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I rebooted my Macbook Air (running Sierra) about 3 days ago, which led to the progress bar to fill up to 100%, then freeze. After going down the rabbit hole, I found out my User 'login' was removed, but all my files are still safe and sound on my mac. I'm stuck at a login screen with the only option being 'Other...' which didn't work for entering my credentials.

Attempting to go through 'rm [...] .applesetupdone' and creating an account returns "Unable to connect to the MDM server for your organization."

Finally to the question: How do I create a user from a folder without using System Preferences? I have access to Single-User, Recovery, and Terminal.

bmike
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HighVelocityTicTac
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  • Possible duplicate of I don't have administrator account on my mac – Allan Feb 19 '19 at 15:51
  • I think you misunderstood (not that I'm great at explaining) I dont see my usual login 'bubble's it just shows 'Other...'. The problem isn't that I dont have admin rights, it's that I dont have a user. – HighVelocityTicTac Feb 19 '19 at 16:05
  • does the answer on that question help you create a user? – dwightk Feb 19 '19 at 16:20
  • Unable to connect to the MDM server for your organization. Unfortunately, this means there's not much you can do other than take it to your IT department. The Mobile Device Management software will prevent you from making any changes to fix this. – Allan Feb 19 '19 at 16:27
  • I’m going to clear the close votes as a duplicate, but this MDM restriction is clouding the issue. The easy way to create a user from a folder is just when the OS is running and you have admin credentials. Are you saying you don’t have admin credentials and an MDM managed mac? – bmike Feb 19 '19 at 18:12
  • I have admin credentials, I changed the root password so I could access sudoers file. I do have an MDM Mac but it has never been a problem in the past. – HighVelocityTicTac Feb 19 '19 at 18:27

1 Answers1

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Since your Mac is MDM managed, you might not have the flexibility to manage making a new admin user by deleting the .AppleSetupDone file if that also triggers it being managed as an enrolled device.

The simple way to get a new account from a folder named /Users/login is to just open the system preferences, add a new user with that as the full name and then inherit the files from the file system and the new user is set.

You do need a valid admin account / password to type in but you don’t need to have an admin account itself logged in to make the new user.

The simple way to get admin credentials in a MDM mac is to get help from the IT staff - just let them know you need temporary admin credentials or a full admin account - they can push that or relay the user/password to use. Then you can go back to the simple way above - make a new account that shares the short name with the desired folder and you’re done.

bmike
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