iMac Hinge Repair, Why does Apple tech need access to my admin account?

[212rikanmofo]

I took in my iMac into the Apple Store to get the hinge issue replaced. But the tech told me that they need access to my main admin account. I don't want to give this out because I value my privacy, but he had the nerve to ask me what do you have on their that's so personal. I was extremely upset when he asked me that. Obviously if it's personal info then there's no need to ask me such a question. Anyways, I decided to cancel my appointment and take my computer back home. I wanted to ask you guys, is this normal procedure for the tech to ask for the rights to your main admin account to fix the hinge on your iMac. They mentioned that they needed access to the main account so that they can check to see if various things are working like they should, such as wifi, etc. But why do they need access to an admin account in order to check that? They can use the guest account or a non-admin account, can't they?

They even plugged my computer in and ran a pre-diagnostics check, as I sat there next to him, and all my hardware, memory, HD, checked out fine. There was no problems at all.

I really don't understand why they need access to my main account just to replace a hinge. Doesn't make any sense to me at all.

I would like to hear from others if they ran into a similar issue and what they did to get the problem resolved. The tech insisted there was no way for me to get my hinge fixed without giving up my admin account to them. I felt like they are trying to violate my privacy here.

 

[macmee]

easy: I backed my mac up to an external hard drive, wiped OS X, then restored once I got the mac back. If you have an extra hard disk laying around, I highly suggest carbon copy cloner for this.

hard: another time, I made a new admin account and deleted my old account. First, I backed up its home folder in /Users/username. Restoring the folder was annoying though. I had to recreate the account, copy over the home folder, but then CHMOD the home folder to be owned by the right account, and also had to change the group to be staff

 

[212rikanmofo]

Thanks, is carbon copy cloner a mac app and is it straight forward to use? I have a fusion drive in my iMac though, so it's a hybrid mix between a traditional HDD and SSD... how can it clone a fusion drive? Not sure if the app will get confused and see it as 2 different devices or a single one. I've never used carbon copy cloner before...

 

[tiktok]

That is really weird indeed!
They could even hook up an external HDD with their own OS & admin account.
I call BS! Call Apple Support and ask if that is normal because this is violates your privacy (Apple is supposedly carrying a lot about it)
I remember 14 years ago when my first Powerbook had a failure on the superdrive I've had to send it in (back then no Apple Stores in Germany) .. I was so puzzled how they could test it without my password!
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Thanks, is carbon copy cloner a mac app and is it straight forward to use? I have a fusion drive in my iMac though, so it's a hybrid mix between a traditional HDD and SSD... how can it clone a fusion drive? Not sure if the app will get confused and see it as 2 different devices or a single one. I've never used carbon copy cloner before...

Core Storage takes care of that. Just clone and clone back. Data might not end up where it was before but the Fusion Drive will sort that over time.
Means CCC will see only one drive - the fusion drive not the separate physical drives.

 

[maflynn]

I've not needed to bring in my Mac for repairs often, but the last time I did, I backed it up.
Wiped the computer and then set up a basic account for them to use. Once done, I restored my backup

 

[Arran]

...but he had the nerve to ask me what do you have on their that's so personal. I was extremely upset when he asked me that.

He really said that? Wow. He has no idea of what privacy is, does he? I wouldn't trust someone with an attitude like that either. I would've walked too.

The geniuses in stores are not what they used to be.

 

[Fishrrman]

I'm going to -guess- that (after the repair) the tech wanted to be able to do a full boot to a "logged-in" account to check that everything looked ok with the Mac up-and-running in its normal day-to-day status.

In a case like this, could not one create a "secondary, temporary" user account with standard (non-administrative) privileges, giving the tech the means to boot the computer to "regular running status" without logging into your personal account?