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!
