[SOLVED] Catalina won't allow to change password

[ell]

Hi, I'm a bit stumped here, my client wants to change her account password (she is a admin along with her husbands account) and I did the usual unlock the padlock and attempt to change it but I get a message Your system administrator may not allow you to change your password or there was some other problem with your password. Contact your system administrator for help.
How can I get around this? Can I clear the password safely from terminal in recovery?

 

[overburnz]

You maybe able to reset the password with terminal, weird the message you're receiving

 

[ell]

You maybe able to reset the password with terminal, weird the message you're receiving

Yeah I've done that before from terminal, but this a friend's mac I don't want to make thing worse

 

[overburnz]

best advice is: clone the HD, reset password, if things go sideways you still have the backup

 

[ell]

best advice is: clone the HD, reset password, if things go sideways you still have the backup

another question, there are two admin accounts, hers and her "future" ex, I do not want to touch his account login in ANY way, I have only ever reset a account password in tenrminal when there is only one account in the machine, is the procedure different wihen there are two accounts?

 

[overburnz]

another question, there are two admin accounts, hers and her "future" ex, I do not want to touch his account login in ANY way, I have only ever reset a account password in tenrminal when there is only one account in the machine, is the procedure different wihen there are two accounts?

No, when you enter the command on the terminal it will ask you to choose wich account you want to reset the password and that's it

 

[ell]

No, when you enter the command on the terminal it will ask you to choose wich account you want to reset the password and that's it

thanks I could REALLY create some problems there, so I tried it but it appears with Catalina you need your apple id to reset a password now from recovery, I would rather not bug her for that while she's on vacation.

 

[nlinecomputers]

thanks I could REALLY create some problems there

use that account to enable root.

How to enable the root user or change the root password on Mac - Apple Support

Mac administrators can use the root user account to perform tasks that require access to more areas of the system.

support.apple.com

 

[ell]

use that account to enable root.

How to enable the root user or change the root password on Mac - Apple Support

Mac administrators can use the root user account to perform tasks that require access to more areas of the system.

support.apple.com

Thanks I'll give that a try in the morning

 

[Markverhyden]

Personally I'd not enable root. I'd create a new admin level account. Also did you go into System Preferences>Apple ID and see which ID it's tied to? Maybe check passwords and security to see if there is something relevant? But as @overburnz said you need to make sure you have a known good backup before proceeding.

 

[ell]

So I logged into root and still when I tried to reset her password got a message "password reset failed" what the?

 

[ell]

Personally I'd not enable root. I'd create a new admin level account. Also did you go into System Preferences>Apple ID and see which ID it's tied to? Maybe check passwords and security to see if there is something relevant? But as @overburnz said you need to make sure you have a known good backup before proceeding.

Thanks good ideas, I'll try them, what do you like to use for cloning mac's? Also I presume if I make a time machine backup she'd have to use her user ID to recover it if I wiped the system right?

 

[nlinecomputers]

Some kind of corrupt profile? Perhaps incorrect permissions on the home directory? @Markverhyden what is the Mac equivalent of FSCK?

 

[nlinecomputers]

Personally I'd not enable root. I'd create a new admin level account. Also did you go into System Preferences>Apple ID and see which ID it's tied to? Maybe check passwords and security to see if there is something relevant? But as @overburnz said you need to make sure you have a known good backup before proceeding.

So I logged into root and still when I tried to reset her password got a message "password reset failed" what the?

Normally I agree but I hoped that superuser status would force the reset. Note that you need to disable ROOT. Don’t leave it enabled.

 

[ell]

Normally I agree but I hoped that superuser status would force the reset. Note that you need to disable ROOT. Don’t leave it enabled.

Yup I disabled it spending way too much time on this, thanks everyone though appreciate the help really want to help this kid She's going through a horrible divorce and just wants to keep her husband out of her account. Even though since he has admin too he could probably go in and change her password but I don't know if he is aware of that.

 

[Markverhyden]

Thanks good ideas, I'll try them, what do you like to use for cloning mac's? Also I presume if I make a time machine backup she'd have to use her user ID to recover it if I wiped the system right?

My preference is to use Time Machine since all I have to have a a destination with enough space. None of that matching drive size issue when booting with a cloning tool. Of course TM is not perfect. It'll back up the good, the bad and the ugly without a peep. Based on what you've posted she would probably have to authenticate her Apple ID when in Recovery mode.

Some kind of corrupt profile? Perhaps incorrect permissions on the home directory? @Markverhyden what is the Mac equivalent of FSCK?

Apple rolled all those functions into Disk Utility, the GUI version, and diskutil, the CLI version. CLI gives much more flexibility than the GUI version. But they've completely removed the repair permissions in both GUI and CLI.

 

[ell]

My preference is to use Time Machine since all I have to have a a destination with enough space. None of that matching drive size issue when booting with a cloning tool. Of course TM is not perfect. It'll back up the good, the bad and the ugly without a peep. Based on what you've posted she would probably have to authenticate her Apple ID when in Recovery mode.


Apple rolled all those functions into Disk Utility, the GUI version, and diskutil, the CLI version. CLI gives much more flexibility than the GUI version. But they've completely removed the repair permissions in both GUI and CLI.

I ran disk utility repair on both partitions and they were just fine, wouldn't creating another admin account just fail too since the Root account couldn't accomplish it?

 

[ell]

Personally I'd not enable root. I'd create a new admin level account. Also did you go into System Preferences>Apple ID and see which ID it's tied to? Maybe check passwords and security to see if there is something relevant? But as @overburnz said you need to make sure you have a known good backup before proceeding.

I checked apple id under sys pref an its hers, didn't see anything under security, I'm making a time machine backup now before I try creating another admin acct.

 

[ell]

Password reset failed again using a new admin account, I'm running out of ideas here. There is no ? by her login box to use her apple ID. But it appears from recovery password reset that there are 3 options, I'm assuming they require apple id to work. Should I try doing a reinstall of Catalina?

 

[Markverhyden]

Running out of options here. Did you try an SMC reset? If that fails boot into recovery mode do a re-install to refresh things. After making sure you have some good TM restore points of course.