Questions tagged [user-account]
User accounts facilitate different agents and settings on a computer. User accounts have a login name and a password, along with a home directory on the filesystem.
724 questions
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Suddenly lost my admin status
I have a Macbook Pro M1 running Sequoia 15.1.1.
I only have one user installed on my Mac, and this user suddenly seems to have lost its admin status. Looking in system prefs shows that the user is now ...
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How can I solve the "Fetching..." issue when assigning users or groups permissions to folders or apps?
In Sequoia 15.1 (but looks an old known issue). Using the GUI, I created a group to bind it to a folder and an application. On both, this happens:
I searched the web but some solutions look very ...
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No users are listed on any volumes, when resetting password, in internet recovery mode. Macbook has broken keyboard topcase with stuck modifier keys
My password won't work. I am dyslexic. I have a Macbook Retina 12". It has a broken 'top case' which means different combinations of modifier keys are regularly enabled, namley the shift key. I ...
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How do I find out why my computer hangs during logout?
I use multiple user accounts on my Mac (For security purposes, make sensitive/private information physically inaccessible in certain contexts).
If I start and shutdown the computer in a normal single-...
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Transfer profile data from old Mac to new without the "garbage"?
I recently transferred the profile I use from my old Mac to a new one.
Thanks to Migration Assistant and Thunderbolt everything went smoothly and fast. That is until I realised all the "garbage&...
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Add a two-word user name to sudoer
Running a MacBook Pro 2016, MacOS Monterey v 12.7.6.
I need to add a username with admin privileges to allow that user to run a specific program, VeraCrypt, as explained here. In summary, one adds ...
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Specify default user on the MacOS login screen?
Currently, it seems to default alphabetically, so 'Adam' would be default rather than 'Eve.', but I prefer the 'Eve' as the default user. Currently, you have to press Escape, cancelling out of 'Adam'...
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Is it possible to create multiple accounts with identical UID (Unique ID)?
A pretty standard Unix trick is to have different user names that map to the same UID. This is used to login with different shells, possibly different home directories, different primary gid etc. In ...
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Can’t switch to another logged-in user
Sonoma 14.5, Macbook Air M1 2020
Switching between logged in users works fine for a while (~10 minutes?) after rebooting, but then stops working. This includes via the lock/login screen, via touch-ID, ...
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problem with display size after disconnecting external display and changing user account
Here is the problem I am facing. I am logged in into 2 accounts, A and B, and have been using both accounts with an external display. Then, while on account A, I unplug the display and switch to ...
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Trying to merge multiple folders - I messed up
I wanted to merge multiple folders into one, so I used this command in terminal:
cd containing_folder
mv */* .
Well that didn't really go as planned and resulted in lots of folders being moved to my ...
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82
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running app as a different user
I want to start app N as user U2 while logged in as user U1. The idea is U2 is less privilidged than U1, thus it would be safer to run suspicious apps. Is it possible?
I tried su U2; cd /...
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139
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Can't delete a user, or even find it in the system
I got a user that I can't delete, I have no idea where it's stored.
I see it in the top bar, but not in Settings->Users or in /Users/
How do I find the PostgreSQL user and delete it?
I can't create ...
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Remap standard ~/User folders Pictures, Documents etc to a different drive while keeping the *special* Finder Sidebar icons
Does anyone know of a definitive modern (Ventura-onwards) solution to moving the standard folders in a user directory to a different drive, NOT moving the ~/User directory itself, but moving ~/...
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How to remove a standard user from iMac without their Apple ID password?
The iMac I use at work has a standard user, belonging to an ex-employee. This person left the company so I would like to remove the user account from the Mac. I have an admin account.
The problem is ...
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Creating a new user profile with the same user profile folder name
If I want to revert macOS settings or maybe to fix some of its bugs, I may decide to create a new user profile.
My name is John and the name of my user profile folder is just that, john. That is, when ...
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Create a user and switch to it from the command line in macOS
Following Can user accounts be managed via the command line?, I did:
sudo dscl localhost -create /Local/Default/Users/myuid
Then following How to login as a different bash user in terminal?, I did:
...
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I have 2 user accounts on my Mac. I would like to close one account and transfer all data to the admin user before closing
I have 2 user accounts on my Mac. I created the 2nd one to sort stuff properly but it's not very efficent to switch between 2 users. Therefore, I would like to close the 2nd account and transfer all ...
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53
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How much memory is a specific user account using?
I have an M1 MacBook Pro, and I've just enabled fast user switching to allow my partner to use my device with her own account when I'm not using it, as we can't justify the cost of purchasing a second ...
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How to enable multiple user accounts on an iPad, to be used by a family
I'm trying to set up a new iPad 9 to be used by me, my wife, and our kid, all under their own user accounts at the iOS level. I know it's not straightforward to do this, but I'm trying to do it using ...
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How to make OpenVPN Connect work in a multi-user macos?
How to make OpenVPN Connect work in a multi-user setup in macos 14?
If it launches after a user logs in and OpenVPN Connect launches there, then after the user logs out and another one logs in, the ...
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How can I force another user to sign out? [duplicate]
I'm the Admin user on my Mac mini but sometimes other family members use the Mac mini too with their own user/profile. Sometimes they forget to logout though.
I don't know their logins so I can't ...
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Enable normal user accounts to always force a system shutdown
I have a system with normal user accounts and an account with "administrator" privileges. Whenever that admin account is logged in, normal users can not shut down the system any more. I need ...
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Why do I get "invalid email address" when I try to add a new user in the "Users and Access" tab of "app store connect"
I want to add a contractor to our company's App Store Connect account so that I can add him to our TestFlight for our app.
Maybe the problem is because the email address needs to already have an Apple ...
