How to Delete User on Mac?

To delete a user account on Mac, you will need to have access to an Administrator account. If you do, you can freely create, change, and delete groups and user accounts on Mac.

Below, we have shown you how you can delete Mac accounts and groups from any of the Administrator accounts that you have access to on your Mac. Since Administrative privileges are required to make changes to user accounts, make sure that you log in with an Administrator account on your Mac before you proceed with the next steps.

Step 1: Click the Apple icon in the top-left corner of your screen and go to System Preferences > Users & Groups.

Step 2: Click on the Padlock icon in the bottom-left. If the padlock appears to be locked, you will be asked to provide the password for the Administrator account that you are using at the moment.

Step 3: Click on the user or group that you want to remove from your Mac and click on the minus (“-”) button located at the bottom of the users list. If there are other users logged in to the same computer with their respective accounts, you won’t be allowed to delete those accounts until whoever is using them logs out of them.

Step 4: Before the deletion is complete, you will have to choose either one of the next few options that will determine what happens to the Home Folder of the account you are deleting:

  • Save the Home Folder in a disk imagethis option will archive all user data on the computer so that the information and documents won’t be lost and the user can be restored at a later time if necessary. The archive with the user data will be saved in the /Users/Deleted Users folder on your Mac.
  • Don’t change the Home Folder – selecting this option will leave the Home Folder for the deleted user in the same location (/Users/) and you will be able to restore that user at a later time if you want.
  • Delete the Home Folder – this will clear all user data for the deleted account and will free up some space on your hard-disk.
  • If you are deleting a Sharing-only user or group, you won’t have any of the above-mentioned options because those users and groups don’t have Home Folders of their own.

Step 5: Click on the Delete User button to finalize the deletion.