MacOS – Missing admin account in Big Sur, pre-Big Sur solutions do not work

big surmacos

Running mount -uw / in single-user mode comes up with Permission Denied

I did some research and Catalina has the split-volume file system, so I disabled SIP which still came up with permission denied.

Apparently, in Big Sur, the system volume is also signed. I saw this but of course it requires admin.

What do I do??

Best Answer

If you need create a Admin User on Big Sur the following method works fine :

  1. You boot in Recovery Mode. (cmd+r at boot) .

  2. If Filevault is activated, from Disk Utility, you unlock/mount the System Volume giving the password. (right click on the system volume).

  3. You quit disk utility, then on top menu you select Utilities/Terminal

  4. I suppose the System Volume name is "Macintosh HD", the command is :

    rm /Volumes/"Macintosh HD"/var/db/.AppleSetupDone

  5. If no error message you reboot the Mac and then you will be invited to create a new administrator.

Related Question