Eternal hang after password entered

Question

Eternal hang after password entered

Lately my MacBook Pro running Mojave has started hanging when a password is entered. Once logged in, password dialogs just hang, for example,

connecting to a backup drive on an AirPort Time Capsule,
switching to another user account,
when administrator privileges are required,
etc.

This makes it impossible to do maintenance and upgrades from an admin login.

My main login is "mobile" and no longer has access to the Active Directory it references.

I set up another admin login that's not mobile and the same problems occur.

I've tried resetting the SMC and removing csstore cache files as described here https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7376445?answerId=7376445021#7376445021 and the problem persists.

Could really use help from a wizard!

Thanks in advance.

Rich

MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

Posted on Jun 21, 2021 3:08 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

BDAqua

Level 10

240,659 points

Jun 21, 2021 6:45 PM in response to nextrocketdoc

Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode? Could take 10 minutes.

Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches & loads safe Drivers, & prevents loading of 3rd party extensions, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.

To find out if it's system wide or user specific, try this...

Open System Preferences>Users & Groups, unlock the lock, click on the little plus icon, make a new admin account, log out & into the new account.

Does it work in the new account?

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Answer 2

Jun 21, 2021 7:33 PM in response to BDAqua

Thanks BDAqua!

"system wide or user specific" --

Yes to both I think.

In the new (local) admin account I was able to install and start Carbon Copy Cloner to create a hard drive clone to a USB external drive, and get Time Machine to connect to the Time Capsule drive. Time Machine works, sort of, but extremely slowly - tens of MB or less per hour to my AirPort Time Capsule over 5GHz WiFi.

(Rats, meant to mark BDAqua's post helpful, hit mine by mistake! Why would anyone want to mark their own post as helpful?!)

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Answer 3

esa63ase

Level 1

9 points

Jun 23, 2021 7:50 AM in response to BDAqua

It's not a drive problem, it is that the latest Apple Security Update broke Kerberos authentication for mobile accounts. Your client computer cannot access the AD due to some cache problem. There are workarounds online but so far Apple failed to release an emergency patch to this very nasty bug affecting mostly its Enterprise customers.

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Answer 4

Jun 23, 2021 9:18 AM in response to esa63ase

Thanks esa63ase - you're right, the drive problem was a side issue. Your explanation of the security update accounts for the cause and the timing of my problem. Fortunately my solution was easy since I haven't needed the AD connection for over a year now - didn't even know it was there. The first indication of trouble was the warning that Time Machine backups had not been done for several weeks.

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Answer 5

BDAqua

Level 10

240,659 points

Jun 22, 2021 3:19 AM in response to nextrocketdoc

Good news sort of...

You can use Drive DX to possibly get a better view of Drive health…

https://binaryfruit.com/drivedx

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Answer 6

Jun 22, 2021 7:42 AM in response to BDAqua

That's a useful tool, thanks! It doesn't offer to diagnose the Time Capsule disk, however. On the up side Time Machine completed a backup at 5am this morning so things are looking up.

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Answer 7

BDAqua

Level 10

240,659 points

Jun 22, 2021 8:40 AM in response to nextrocketdoc

Great news, take care my friend! :)

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Eternal hang after password entered

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