to find some on Ebay or the like to wipe the Mac and remove the admin user.

Nov 8, 2019 9:17 AM in response to MeliciousM3

You may want to give these threads a look:

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/103953/i-forgot-the-password-to-mac-os-x-10-5-8-leopard-how-can-i-reset-it

http://osxdaily.com/2011/04/25/change-admin-password-mac/


You'll still want to find Snow Leopards discs if you want to update out of Leopard at any point though.

The Mac App Store driven OS updates are only available with Snow Leopard 10.6.6 or later.

How Do I Remove the Previous Owner’s Account From a Second-Hand Purchased Macbook?

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