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where are startup apps formerly found in system settings?
Formerly I could add or remove apps autostarted at user login in the System Settings/Users & Groups page... but they don't appear there any more. I couldn't find them in the other several System ...
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What is the _messagebus user group and can I delete it?
I recently migrated to a new Mac running Ventura, and it looks like it migrated three user groups. I've figured out what the first two are and am going to delete them, but I can't figure out what the ...
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the user account changed to standard and become not adminstrate the computer please help [duplicate]
On macOS Sierra I was trying to change the settings like profile name and other settings when I clicked on the lock symbol to open this setting to change it. I accidentally clicked on and doesn't ...
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Can I Merge two OSX accounts
I have two accounts on my MacBook (OSX 12.6.5). I can access each account fine but I would like all the files to be in just one account.
Can I merge the two accounts?
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how does SetupAssistant treat uid numbers when moving users from an old machine to a newly installed OS?
I have two users on my 2019 iMac. (Ventura 13.5.2) I want to use SetupAssistant to move these users accounts to my brand new Macmini.
The instructions for Setup Assistant indicate that on your first ...
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Directories owned by user 501 after migrating between MacBooks and changing users
I set up a new Macbook using the migration assistant. As I wanted to keep the name of my user directory on the old machine, and this was attached to an account I migrated as part of the process, I did ...
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Login to local admin from mobile user
I'm on MacOS 13.5 on a Macbook. On the first login screen after turning my computer on (which I think it's for FileVault), a local admin user shows up (which I have the password to). I can login here, ...
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"Install for me only" option is grayed out when trying to install programs
I am running MacOS Ventura on a MacBook Air 2020 (M1). I am running under an admin account, although not the primary account (if there is such a thing). I am trying to install both Microsoft Teams and ...
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93
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How do I transfer ownership of electron-based applications from one user account to another on a Mac?
I read somewhere that for security purposes it's a good practice to not use your the admin account for your your day to day activities on your computer, but instead create a separate account that ...
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Which users should I connect as when backing up multiple hosts to a shared drive?
Alice and Bob both have MacBooks. There's an always-on mac mini with a 5TB external drive they want to use for Time Machine backups. Bob signs in to the Mac Mini and plugs in the 5TB drive, and ...
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Create script that run command as admin ,but allow non sudo/admin user to execute it
I want to run below command
networksetup -setMTU en0 1280
but this requires admin credentials
networksetup -setMTU en0 1280
** Error: Command requires admin privileges.
I want to create a ...
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Picture-in-picture, but for users?
On my Macbook Pro I have three accounts. One is an Administrator account, the other two are standard users: one for all my work-related stuff, while the other is personal. I keep the two completely ...
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After downgrade account to standard user not able to login
After downgrade an account to standard, this user is not able to log in. After reboot came up a login window, then progress bar and then a login window again. There message is "After reboot Touch-...
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Best way to import user profile on Mac from external HDD after data recovery on Windows?
For an iMac that had a crashed fusion drive due to damages in fusion data structures, I had to perform a data recovery on Windows.
From the data recovery software, the user profile (let's call it &...
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How to delete a Ghost User - PostgresSQL
I have a PostgresSQL ghost user that only appears in PostgresSQL. I can't find it anywhere else.
I'm unable to login to that user, and it can't be removed. Does anyone have any idea on how to remove ...
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Can share files in 'Public' folder, but not folders
I have two user accounts on one Mac, and am trying to share a folder from one to the other.
I put the folder into my Public folder and set the permissions to 'everyone' and 'apply enclosed'.
When I ...
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356
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How to create a system user/group that will appear in /etc/passwd and /etc/groups?
I want to programmatically create a system user (and group) for a new system service I'm working on. I've followed the hints to use dscl here:
https://serverfault.com/questions/20702/how-do-i-create-...
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Security application access from a standard user to administrator user - can it be "sandboxed"?
I have an administrator user on a Macbook laptop. From the admin account I have created a standard user. On the standard user I have installed Sophos which had to have full disk access enabled for it ...
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"IsHidden" attribute for sharepoint groups ("com.apple.sharepoint.group.*.plist")
On my macOS 11 Big Sur, there are several groups titled "com.apple.sharepoint.group.*.plist" (where * is a number starting from 1 and increasing).
What I understand - they are related to ...
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Can I enable file sharing of an admin session from another admin session using the Terminal?
For an unknown reason all the system features of my mac (macOs High Sierra, Mbp late 2012) are inaccessible and it is impossible to launch the applications. An error message shows that the application ...
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Create a new account that is not a member of the "staff" group
By default, it seems that all new "Standard" accounts are added to the staff group. Can I create a new account that is not a member of staff and is not a "Sharing Only" account?
I ...
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Cannot remove user from a group
I would like to remove a user, "name", from the staff group.
Running dseditgroup -o edit -d name -t user staff seems to have no effect.
Why doesn't this work and what should I do differently ...
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"Users & Groups" does not display groups on Ventura 13.2
On Ventura 13.2, when I go to the "Users & Groups" settings page, no groups are displayed and there does not seem to be any way to make them appear.
The "macOS User Guide" ...
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Prevent non-administrator accounts from seeing time machine drive
I have added a standard, non administrator account to my Mac running Ventura 13.2
The new account can read files from an attached drive being used as a Time Machine and I would like to prevent this.
...
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How to restrict user creation on Mac from System Settings?
I use my mac with admin user, which is the only user on the device. I just want to restrict user creation from the "User and Groups" in System Settings or Preference. Or even if the admin ...
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779
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Restore a deleted user on Mac via command line
I'm trying to add a user based on an backed-up home folder via command line.
I have tried the UI approach documented by apple at Restore a deleted user on Mac. This works but I need to do this as part ...