Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, El Capitan Edition

Editing Accounts

If you’re an administrator, you can change your own account in any way you like.

If you have any other kind of account, though, you can’t change anything but your picture, password, Apple ID, and login items. If you want to make any other changes, you have to ask an admin to log in, make the changes you want made to your account, and then turn the computer back over to you.

Deleting Accounts

Hey, it happens: Somebody graduates, somebody gets fired, somebody dumps you. Sooner or later, you may need to delete an account from your Mac.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION: The Forgotten-Password Survival Guide

Help—I forgot my password! And I never told it to anybody!

No problem. Your administrator can simply open up System Preferences, click Users & Groups, click your account name, and then click Reset Password to reestablish the password.

But you don’t understand. I am the administrator! And I’m the only account!

Lucky for you, Apple has provided you with not one, not two, but three safety nets. None of them work, however, unless you, the administrator, turned them on in advance.

First: On your third attempt to type your password correctly, the Mac shows you your password hint (if you have one, and if the administrator left the Hint option turned on).

Second: If the administrator has turned on the “Allow user to reset password using Apple ID” in System Preferences→Users & Groups, then you can click the ? button right there in the Password box when you’re logging in. A tiny message appears, ...