MacOS – Adding a new administrator account without password

There are several problems with the script you posted.

Don't remove /Users/Shared - iTunes needs it and will fail on certain store and sharing operations.

dscl on Lion will still whine if you start it (it's looking for the missing plist) - even if you launch /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.opendirectoryd.plist as Ingmar Hupp has suggested.

I've never been one to worry about cleaning up the groups since I'm deleting user 501. The system will just add UID 501 back into the Admin and Staff groups the next time the Setup Assistant boots, so I do the following: (assume the short name of the user 501 is test)

1. ⌘+S
2. /sbin/mount -uw /
3. cd /var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/users/
4. rm test.plist
5. rm -rf /Users/test
6. rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
7. halt

I do use the official Users & Groups Preference Pane to delete all users except 501 and/or create the test user as 501 as needed since launchd can have jobs stuck if the users you are clearing aren't trivial users set up for simple updates as your case allows.

I would avoid saving a WiFi password or setting up WiFi outside the user account or use ethernet for your updates if you want to be fastidious about leaving as little of your settings behind (especially if the SSID/name isn't generic like Apple Network or has WEP/WPA keys).

Funny timing, just received this back from Dropbox support and it seems to have resolved my user's problem. Her issue similarly popped up when we migrated her to a new Mac and then changed her user account name.

Thanks for writing in. If you're having trouble running Dropbox on your Mac then please try these steps and then restart Dropbox.

1. Stop Dropbox (If needed):

• Click the Dropbox icon in the menu bar at the top of your screen
• Click on the gear icon in the Notifications panel and select 'Quit Dropbox'

2. Download the newest version: www.dropbox.com/install

3. Open your Terminal app (Located at /Applications/Utilities/Terminal)

4. Copy and paste the following lines into the Terminal, ONE AT A TIME, and press ENTER after each one. PLEASE make sure you copy and paste these commands (don't type them by hand), as getting them wrong could cause some harm. You'll be prompted for your computer's admin password (not your Dropbox password) after entering the first command. Keep in mind that the password field in the terminal will remain blank as you type your password. After you type it, just press ENTER.

sudo chown "$USER" "$HOME"

sudo chown -R "$USER" ~/Dropbox

sudo chmod -R u+rw ~/Dropbox

sudo mv ~/.dropbox ~/.Trash/dropbox.old

sudo mv ~/.dropbox-master ~/.Trash/dropbox-master.old

sudo chmod -N ~

sudo mv /Library/DropboxHelperTools ~/DropboxHelperTools.old

5. Open the .dmg file from step # 2 and double click the Dropbox icon to install Dropbox.

6. Restart Dropbox from the Applications folder.

Hopefully that does the trick for you as well!