No admin account on T2 MacBook with Big Sur
Unable to create missing admin account. I’m working on an A1989 T2 MacBook Pro on Big Sur, with no admin account. I am trying to forensically image it and need admin rights to run the imaging software on it, boot it to the imaging tool or to unlock the drive in TDM to image via another Mac.
It had a firmware password and is FileVault encrypted (for which I do have the Recovery Key). It was administered via JAMF, but has been removed from their system so according to JAMF, it cannot help at this point.
I tried resetting the password to get access, which worked but then I discovered that it was missing an admin accounts (the admin account is still on there, it has just lost admin rights somehow and shows as a standard user). There is no admin account showing on the system.
I have turned off the firmware password.
I have removed the AppleSetupDone file. After multiple restarts it will not reboot into the setup menu. I have tried resetting the NVRAM via ⌘ ⌥ P R, and that appears to do it’s thing, but it still will not reboot into the setup menu.
I found someone’s post elsewhere mentioned that removing the AppleDiagnosticsSetupDone file got theirs to reboot to the setup menu so I tried that as well, but it still will not reboot into the setup menu.
I have a second similar MacBook in the same boat. I was able to get the same procedure to work on third similar MacBook with the same problem except that one was not FileVault encrypted and I did not have to remove the file with Diagnostics in the name.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.