Disabling auto login

Question

Disabling auto login

When I upgraded from Tiger to Leopard, automatic login and been left on by mistake. Now I go to system preferences/accounts to turn off automatic login and the menu is dimmed and says that automatic login cannot be changed because it has been disabled by the administrator. But a) I am the administrator and b) it is enabled and I can't find how to disable it!

Any help appreciated

Thanks

James

Posted on Nov 22, 2007 3:27 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 23, 2007 3:42 PM in response to James Knight3

I'm going to guess this won't solve your problem, but on the System Prefs, LogIn page, have you clicked the little lock at the bottom left and entered your password?

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Answer 2

Nov 26, 2007 6:13 AM in response to Jeffrey Lee

Thanks but I was already authenticated. What seems to happen is that the UI programmers have disabled the menu if an admin has determined that auto-log-in should not be capable of being turned on. However if it is already on, this 'feature' prevents it from being turned off!

How, as an Admin, would I have disabled auto-log-in other than in the system prefs/accounts/log-in options? If I could find out, then I could allow it, then disable it!

Thanks

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Answer 3

Nov 26, 2007 11:56 AM in response to James Knight3

I have the opposite problem. I want to Enable auto login, but even though I set it to login automatically I get a list of users at startup. Then when I enter my username and password, it's forgotten who I am and I have to boot up off the DVD and Reset Password in order to login. This behavior repeats itself on subsequent attempts.

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Answer 4

Nov 26, 2007 8:21 PM in response to happymacs

I'd try to create a new user with admin privileges... see if it'll remember the new YOU.. then, if it does.. delete the old you.

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Answer 5

Nov 28, 2007 10:01 AM in response to Jeffrey Lee

Thanks Jeffrey, I tried it but no joy. I logged in as the new admin user but it still says that auto-log-in is disabled by the administrator - even though it is enabled.

Is there a terminal command which I can use to turn off auto log-in?

Thanks

James

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Answer 6

Nov 29, 2007 1:59 AM in response to James Knight3

*System Preferences > Security > General > Disable automatic login*

Hope this helps 🙂
Sillatjie

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Answer 7

Nov 29, 2007 3:22 AM in response to Sillatjie

Brilliant. It worked - though not in the way that you expected.

When I excitedly navigated to that pane, there was nothing in it at all except 'Require password to wake computer from sleep'. Doh! However, being the kind of person that can't resist clicking check boxes to see what will happen I clicked it.

This resulted in 'It is recommended that you turn off automatic login with this option. Do you want to disable automatic login?' (or something like that). I answered yes and I have achieved what I needed.

Poor GUI though, Apple.

Thanks again. Solved.

James

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