On the surface, this account may look exactly the same as a regular user account, but files that are usually off-limits are perfectly accessible within this account – including important system files!

Enter root as the username, and the password you just created.

On macOS’ login screen, select ‘Other…’.

You can log into your root account from macOS’ main login screen, just like any other user account:

The Terminal should now display a ‘Successfully enabled root user’ message. When prompted, enter this password again press ‘Enter.’.Type the password that you want to use for your root account, and press ‘Enter.’.When prompted, enter your admin password, and then press the ‘Enter’ key.Press the ‘Enter’ key on your keyboard.Navigate to ‘Applications > Utilities,’ and launch the Terminal application.How to Take Control and Get Full Access to Files or Folders on Windows 11, 10, 8, or 7 (Easy Way)? Root can be dangerous, but if you do require root privileges, then in this article I’ll show you exactly how to get them. There’s often a reason why macOS prevents you from accessing certain files and folders, so you should only enable root if you have a specific reason for requiring this level of access. You can gain access to every part of your Mac that isn’t protected by System Integrity Protection (SIP), by creating a root account.Įnabling root essentially makes every part of the system accessible, but at this point it becomes much easier to damage your Mac. Having access to every single user account can also come in handy if you want to sweep your entire Mac for viruses or malware, or you need to backup everything that exists across your Mac, rather than just the files inside your user account.

This restriction can be frustrating if there’s an account you no longer have access to, such as a user account belonging to an ex-employee who left the company without sharing their login details. In particular, admins cannot move files from one user account to another, or edit another user’s files. Even admins can’t access every part of the Mac file system!

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