It happened after changing admin name following migration to new Mac Air. I've tried various suggested fixes calling for Single User Mode, then mount-uw/ and rm /var/db/. AppleSetUp, also going to Disk Utility and following suggestion to mount, etc. Nothing works. Every time I run a command I get no such file or directory, which I can only assume is why these fixes aren't working. Two questions:
1.Is there another step to the usual fixes that I need to be taking to avoid "no such file..."?
2. If all else fails, if I were to back up the system from Time Machine (pre-problem causing event), will my old admin privileges (name, password) be restored and things will be as they were, say, two weeks ago?
(High Sierra 10.13.6 if that matters)
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Starting in macOS Catalina (10.15), macOS uses a split volume format, which requires changes to the various procedures. I've added comments to several out-of-date answers here; see if the procedures there (modified per my comments) work for you. – Gordon Davisson Apr 16 '21 at 21:48
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It’s going to be hard to offer blanket advice since if your hardware has failed, your backup is suspect, no amount of correct process will help. This would be a data recovery project which is very different than trying to recover from a lost password, admin database corruption.
- Reinstalling the current OS from recovery should fix the machine enough to follow this guide to reset the password. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211672
- If you know your backup is good, erase the Mac and then migrate back. https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/erase-and-reinstall-macos-mh27903/mac
If you ask a follow on question making notes which parts of the password reset process you chose and what step was the last you could complete, we might be able to offer a process change in case you missed a step or there’s an undocumented fix, but there are a ton of steps in the reset process, hard to guess where your case diverged from the expected path...
bmike
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