Changing administrators on MacBook Pro

[Mac Man 2007]

Let's see if I can keep this brief. In 2017 bought my wife an Apple reconditioned mid 2015 MacBook Pro 13"retina, 2.7GHz, Intel core i5, 8 GB, 251 flash running Mojave. I made myself administrator and her a user. I have never used it. Just keep it up to date. When I log in the screen looks like it the day I got it. I bought her a new unused A1662 1st Gen SE a long time ago. She wouldn't give up the flip phone. Ah it finally died. I gave her an apple I.D. and it is using one of her email accounts. So now I am teaching her iPhone.
Now I want to get off me being the admin (in name only) so I do not have to deal with logging in and out to change things. I have a 2013 Mac Air. I do not keep it signed in to iCloud. Funny thing is when someone face times my iPhone it rings the phone and her Mac Pro which is signed into my name but not my Mac Air cause I am not signed in.
So I want to change her from a "user" to "admin" and delete me. I'll still be updating and fixing glitches but I want to do this the correct way. So I go into users and groups. Now do I make her an "admin" 1st and then just delete me? But where in the process do I set up her App Store and iCloud account on that Mac Pro using the one I have for her iPhone? Maybe it's staring me in the face but there is a method to the madness and I do not want to get stuck doing this the wrong way. As many thing as I have done somehow this one seems unknown to me.

 

[MacInWin]

So I want to change her from a "user" to "admin" and delete me. I'll still be updating and fixing glitches but I want to do this the correct way. So I go into users and groups. Now do I make her an "admin" 1st and then just delete me? But where in the process do I set up her App Store and iCloud account on that Mac Pro using the one I have for her iPhone? Maybe it's staring me in the face but there is a method to the madness and I do not want to get stuck doing this. As many thing as I have done somehow this one seems unknown to me.

Go to Users & Groups, unlock the lock with your admin password, change her to an Admin. Log out of your account. Log into hers. Now you can do whatever you want with your account. In her account in System Preferences look for Apple ID. I'm not using Mojave so I can't be terribly specific what to click, but it's there somewhere. Log into her AppleID and set up what she wants to sync, how to respond to iMessages, etc.

Funny thing is when someone face times my iPhone it rings the phone and her Mac Pro which is signed into my name but not my Mac Air cause I am not signed in.

That is because your contact information includes all the devices associated with your account. If you don't want her iPhone or MBP to respond, remove them from the Contact information at YOUR Apple ID.

 

[Mac Man 2007]

Thanks will reply when I get it changed.

 

[Slydude]

FWIW I'd probably leave your account as a second Admin account. That leaves a way for you to log in as an admin should she experience issues that keep her from logging in. Since your account is working now and won't be used it's essentially a "clean" account. If she experiences problems you can start looking at things that have been added to her user account.

 

[ferrarr]

If it were me, "the right way" would be to erase/wipe the drive, and set it up as new for her.

 

[MacInWin]

If it were me, "the right way" would be to erase/wipe the drive, and set it up as new for her.

That's a bit of a sledgehammer to kill a flea approach, Bob. Nothing is wrong on the drive, or with her account. It just needs to be made an admin account and all is well. The AppleID issues would still have to be addressed even with a full nuke'n'pave reinstall and recovery from backup.

 

[Mac Man 2007]

Thanks Hum. Any downside to keeping my "clean" account as "admin" also? Mac doesn't go funky with 2 admins?

 

[MacInWin]

No downside. Takes a little disk space, not much, and no conflict with more than one admin. I have three admin accounts on my machine, one is the "clean" one, one is my daily one and the third one is for a particular use where I don't want the usual launch on login stuff.

 

[Slydude]

No downside. Takes a little disk space, not much, and no conflict with more than one admin. I have three admin accounts on my machine, one is the "clean" one, one is my daily one and the third one is for a particular use where I don't want the usual launch on login stuff.

I have to agree with you. I've had at least two admin accounts on each of my Macs for years. I have a few projects that I want to keep separated under a separate account strictly for convenience.

 

[Mac Man 2007]

That was easy changing over to 2 admins. Ironically the night before I changed over to 2 admins she said her computer was hot in on Sunday morning when she woke up. The battery was down to 24% and it was plenty warm when she handed it to me. The hood was closed all night. I immediately checked activity monitor and it was showing Safari at 16% energy usage without any tabs open.
It didn't act up the rest of the day but last night I shut it off cause I did not reset anything. So this AM I reset SMC and for good measure PRAM. SMC did a reset as it went from orange to green and back to orange on the MagSafe when I did the reset.

 

[MacInWin]

Safari can be an energy hog. Leaving it open and running can eat up battery. Tell her to be sure to Quit from the menu, or CMD-Q, to make sure it fully quits.