How to temporarily lock or disable a user account

Question

Level 1

9 points

How to temporarily lock or disable a user account

Hi, I need help on the easiest way to do the following:
I want to temporarily disable one of the user accounts on my Mac so it cannot
be used.
I do not want to delete the account, just block it

Thanks

iMac 20, Mac OS X (10.4.11), 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.5 GB

Posted on Apr 28, 2009 1:01 PM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

251,359 points

Apr 28, 2009 1:43 PM in response to jrregaldie

Not used how? By who?

Only another Admin could use it by again changing the PW to something new!?

I suppose you could archive or move the whole Home Folder somewhere else., Or turn FileVault on for that account.

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

251,359 points

Apr 28, 2009 2:53 PM in response to jrregaldie

Well, if you just want them not to be able to use their regular account, but still log into a new empty account, I changed the Home location in NIM to /dev/null/, but I suppose you could redirect it to a fake user account with no rights! 😉

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Answer 3

Király

Level 6

10,045 points

Apr 29, 2009 6:30 AM in response to jrregaldie

What exactly are you wanting to accomplish that changing the password won't solve? That should do exactly what you want based on what you have said your needs are. If we can understand better why changing the password won't work for you, we should be more helpful with a solution.

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Answer 4

Király

Level 6

10,045 points

May 2, 2009 6:41 PM in response to jrregaldie

Aha! Now that's the kind of info I was looking for.

To hide the user with short user name "jim" from the login window, first log in to an admin account, launch Terminal, and paste in these two lines:
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow \ HiddenUsersList -array-add jim

To unhide the account, enter this:

sudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow \ HiddenUsersList

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Answer 5

BDAqua

Level 10

251,359 points

Apr 28, 2009 1:27 PM in response to jrregaldie

Hi jrregaldie,

If you have an Admin account, then in System Preferences>Accounts, change the Password for that account. 🙂

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Answer 6

jrregaldie Author

Level 1

9 points

Apr 28, 2009 1:32 PM in response to BDAqua

too simple, I want to actually block it so it cannot be used

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Answer 7

jrregaldie Author

Level 1

9 points

Apr 28, 2009 2:36 PM in response to BDAqua

I was thinkink of Disabing it via Netinfo, but I don' really know what to change there.
Maybe changing the shell to "noshell" ?

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Answer 8

jrregaldie Author

Level 1

9 points

May 2, 2009 2:00 PM in response to Király

Ok, let's put it this way:
I would like to block the account so it does not appear in the user's menu
without deleting it
Is this posible ?
Thanks

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Answer 9

jrregaldie Author

Level 1

9 points

May 3, 2009 3:40 AM in response to Király

Thanks, this is a good start 🙂
But still after doing so, you get an "other" user and you still could login
Would it be possible to get also this one ("other") not to be on the list ?

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Answer 10

jrregaldie Author

Level 1

9 points

May 18, 2010 3:14 PM in response to jrregaldie

not a problem anymore, as I'm on Mac OSX 10.5, and can use parental controls

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