High Sierra Problem - I'm admin with no administrative privileges

[Uddername]

Hey,

I've stumbled across this problem many times with High Sierra... and before my fix was just to upgrade to Mojave, which tends to fix it. However, I'm running a 15" 2010 i7 with High Sierra 10.13.16... and I can't upgrade any further with this machine.

Basically, I'm the Admin... it says my account is the Admin. However, I have no administrative privileges. Which means I can't open the lock to make any changes. When I type my password in to do so, it shakes and says incorrect. Despite me definitely typing in the correct password. I also can't do a whole bunch of things. Essentially I'm a non-admin user masquerading as an admin user. And I can't find a fix on the internet for this despite trying to 2 hours now.

Annoyingly, the majority of people seem to have a different problem - which is that their admin account... loses it's admin identity completely. The fix to that is to create a new admin account by fiddling with the terminal and forcing the machine into rebooting a new account setup assistant. However, when I do that it now means I have two 'admin' accounts without administrative privileges. So it doesn't help in the slightest.

I've tried resetting my password from utilities by holding CMD and R when rebooting and that doesn't alter anything. And I just need to stress that yes, the password is correct and no i haven't got caps lock on, nor am I working with a broken keyboard or anything like that.

If you how to fix this, it would be a huge help! Thanks in advance!

 

[DeltaMac]

If you log out of your user - can you use the admin password (the one that you know) to log back in?

When you are logged in (and your Mac otherwise is working as you expect) - have you verified that the keys that you use to type your password are working correctly? That is, the keys do actually make the characters that you expect?

When you restarted to the recovery system (cmd +R), you didn't say that you launched the terminal, and ran the "resetpassword" command (?) ... Did you do that? Be sure to actually change the password at that time, even if you continue with the exact, same password. Don't just assume that the password reset happens just by booting to the recovery system. You still have to run the command in the terminal then. (Do it once again, just to humor me )
Save it, then restart. You WILL see the login window to type in your password, which should work. Does it?
That should fix it!
Once you are back up and running, be sure to try unlocking one of the System Preference panes, which will be a quick test to be sure that your admin password is accepted, even while you are logged in to your account.

If you CAN'T unlock the same panes that couldn't unlock before this test, then I suggest that you reinstall your High Sierra system. This is a good time to use a bootable USB installer for that (and will be a faster install than using the recovery system to do that!)

 

[Uddername]

yes, when i log in and out, the password works like normal. This problem occurs in High Sierra 10.13 like so:

In Users & Groups, when i click on the lock which says 'Click the Lock to make changes' it allows me to enter the password and it accepts it. But nothing happens. I can't actually do anything. Like it was fooling with me. I can't right click on my admin account, I can't change parantel controls etc.

On High Sierra 10.13.6, when i click on the lock which says 'Click the Lock to make changes' it refuses to accept my password. It shakes like it's the wrong one. But it's not.

I can confirm the keyboard is working and producing the characters it should be. And I can confirm I have changed the password from the recovery system/terminal method.

I'm really baffled why i can't find somebody else online with the same problem as this. The reason this is quite a big issue is because I sold a MacBook 13" 2010 to somebody on eBay and they reported this problem to me. So I've checked my 15" 2010 with High Sierra and I have the same problem on mine. I don't want to go through the hassle of them returning me the machine but at the same time, it's my responsibility to find a solution to this problem for them.

Thanks for your time.

 

[DeltaMac]

I'm a little confused. You said that in Users and Groups (in High Sierra 10.13), that you can enter your password to unlock, but nothing happens (but it accepts your password).
(Does the padlock move to the unlock position? or, nothing happens at all?)
Then you say that, in High Sierra 10.13.6, you click on the padlock, enter password, but it shakes, like your password is incorrect.
Is that the only difference, just the system dot version?
What happens if you try downloading, then installing the 10.13.6 combo updater? If you cannot authenticate to run that updater, try rebooting to Safe Boot mode, and try the updater again. If you still cannot run that updater, boot to your bootable High Sierra installer, where you can reinstall the complete system.

My suggestion on prepping a "new" Mac that you want to sell. Boot to your installer. Erase the HD. Reinstall OS X. NO user setup. Leave that for the new owner. THEY do the passwords they want. Don't install anything else. Nothing, just the OS X system. Give the buyer a copy of your bootable installer (too easy, costs little, and allows the new buyer to easily erase/reinstall if they don't trust you (or even if they do!)
Just my opinion, and what I do for buyers for free.

 

[Uddername]

Yeah, it's because I pre-install some software occasionally for somebody who requests it.

Yes, you're corret in the differences between the two. Both don't allow me to make any adminstrative changes.

Tbh, i think my only solution is to install El Capitan onto an old 160gb HDD I have lying around, then sending that and an external SATA to USB cable, and telling him to reformat the internal SSHD the High Sierra is installed on, then installing El Capitan onto that, then migrating the software/User setup from the 160gb HDD El Capitan set up.

I don't know if there is a solution to this High Sierra dilemma.

 

[PROFESS0R]

Have you tried creating a new user with admin rights and then using the new account? Have you created a root password? If not, do so and then see if you can log into a terminal as root. Report back.

 

[Uddername]

Hey El Professor, I created a new user with admin rights but they have the same problem as the old admin account. I attempted to create a root password... but i do not have access to that function via User & Groups. I then went directing to Directory Editor where I was able to insert my password, it even unlocked the lock and confirmed 'authenticated as admin'... but then proceeded to let me do nothing. All the boxes which shouldn't be greyed were still greyed.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

You need an external drive with a copy of the OS on it that is bootable to the finder.
You need an administrative account on it THAT WORKS (that means you can enter a password and have it "take").
(the administrative account must be on the EXTERNAL drive)

Then...
You need to boot the problem 2010 MBP using that external drive.

Then...
You need to NUKE the drive on the 2010 MBP back to nothing (erased).

Then...
You need to install a fresh copy of the OS onto the internal drive, and start over.

If you try to log into a particular "administrative" account, and it won't accept a password that you KNOW works with "an administrative account"... what it tells me is... that you're trying to log into the WRONG account...

 

[PROFESS0R]

Open a terminal window and type:

su and then hit return
type in your root password and then hit return

What do you see in the terminal window?

Joe

Hey El Professor, I created a new user with admin rights but they have the same problem as the old admin account. I attempted to create a root password... but i do not have access to that function via User & Groups. I then went directing to Directory Editor where I was able to insert my password, it even unlocked the lock and confirmed 'authenticated as admin'... but then proceeded to let me do nothing. All the boxes which shouldn't be greyed were still greyed.