Big Sur Admin Account Lost

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Level 1

4 points

Big Sur Admin Account Lost

My account is no longer an admin after updating to Big Sur. I have no other accounts on the computer. How do I restore to an admin account? I've tried some of the fixes I found online, and haven't been able to get them to work.

At this point, I bought a new MacBook Air, so I just need to be able to run migration assistant to transfer over all my apps and files. If it's an easier fix to get that to run without an admin account, I'd go for that option as well.

Big Sur 11.6.3

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 11.5

Posted on Jan 31, 2022 9:09 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Barney-15E

Level 10

116,782 points

Jan 31, 2022 10:47 AM in response to Tommy2Husky

I do t know if there is an easier way through migration assistant.

Here is how to add another Admin account you can use to fix your other.

Restarting Setup Assistant to create Admi… - Apple Community

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Answer 2

Tommy2Husky Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 31, 2022 11:33 AM in response to Tommy2Husky

This is the fix that worked for me.

You boot in Recovery Mode. (cmd+r at boot) .
If Filevault is activated, from Disk Utility, you unlock/mount the System Volume giving the password. (right click on the system volume).
You quit disk utility, then on top menu you select Utilities/Terminal
I suppose the System Volume name is "Macintosh HD", the command is : rm /Volumes/"Macintosh HD"/var/db/.AppleSetupDone
If no error message you reboot the Mac and then you will be invited to create a new administrator.

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Answer 3

Barney-15E

Level 10

116,782 points

Jan 31, 2022 11:45 AM in response to Tommy2Husky

That should work prior to Catalina.

It may work now if Apple adjusted the way it references the Data volume in Recovery.

The System volume cannot be modified, so that file doesn't exist in the System volume (Macintosh HD). It is placed in the Data volume at the same path.

Others have posted that it is not found at the original path you posted. Unless something has changed, recently, I don't understand why you would not get a File Not Found error.

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Big Sur Admin Account Lost

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