Q: Cannot stay logged in - El Capitan
Our mid-2010 iMac recently has developed a behavior where if any user logs in, it will accept the password, go to that user's screen, but within 10-30 seconds will grey out and return to the login screen. There are 5 user accounts on the machine and it happens with each one. We didn't add any software or hardware that we can think of that would have triggered this.
I have (1) run Disk Utility First Aid from safe mode (I can login in Safe Mode); (2) reset NVRAM; (3) attempted to remove launchservices.csstore files from the private folder. I am running 10.11.6. My original CDs are for Snow Leopard, which I have not attempted to use yet. I have a 2 month old Time Machine back-up which if we had to revert to that would be ok.
Any suggestions on how to address this? Or what the cost of going to the Apple Store would be? The machine is 6 years old and works fine, but I wouldn't want to put a lot of money into fixing it vs. possibly buying a new one. Thanks in advance.
iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
Posted on Aug 20, 2016 10:12 AM
Making a backup was not possible, as I could only log in in Safe Mode and backing up was impossible in Safe Mode.
So I did what Apple phone support suggested - erase disk in disk utility, reinstall the OS, ensure that I can login with the Imac as a new install, then recover from my 2 month old Time Machine backup. I don't think I lost anything important by not having a newer backup. And the machine is working fine now.
Thanks everyone.
Posted on Aug 21, 2016 9:29 PM