# System Administrator Apple Default Password



## Adonsa (Feb 1, 2005)

Hi, After a cursory search I didn't find any messages about this... Apologies if this has already been asked and answered.  

System Panther 10.3.7 on G4 667 w/ 2 System-Panther boot capable internal ATA drives.  I consider my 2nd internal drive to be an emergency boot drive.  

Rebooting to the 2nd Internal Drive (System Panther 10.3.7) is unremarkable.
If I open disk utility and try to run it against any volume, it challenges me for the *System Administrator* password.  I can get around this by overtyping the user name with the name I designated for that drive.  

I never created a *System Administrator* user per se'  *System Administrator* does not appear as a choice upon bootup.

What is Apple's default password for *System Administrator* and what is its purpose?

Sure appreciate! 

Adonsa


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## fryke (Feb 1, 2005)

The first user you've set up is always a System Admin. Just use your first user and that user's password. There's no user _named_ System Administrator per se.


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## Darkshadow (Feb 1, 2005)

Actually, when the security dialog pops up with the name System Administrator, it's asking for *root*'s password.  Which, as was said above, you can usually change the name to an admin and use that admin's password.


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Feb 1, 2005)

...because OS X automatically sets root's password to the admin account's password that was set up when OS X was first installed.


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## Pengu (Feb 1, 2005)

> because OS X automatically sets root's password to the admin account's password that was set up when OS X was first installed.



NO.

An ADMIN account (the one you created on install) is NOT the ROOT account, nor is the password the same. A dialog asking for an administrator password is asking for the password for an admin account (such as the one you created at install/setup).

for the root account to even work, you have to open NetInfo Utility, and choose "Enable Root User" from one of the menus. it will then ask for a password. until then, there is NO password, and the root account is disabled.


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## scruffy (Feb 1, 2005)

Note - enabling the root account, and mucking about as root - very very bad idea.  Unless you really know what you're doing, just don't


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## fryke (Feb 1, 2005)

And is totally off what the question's about. Nothing to do with root. May I quote: "If I open disk utility and try to run it against any volume, it challenges me for the System Administrator password. I can get around this by overtyping the user name with the name I designated for that drive."

Changing the startup volume requires admin privileges, i.e. you must authenticate as a sysadmin. Your computer's first user and password are fine. (The first user of the system actually booted into, not the one you _want_ to boot into.)


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## davidbrit2 (Feb 1, 2005)

Yeah, Fryke's got it. Open up System Preferences, and check the Accounts section. Any of the accounts labeled "Admin" under the username are System Administrator accounts. In the Security tab, you can grant or revoke administrator privileges for each account.


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## Pengu (Feb 1, 2005)

forgive me. i was not saying you should use the root account. i was pointing out that the root account is in no way linked to the Admin (referred to as System Administrator) accounts) accounts you use, and is in fact disabled by default.


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## Adonsa (Feb 2, 2005)

*First, thank you very very much for your replies.*

When I get home I'll try both.

As a sole user of that Mac, I'm admin no matter what.  My primary volume (internal drive) boots up normally without challenge and password since I elected not to use a password (yeah, I know it's shameful to do that).  My emergency (2nd internal drive) is where the wierdness comes from.  I can boot into it normally with admin rights and without being challenged for a password.  

All is fine, until I run disk utility, then I am challenged for ...
Username reads "System Administrator"  (not admin) and the password field is then blank.

So I tried my own password (which is simply a carriage return since I don't use a password) - nope, no go. 

I haven't tried my root pw, but I will when I get home (gasp, hope I can remember it).  Excuse me a second while I hypervenelate.  

So, I look at my list of users and there is no "System Administrator" listed per se'  and I didn't create one and name it that.  Soooo.  just to see what would happen, I tried creating an account named "System Administrator" and it wouldn't let me.

I can, of course overtype "System Administrator" to FOOBAR999 or whatever I named as my admin username, hit carriage return, then Disk Utility works. 

You guys are the experts.  All this leads me to believe that Apple may have planted or reserved the term "System Administrator" for some elusive purpose, I dunno.  

I sure hope you guys can straighten me out.  I've disgraced myself by admitting that I hit return for my passwords.  Now that I've confessed, I place myself at your mercy.


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## Darkshadow (Feb 2, 2005)

I was simply saying that when the *user name* System Administrator shows up, it _is_ asking for root's password.  System Administrator is root's long name.  

I don't know why Adonsa's security dialog is asking for it, but that's what it's asking for.  It's definitely _not_ asking for an admin password.  Trying to put in an admin password would get the security dialog to tell you you used an invalid user name or password.

If anyone has root enabled, try it.  Instead of typing root as the user name in security dialogs, type in System Administrator and use root's password.


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## garyvdh (Feb 7, 2006)

Hi There,

I have tiger 10.4.4 on a G4 PowerBook. 

