I have lost administrator access after trying to change my username in system preferences and restarting. I have followed the directions by rebooting in Single user mode, ⌘S and typing the following commands: /sbin/fsck -fy /sbin/mount -uw / rm /var/db/.applesetupdone It then asks if I want to override rm /var/db/.applesetupdone and if I then type "YES" it says that it is a read only file and nothing happens. I have also tried typing rm /var/db/.applesetupdone in terminal and again it asks me if I want to override, and again answering YES I get the reply Permission denied: override r-------- root/wheel for /var/db/.applesetupdone? YES rm: /var/db/.applesetupdone: Permission denied I am using MacOS High Sierra Version 10.13.4 **How do I remove applesetupdone or get administrator privileges back?**

I need to reset my admin password (https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/61932/17533) . Can't boot into Recovery Volume, so I need to boot into Single User Mode and modify the Data volume. When booting into Single User Mode, the system shows the following help: To mount the root device as read-write: $ /bin/mount -X / However, that leads to an error message: mount: illegal option -- X I also tried the old mount -uw -, but that leads to some *firmlink* related messages, and afterwards I still have no writeable Data area. mount shows that the Data volume is already mounted at /System/Volumes/Data as read-only. Trying to unmount it with umount leads to an "Operation not permitted" error. mount -uw /dev/disk1s1 (which is the Data partition as shown by mount) leads to the error "Found 2 volumes in group ... Failed to stat file //AppleInternal, error No such file or directory".

A bit of a trail here; I'll try to be concise (bullets usually do the trick!): - Started up my old iMac G3; it auto-logged into my son's account (user: spencer). - Tried to switch to *MY* account (user: dad) but it prompted me for the password and I could not remember it - Turned off auto-login (that was a mistake as, upon reboot, it showed both accounts and I did not know the password for either. Couldn't go anywhere from there. - I bought a set of Panther install CDs, inserted in the iMac's CD tray and pressed 'C' as I restarted. It did not see the CD and went right to the user login screen. I also tried it pressing 'option'; it didn't bring up a choice of startup options...went right to login screen. - I thought perhaps I could use target disk mode to connect to my Intel MB Pro via firewire and then use the Panther installer running on my MB Pro to change the password. Unfortunately, holding down 't' at iMac startup did not put it into target disk mode - I researched and found single user mode, as well as the procedure for changing the password on pre-10.7. I used the ' /sbin/mount –uw' command so I could change files. Ultimately, none of the procedures worked (the expected prompts never came up or folders didn't exist). - Finally, I was able to use rm -v /var/db/.AppleSetupDone to bring up the new user panels so I could create a new user admin account. - I am able to get as far as the user and password creation panel but there are no profile images available to select and -- I think -- that prevents the 'Continue' button from activating (see screen shot) It would be helpful if there were a command I can use to force reboot: - from the internal CD or - into target disk mode Any thoughts, folks? Thanks. Researched and discovered how to use

As the title says, I cannot boot my iMac (late 2012) into anything. I’ve tried everything from booting into Safe Mode, Recovery Mode (and Internet Recovery Mode), doing a diagnostics test (which didn’t work), and resetting NVRAM and SMC; nothing is working. I’m just stuck in a boot loop, the progress bar gets to around 60% and it turns off and reboots. I also have an external hard drive which I boot into to play games but when I try to boot in using the Option key, I get back to the boot loop. I’ve tried booting into Single User Mode and trying to run fsck but I can't do it because I can't disable SIP. I’m really stuck on what do to. Is there any fix to this, or do I have to take a trip to the Apple Store?

The shell which opens in Single User Mode on my Mac doesn‘t allow to just use „Cursor up“ to access the previous command. How can easily do this without having to retype it?

I have a MacBook Pro 15” mid 2014 (running Mojave) which has been stuck for a day on loading bars. It all started after the computer shut down despite being at around 60% of the charge. I have tried to boot in every possible mode unsuccessfully: - In recovery mode it gets stuck on apple logo at 1/3 of the bar. - In internet recovery mode, it gets stuck immediately after passing the waiting with the globe. It stays on the apple logo stuck at the beginning of the bar. - In safe mode (shift + power button) it gets stuck at 100% of the bar in the user entry page. after option + power button, I can select the drive but after that it gets stuck again on the bar. - In single user mode I typed /sbin/fsck -fy and got the message that the volume is okay. After typing reboot nothing changed though. - I also ran verbose mode. I can’t upload a picture for the moment but I got few messages with written: failed to get apfs volume keybag and failed to initialize volume keybag. I also ran diagnostic and got Reference Code: PPT002. About the battery that needs to be replaced soon. In all the modes except when I am trying to log in normally, after being stuck for around 20 minutes or more, the computer turns off despite being charging. I also tried resetting SMC and PRAM. I can hear the fans working, keyboard’s light and its commands are working too. I really don’t know what else to do. Hope someone can help. thanks a lot!!

