[bcoe]

My MacBook does not recognize my admin. password so I cannot update software or make changes to my system preferences. When I type in the regular password and username that I have always used it says “invalid username or password.”

Option 1: My password is incorrect
Option 2: My username is incorrect
Option 3: There is a computer glitch

Option 1: I have tried many things and most recently I changed the administrator’s password and my own password by installing the Mac OS X install disc and pressing “C”. I followed the directions and changed it all. All passwords are now known, still no success.

Option 2: I am the only user on this computer. I am a “standard” user, not enabled as an administrator. I have never used anything besides one password to install programs and make changes prior to this incident.
Is there some administrator username I should try using? What is the administrator’s “name” if nobody is explicitly enabled as the administrator? Isn’t it just my regular user ID?

Option 3: Glitch?

The funny thing is that at some point the password I have always been using stopped working for installing software and making changes to System Preferences, however the same password DOES work when I use it to log on to my computer on start-up. Suddenly doesn’t accept what I have always been using.

What’s the deal?

Thanks for the help.

[rab777hp]

When you first set up your computer you set up an admin account (this is your account), unless you've changed anything, you should still be an admin, I want to say it would stop you are something from removing the one admin account you have, but I am not sure.

try doing this to get a new password:
Boot into single user mode (press Command-S at power on)
Type fsck -fy
Type mount -uw /
Type launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist
Type dscl . -passwd /Users/username password, replacing username with the targeted user and password with the desired password.
Reboot

[bcoe]

Thank you very much for your reply. I have to be honest and say that I am a little reluctant to go through the procedure you lay out because I hesitate to get too involved in that way because my knowledge is limited. I have saved your reply and I will possibly try it later. For now I will sit on the problem for a little while longer.

I do know now what password the computer is looking for because it gave me the hint I supplied when I first created the password. Even so, it is not recognizing the username/password combination.

Thanks again.

[rab777hp]

Look, it's not actually that hard, just take it nice and simple, print out the directions, and follow them one line at a time, very simple when you look at it that way, it's just typing commands off of a sheet of paper, a child could do it. Just as long as you follow the instructions, you should 100% A-OK.

[rab777hp]

By the way- did you have Adobe CS on there? There is a problem associated with that that does this.

[bcoe]

It turns out this problem was not an issue of an unrecognized admin password, but was an issue of "loss of admin privelages." I found the following thread that answered the question:

http://discussions.a...ssageID=8200459

To open the lock and also to authorize the installation of programs the username I had to use was: "root" along with the appropriate password.

Thanks again rab777hp for taking the time to reply. You might want to know that the reason I did not follow through immediately on your advice was not because I couldn't follow your instructions, but because I didn't want to potentially create a bigger problem by getting into unfamiliar territory. I thought waiting a bit before diving into what you recommended would be OK, and it turns out that it was because the answer finally came to me. In the future you might want to avoid belittling the intelligence of those whom you give advice if you really want them to listen to you.

[rab777hp]

I was not intending to 'belittle anyone's intelligence' but to explain that it was indeed very simple, a controlled environment explored by many people, which you are absolutely safe in, I was trying to assert the safeness of the solution. (And I might remind you that its their loss if they don't choose to listen.)