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I'm an idiot..cant remember log in name

R

ramw5p

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 29, 2010
51
0
little help!!!! my kid typed on the screen, and for the life of me i cant remember my id to log onto MBP. I know :)..i have tried all the names i have :), is there capitalization neessary etc???? i do know the password, but not the id!!! AM I SCREWED!!!! thankd for any advice....im an idiot.
 
If you login then open Macintosh HD then select Users and note down your User ID. If you cannot login then restart your machine and when the grey screen appears press command s. Once you have done that type "dscl . list /users" without the " " and note your user name (it is at the end of the list). As to capitalization, there are two ways you can login:
1) Using the Full Name of your user account, for example the Full name of the Account "Steve Jobs" is "Steve Jobs".
2) Using the nickname (ID) of your account, for example the nickname of the account "Steve Jobs" is NORMALLY "stevejobs".
 
Oh, also you shouldn't even suggest that we should say "your screwed", us Demis have a wicked sense of humour.
 
find out user name

Hi,
When you restart, does it not bring up a window to select the user from? Or just two blank boxes for user+password?

I can think of two options to recover the username:

first option (easy with second mac):
if you have another mac with firewire do this:
bring your macbook pro into firewire targetmode, and connect it as an external drive to your other computer (read about the target mode in your macbook pro manual, the forum and apple website. It is no magic trick, but very useful).
This will enable you to see (and modify, so be careful) the hard drive of your macbook on your other mac computer. The Macbook pro disk will probably have the default name "Macintosh HD" and will have the icon like an external drive. Go to the folder /Macintosh HD/Users/ and see which users are in there. One of these folder correspond to you user ID. Write it down on a piece of paper :)

Second option:
Boot the macbook pro form the Install DVD (read about this in the manual, I think hold option key (= ALT) when you turn on with drive inside. Then select DVD and boot into the install menu.

DO NOT START AN INSTALATION. THERE IS THE RISK THAT YOU OVERWRITE YOUR HARD DRIVE!!!

DONT click NEXT !!!!
In the menubar go to tools. One is called "reset password tool" or so. Just click on that option and it will present you with a selection of username for which you could reset the password (you dont need to do that, just write down your username from the list on a piece of paper).

thats it. don't start anything, cancel the install and restart the computer as normal without the install disc. Now you can try with your username+password combination.

good luck
 
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