How To Set A macOS Account As Administrator

In macOS, administrators have full access to the system and can perform tasks such as installing software, changing system settings, and managing user accounts. If you want to set an account as an administrator in macOS, you can do so by following these steps in this article.

1. How To Set A macOS Account As Administrator.

1. Step 1: Open System Preferences.
2. Click on the Apple menu in the top left corner of the screen and select “System Preferences“.
3. Step 2: Navigate to Users & Groups.
4. In System Preferences, click on the “Users & Groups” icon.
5. Step 3: Authenticate as an Administrator.
6. Click on the lock icon in the bottom left corner of the window and enter the username and password of an existing administrator account to authenticate.
7. Step 4: Select the Account to Make an Administrator.
8. Select the account you want to make an administrator from the list of users on the left side of the window.
9. On the window right pane, check the checkbox Allow user to administer this computer.
10. Step 6: Save Changes.
11. Click on the lock icon again to prevent further changes, and then close the window to save your changes.
12. The account you selected should now have administrator privileges.
13. It’s important to note that granting administrator privileges to an account can have security implications, as the user will have full access to the system.
14. Make sure to only grant administrator privileges to trusted users who require them for their work.

2. How To Check If A macOS User Has Administration Privileges.

1. If you want to check whether a macOS account has administration privileges, you can do it in a terminal.
2. Run the command groups <user_name> in the terminal, if you can find the string admin in the output text, that means the user has administration privileges.
3. Below is an example of using the groups command.

   % groups jerry                   
   staff everyone localaccounts _appserverusr admin _appserveradm _lpadmin com.apple.sharepoint.group.1 _appstore _lpoperator _developer _analyticsusers com.apple.access_ftp com.apple.access_screensharing com.apple.access_ssh com.apple.access_remote_ae com.apple.sharepoint.group.2

4. You can also run the command id -Gn <user_name> to get the user group to check whether the user has administration privileges or not.
5. Below is an example of using the id command.

   % id -Gn jerry | grep admin
   staff everyone localaccounts _appserverusr admin _appserveradm _lpadmin com.apple.sharepoint.group.1 _appstore _lpoperator _developer _analyticsusers com.apple.access_ftp com.apple.access_screensharing com.apple.access_ssh com.apple.access_remote_ae com.apple.sharepoint.group.2
   

6. Because the groups command will be obsoleted by the id command in the future.