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After entering password on login, the loader gets stuck 2/3rds in and shuts down. Seems like my account is corrupt somehow. Have tried to access safe mode to create an alternate admin account (pressing down shift key while booting), but the normal login screen just shows up again.

Any way to rebuild my user account without having to do erase and reinstall MacOS?

Edit: Single user mode, CMD-S on boot, isnt working either, it gives some kind of build error which I can't recall atm.

Specs: MacOS Sierra, Macbook from early 2012.

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  • It sounds like you need to focus on fixing single user mode first. Have you been able to boot from the Recovery partition?
    – Fyrefly
    May 23, 2017 at 15:31

2 Answers 2

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Looks like something critical to booting is toast. You'll likely need to reinstall macOS. Start by simply reinstalling, but not formatting your disk (all your settings and documents will remain intact):

  1. Shut down your Mac
  2. Press and hold CMD-R while powering on your Mac, hold until you see the Apple logo or a globe
  3. Select Reinstall macOS and follow the instructions given.

If this does not work, try using Internet Recovery, which downloads the recovery launcher instead of running the partition. Follow the same process as above, but use the CMD-Option-R keyboard combination when starting up, and hold until you see a globe.

I doubt the issue is with your user account, since your recovery mode isn't launching-- I'd make that your first priority and consider taking your laptop into the shop.

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To create a new Admin account you will need to delete the /var/db/.AppleSetupDone file. If single user mode is unavailable you may be able to remove it via Terminal when booted from Recovery HD.

mount -uw /
rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone

Reference : http://www.theinstructional.com/guides/how-to-re-run-the-os-x-setup-assistant

You may have more serious issues with your OS however that should be taken care of first if you can't use single user mode.

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