I have read through a lot of posts and have tried a number of proposed solutions to get into su.

I know all my passwords I have ever used. I can change them on this G4. I am admin. uhhh that's about it.

Now - when I go into terminal and try to log into su I get the password prompt. I have tried all my passwords (OK there is only 5 of them) upon installation I literally used 12345 - I then changed it to something else later on. BUT su doesn't accept a darn thing.

Is there a default password?

I tried 'root', 'admin' and a few others.

thanks

Gary


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## sanish (May 29, 2006)

Hallo All

I am having a strange problem... I had a useraccount on my G5 mac which is called "Administrator". i changed the password of the useraccount by putting the OSX CD where you can change the password. it successfully changed the password. After that i tried to log in with the Useraccount and i couldnt login. Then i had to put the username as "root" and then the password that i changed. After that i checked the "Useraccounts" and i couldnt find a profile which called "Administrator"..but when i check it under Application-user, the profile is there.

if you have any ideas...please give me some feed back


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## nixgeek (May 29, 2006)

It sounds as though you changed the password for root.  Did you enable root on your Mac?  There really is no need to do that if you have.

If you are logged in as root, then you can change the password of the "Administrator" account in System Preferences-->Accounts.  Or, create a new user and have that new account have access to administer the Mac.  Then login as that user.

BTW sanish, next time make sure to create a new thread with your problem and not hijack another user's thread...it causes more confusion when trying to solve the problem.  Thanks.


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## fryke (May 29, 2006)

In my opinion, people are just messing too much with the root-account. I'd say for 99.9% of all uses of a Mac, there's no _need_ to enable the root-account. Some might say it's easier to get some administrative things done as root, but I kindly disagree. It's much easier to totally hose your system once the root account's activated and you occasionally log in as root, though. If you want to be root, use the Terminal. If you want to open configuration text files as root, make copies of them in Terminal, enable your user to edit them and when you're done, put them in place in Terminal. Might seem like a hassle, but it's simply safer to do so. If you don't know how to do these things in Terminal, chances are you shouldn't *EVER* activate the root account. If it's about "power", dont' bother logging in as root on your own computer. Log in as root on some government facility's server instead.


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## sanish (May 30, 2006)

Thank you for your reply... i solved the problem allready...what i did is as follows... i went to netinfo manager, activated the root account...then i Duplicated the root account and gave the name Administrator, then i select the profile path to "/User/Administrator" so that it can start from my old Administrator profile... now its working...

P.S (nixgeek) Thank you for your  advise.. from next time onwards i will create a new thread.. sorry for this....

cheers


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## Connor Brummett (Jan 19, 2015)

Adonsa said:


> *First, thank you very very much for your replies.*
> 
> When I get home I'll try both.
> 
> ...



Hey there, I'm having the same problem you did. Except, I'm trying to use a different application. When I go to run this, I get the same "System Administrator" login prompt that you got. This is a used computer, so I didn't set it up. However, I am the only user account on here with admin rights and it doesn't accept my password. I've tried various common passwords with no luck.

You said you "overtyped" "System Administrator" and then used your password. What do you mean, "overtype"?

I'd appreciate any and all help!



For reference, here's a screenshot of the prompt.


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## DeltaMac (Jan 20, 2015)

Connor Brummett said:


> Hey there, I'm having the same problem you did. Except, I'm trying to use a different application. When I go to run this, I get the same "System Administrator" login prompt that you got. *This is a used computer, so I didn't set it up. *However, I am the only user account on here with admin rights and it doesn't accept my password. I've tried various common passwords with no luck.
> ...


That phrase in bold is likely your main focus. First tip when you purchase a computer is to erase the hard drive, and reinstall OS X. You don't have any idea what problems were left over from the previous user - which could be malware, improperly installed apps, leftover "questionable" music or pictures that mean nothing to you.
Could be network setups that will constantly nag at you.
By far, the easiest (and safest) fix is to "nuke and pave", using a good OS X installer DVD. (I'm assuming a fairly old system, because of the "old" look for the login window)


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## Connor Brummett (Jan 21, 2015)

DeltaMac said:


> That phrase in bold is likely your main focus. First tip when you purchase a computer is to erase the hard drive, and reinstall OS X. You don't have any idea what problems were left over from the previous user - which could be malware, improperly installed apps, leftover "questionable" music or pictures that mean nothing to you.
> Could be network setups that will constantly nag at you.
> By far, the easiest (and safest) fix is to "nuke and pave", using a good OS X installer DVD. (I'm assuming a fairly old system, because of the "old" look for the login window)



Yeah, I figured that was the way to go. I'm just too cheap to spend $25 on a new set of discs. It's running 10.3. Thanks for the reply! I guess I'll juts have to get around to getting some discs.


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