For when the allure of all computer-based distractions is too great, being limited to only the command line seems attractive. Give me my files and vim, and force me to focus on the work at hand. Having to turn off and restart the computer off to get access to a browser sounds helpful as well. Single User Mode seems to meet these needs! SUM starts up without any volumes mounted, but after mounting root, all your files should be available. Everything I'm seeing online about SUM is about using it for [recovery](https://eshop.macsales.com/blog/42126-safe-mode-single-user-mode-what-they-are-how-to-use-them/) , but it seems like it could be a great productivity mode as well. **Is there a reason I should not use single user mode except for recovery?** Am I exposing myself to more risk of messing anything up? Is what I'm envisioning not actually realistic? The same question, as well, for recovery mode, though it seems recovery mode has less access? I'm running Catalina on a 2015 MacBook Pro, though likely upgrading to Monterey soon.

As part of trying to repair my Macintosh HD boot volume I have tried to boot into Safe Mode as well as Single User mode. However, when I boot the computer using either of the proper keypress combinations, after a short wait I get this screen. Running High Sierra on a pre-Metal Mac Mini. I have used Bootcamp previously and a corruption of the Windows installation is what started this rabbit hole. The primary macOS Volume does appear when I hold down the Option key at startup but DiskUtil and 'fsck' are having issues verifying/repairing it and it will not boot at this time. Neither will the Bootcamp Windows 10 volume. I did unplug the computer to reset the SMC with no change. How can I properly start my Mac in macOS Safe mode or Single-User mode instead of Windows Recovery?

First of all, there's no firmware password or anything fancy. I'm trying to diagnose a late-2011 MacBook Pro 15", and I'm trying to get into the single user mode. I press and hold Cmd+S (the left Cmd, if it changes anything) but I'm not getting into the mode. I've tried pressing (and holding) it before pressing the power button, at the same time, a little after etc. I've tried all the combinations. It just won't enter. It will keep booting or let's say (try booting) into the OS where it gets stuck. When I press Cmd+S, however, I can see a very brief terminal in the middle for a very short/split second, and it disappears as I haven't pressed it all. What am I doing wrong? **UPDATE**: I've tried Cmd+S on another 15" MacBook Pro from 2011, and it behaves the same: It just won't let me into recovery mode. They are both Yosemite, one is 10.10.3, and I can't tell the other one's minor version since I can't boot into the system in any way (and it's owner doesn't know the version either). **UPDATE 2:** As Buscar웃 asked me about the verbose mode process, I took a video of booting into verbose mode: https://s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/downstage-eu0/IMG_1942.MOV **UPDATE 3:** Here's a GIF version of the video. I had to reduce quality and size a lot, but you'd get the general idea:

I deleted a partition of my mac and may have to recover my passwords from a file on the disk. I want to make a disk image to allow later recovery and reinstall the system, but I can't mount an external disk in write mode. I tried to mount the disk using the command:

mount -t ntfs -o rw disk13s2 /Volumes/ext/

However, the disk is only mounted read only. [The command csrutil disable](https://www.hawkdive.com/block-or-disable-usb-storage-devices-on/#disable-SIP) is not available. How can I mount my external disk in write mode so I can make a disk image?

I would like to view the hashes on my Mac, in either single user mode, or the terminal in recovery mode. I tried to follow the steps described in https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/186893/os-x-10-9-where-are-password-hashes-stored . But I do not see my users plist file in the /var/db... folder, but I see root, nobody, daemon, and other .plist files. How can I find these files in recovery/single user mode? Note: The OS I would be using is either OS X Yosemite or OS X El Capitan; both would be great to know.

I'm on Big Sur 11.2.2, Single User Mode. When I use /sbin/mount -uw /, it says mount_apfs: volume could not be mounted: Permission denied and failed with 66. I have read [this post](https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/388469/unable-to-mount-read-write-in-os-catalina-10-15-4-in-single-user-mode) . But mount -uw /System/Volumes/Data gives mount: unknown special file or file system /System/Volumes/Data/. Also, csrutil enable --without fs in recovery mode changes nothing. Errors still occurs. (Previous tries are based on SIP entirely disabled.) The commands mount -P 1; /usr/libexec/init_data_protection; mount -P 2 in the prompt during startup works. However, I don't know what it's mounting. PS: current SIP status:

Configuration:
	Apple Internal: disabled
	Kext Signing: enabled
	Filesystem Protections: disabled
	Debugging Restrictions: enabled
	DTrace Restrictions: enabled
	NVRAM Protections: enabled
	BaseSystem Verification: enabled

This is an unsupported configuration, likely to break in the future and leave your machine in an unknown state.

