Just upgraded macOS from 12.5 to 12.5.1 and system hangs on login screen.

farbanti76 wrote:

My understanding is that, at this point, I need to pay for "Apple Support" (on an out of warranty computer like this). I was hoping for some: 1) confirmation that this might be a result of the recent update to 12.5.1, or 2) some better understanding of how the remapping to external drives works for user accounts so I could better troubleshoot what may just be a pointer issue.

I would run the Disk First Aid...

Boot into Internet Recovery (Option Command R) and from the dropdown menu: Utilities>  Disk Utility> run the First Aid on your Macintosh HD (and the "Macintosh HD-Data" volume as well if Catalina/Big Sur/Monterey) If errors are found and repaired, run again until no errors reported.

Disk Utility>View>Show All Devices The best sequence is —

Volume level

Container level

Parent drive

How to repair a Mac disk with Disk Utility

How to repair a Mac disk with Disk Utility - Apple Support

If no issue found then I would contact Apple Support here— Get Support

In or out of warranty you can get a free over the counter 'Apple Service Diagnostics' test /assessment

Make an appointment for a "hardware issue"

Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple

Outside the USA

Find Locations - Apple

Exactly the same issue here with an iMac 2020 and a Samsung EVO SSD connected via USB. It looks like there are now 2 volumes associated with the SSD. The one with the original name has only a small portion of the home directory with some log files. The majority of the content sits in a separate volume with - 1 added to the name. Stupid workaround:

1. Change the home directory path for the user to the - 1 volume. You still can‘t logon directly and get an error message.
2. Log on to the user with home on internal SSD - then switch to the other user and you are in.

That‘s not sustainable. Would be nice to get a fix from Apple. Otherwise, i‘ll build the user again from scratch with home on internal SSD and only some content on external SSD.

I din‘t find any hints that the drive is corrupt.

farbanti76 wrote:

Just upgraded OSX from 12.5 to 12.5.1 and system hangs on login screen when trying to log into user account (with home directory mapped to external USB disk - /dev/disk2). I can log in to admin user account (home directory on internal flash drive of Mac mini 2018, i3, 8 GB RAM, 128 GB HD).

Running Disk Utility / First Aid finds no problems with either disk.

MacMini2018:~ joe$ diskutil list

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *121.3 GB disk0

1: EFI ⁨EFI⁩ 314.6 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_APFS ⁨Container disk1⁩ 121.0 GB disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +121.0 GB disk1

Physical Store disk0s2

1: APFS Volume ⁨Macintosh HD - Data⁩ 41.5 GB disk1s1

2: APFS Volume ⁨Preboot⁩ 392.6 MB disk1s2

3: APFS Volume ⁨Recovery⁩ 1.1 GB disk1s3

4: APFS Volume ⁨VM⁩ 1.1 GB disk1s4

5: APFS Volume ⁨Macintosh HD⁩ 15.4 GB disk1s5

6: APFS Snapshot ⁨com.apple.os.update-...⁩ 15.4 GB disk1s5s1

/dev/disk2 (external, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *2.0 TB disk2

1: EFI ⁨EFI⁩ 209.7 MB disk2s1

2: Apple_HFS ⁨LaCie⁩ 2.0 TB disk2s2

(free space) 134.3 MB -

Have you rebooted more than once since your point update..?

If no resolve I would do a complete shut down and restart the Mac and compare your results.

If no insight or resolve—

Call Customer Support (800) MY–APPLE (800–692–7753)

or on line Apple Support

Many thanks farbanti76 - this worked for me! :-)

Took an even simpler approach: Kept the user, logged in as admin (with home on internal SSD), unmounted external SSD, deleted the folder structure with log files, restart) > all good so far - user can log in with no problems as before. Didn't discover the need to make further adjustments to permissions but will see ...