How Do I Delete Administrator on a MacBook Air?
If you are uncertain if an account is an administrator, simply open System Preferences and look in the left panel; if Admin appears next to an account name then this indicates it as being an admin account.
First, ensure the account you wish to delete isn’t currently signed in. Next, select it and click the minus icon to permanently delete.
1. Log out of the admin account
Although having multiple admin accounts on your Mac can be immensely useful, it’s also crucial that you know how to delete one when no longer required. When selling or donating it to someone else or just clearing house, be sure that all necessary accounts have been completely deleted in order to protect the security of your data and avoid other people gaining access.
First, log out of the admin account you wish to delete. To do this, select it from the left side menu, and click “Login Options – Subtract Account Name,” before clicking “Minus Sign.” This will free up space on your Mac while simultaneously eliminating an account that no longer needs to exist. Alternatively, save their home folder as disk image so their documents and information can be restored later if need be.
Once logged out of your admin account, open System Preferences and navigate to Users & Groups. If the lock at the bottom is locked, click it to unlock it, and click Add (+). Finally, if not signed in as an administrator you will need to enter their password before creating new accounts.
Once you open the window, you’ll be asked to select an account type, provide your name, and create a password. In addition, a password hint will help ensure you remember it when it comes time to login – once complete, your new account is ready!
Resetting passwords can also be done by clicking on the i icon next to an account in the user list and selecting Reset Password. When asked for information regarding current and new passwords as well as a hint that may help remind them, enter all this data and select Save Changes when finished.
Finally, you have the option of leaving the user’s home folder intact to provide access for later recovery in /Users/Deleted Users. Simply change its filename by removing “(Deleted Users).”
2. Open System Preferences
Multiple user accounts on a Mac can be extremely useful for keeping files and apps separate between different users, providing added layers of security between family members, and general convenience. But creating new administrator accounts can take up too much space on your hard drive – which is why it is essential that any non-essential ones be deleted promptly; the process itself should only take a few clicks!
To do this, open System Preferences and navigate to the Users & Groups pane. If a padlock is locked in the bottom left corner, simply click and enter your login password to unlock it. Select your administrator account from the list, click on its minus button at the bottom and either save your home folder in a disk image format or delete completely – either way can be restored later if need be.
If you decide to delete an account, it will no longer exist on your computer and cannot be accessed again. However, you may still be able to recover it if you remember its password or access an administrator account on another Mac – for this purpose follow steps 5 through 10 of Restoring Deleted User from a Disk Image for guidance.
As is evident from our discussion here, deleting an administrator account on your Mac is generally straightforward and painless process. But to speed up and simplify this process even more efficiently and keep things running smoothly on your computer, using tools like CleanMyMac X may make the job faster and simpler – as well as free up gigabytes of space – not to mention detect and remove other junk files taking up valuable disk space on your system – check out our CleanMyMac X review to gain further insights into this tool’s workings and how it can benefit your Mac computer! Check out our review to gain more details on its capabilities for yourself!
3. Go to Users & Groups
Skillfully managing user accounts on a Mac can be an essential skill, and knowing how to delete an administrator account is essential. Doing this is simple with System Preferences’ Users & Groups section: just click on the lock icon at the bottom left of your screen and open up its menu before choosing “Users & Groups.”
Once in Users & Groups, click the info button (i) next to the admin account you wish to delete. This will open a small box that presents three options – saving its home folder in disk image form; keeping its home folder as part of Users or simply deleting it completely – but remember the first will archive its documents and information, while leaving its home directory intact; while third option simply deletes its home directory thereby freeing up more storage space on your Mac.
Once complete, click “Delete Account” to complete your work and release storage space on your Mac while also stopping this user from logging back in again. For added peace of mind and to ensure no one gains access, you may also select “Erase Home Folder Securely,” which will ensure all associated files have been completely erased from their account.
If you can’t delete an account using these methods, there may be something amiss with your Mac’s configuration which requires Apple support’s assistance. If you do manage to delete an account successfully however, make sure not to forget the password by writing it down and storing it somewhere safe; this way if ever needing to restore it easily it won’t be difficult.
4. Select the admin account
If multiple members of your household use one Mac, it may be time to delete an admin account from it. While having multiple user accounts is great, they take up space and can slow down performance on your system. Deleting user accounts on a MacBook Air is quick and simple – this guide will show you how in either System Preferences or Terminal.
First, ensure the account you want to delete is logged out, then click the lock icon at the bottom left corner and enter your password when prompted. Secondly, open System Preferences > Users & Groups where there should be a padlock located near the bottom left corner – click this to unlock and proceed.
Once in Users & Groups, locate the administrator account you’d like to delete and click its minus sign. Please keep in mind that doing this will delete both its content as well as all related accounts; as such it is wise to back up such data in an external drive or third-party cloud service before deleting an administrator account.
Before you delete a user, a few options will be presented to you. Selecting “Save Home Folder as Disk Image” enables you to restore it at a later date; or if you opt for “Don’t change Home Folder,” all their files will remain stored under “Users/Deleted Users/”.
Alternately, you can downgrade an account to standard user status by selecting it and unchecking “Allow this user to administer this computer.” Finally, you have the option of deleting their home folder altogether in order to free up space on your system – though this should only be used as a last resort; if in doubt about whether deleting users is necessary consult an IT professional first before doing it yourself.