How to enable AirPort network (and other) services; in single-user mode? - - - **Input:** *(including prompt string)* bash-3.2# networksetup -setairportnetwork en0 [password] **Output:** Error obtaining SC session. All Wi-Fi network services are disabled. - - - So I tried to power up the interface. - - - **Input:** *(including prompt string)* bash-3.2# networksetup -setairportpower en0 on **Output:** Error obtaining SC session. You cannot set Wi-Fi power because all AirPort network services are disabled. - - - Not letting me use Apple's native disk utility either. It seems like most basic system services are disabled by default. - - - **Input:** *(including prompt string)* bash-3.2# diskutil list **Output:** Unable to run because unable to use the DiskManagement framework. Common reasons include, but are not limited to, the DiskArbitration framework being unavailable due to being booted in single-user mode. - - -

I'm trying to mount a USB stick in single-user mode (thankfully there's nothing wrong with my Mac, I'm just trying some stuff out). These are the commands I've been running:

$ mount -uw / 
$ mkdir /Volumes/drive
$ mount -t msdos /dev/disk2 /Volumes/drive
mount_msdos: Unsupported sector size (0)

The USB drives connects to my system properly and is visible in /dev/. I've reformatted the drive as HFS and got the same error message. I've also tried another USB stick formatted in both FAT32 and HFS, to no avail. I assume this must mean that I'm doing something wrong here, but a quick Google search shows that most people succeed using this approach. I'm running MacOS Sierra 10.12.6 on a mid 2012 MacBook Pro.

From single-user mode in OS X 10.5, I want to run diskutil repairPermissions / but I get an error: Unable to run because unable to use the DiskManagement framework ... Is there a way to load the DiskManagement framework or otherwise repair permissions in single user mode?

I have faced a problem where my Mac is not booting up and throwing messages like this continuously. process crashed: opendirectoryd. Too many corpses being created. I tried repairing the Hard Disk and re-installing OS, but that didn't fixed the issue. So before i erase the disk and re-install again, i have to backup my files. So i boot-ed up in Single user mode, but i wasn't able to mount the pen drive, as High Sierra prevents loading unsigned kernel extensions, in this instance msdos kext for mounting my FAT formatted pen drive. So i eventually fixed it with the help of online forums and i m putting it together so that it can be useful to others as well.

My DGPU is shot on my late 2011 MacBook Pro 17", and I want to disable it from single-user mode. The problem is that holding down CMD + S doesn't open single-user mode, and the laptop won't boot to the OS. I currently have Windows 10 installed on it, and it doesn't get past the boot throbber. Much obliged.

I'm trying to copy some files from Single user mode to an external USB but I'm having trouble. I can't use the terminal in another account because it's not an administrator account and it's not in the /etc/sudoers file. I need sudo because these files contain the password for a specific user who forgot their password. The path for these files are /Volumes//var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/users/.plist. I need to mount my usb first to actually put the files in the drive. To do that, I need to make a new directory and mount the drive there using the mount command. But for some reason, even after I run /sbin/mount -uw, I still get an error saying that the root filesystem is read-only. Does anyone know how to fix this? I'm running Single User mode on Mac OSX 10.6.8.

I'm trying to recover the password of an old iMac, couldn’t boot to Recovery though. So I went into single user mode to access the files, which worked. I have an external hard drive that is formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) to put the files I'm looking for on the iMac into the drive. I copied them and I went to my computer to access it. But now my drive isn't mounting! When I did the copy I ran the command cp /dev/disk1s2. When I try to mount it on the other computer to see the files, I tried mounting it through the command line with diskutil mountDisk /dev/disk2 and diskutil mount /dev/disk2s2. Both commands gave me an error saying that the disk failed to mount. I also tried mounting it through Disk Utility but nothing happens. I need those files because it contains the password of the computer. How am I going to see the files?

I am at my wit’s end here. I’m trying to install Windows on my macOS Catalina, version 10.15.7, but BootCamp keeps saying “The disk could not be partitioned” even though I have more than enough space (400GB available for it.) I tried doing something with /sbin/fsck -y but then my computer says “error: container /dev/rdisk1 is mounted with write access”. I’ve been trying for more than a week now and I still haven’t figured anything out. We even formatted our computer just to see if it could help with the process, but it was still the same as it was before it was formatted. I have already run First Aid, but I still get my problem. Time Machine is already off. If there is anyone willing to help me or contact me to help with this problem, please let me know because I am so close to contacting Apple Support even though I don’t live in the US. I tried using my braincells to do this, that didn’t work, I tried combining my braincells with my father’s for this, still didn’t work, so I’m really looking for any possible solutions here. Thanks so much in advance to those who can help me and make suggestions. Cheers.