Unable to login with user folder on external drive since 12.5.1 upgrade

Since upgrading to 12.5.1 I have been unable to login with an account that has its home folder on an USB C RAID 1 external drive. It responds with a generic "error occurred" message. It has worked on all Mac OS versions till now. I have checked the settings under the advanced option for the user account and they are correct. I've recreated the account a couple of times hence corruption. I prefer this configuration because of the redundancy and home folder storage capacity.

Thanks in advance with suggestions.

Mac mini, macOS 12.5

Posted on Aug 26, 2022 9:23 AM

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R.Simon

Level 1

38 points

Posted on Oct 12, 2022 4:16 PM

well, couldn't wait 'till tomorrow, so I just tried my aforementioned idea. These were the steps:

From the User Account on the external ssd:

• Go to… /Volumes

• rename the Folder Volume (I just added an # at the end, confirm with Admin password)

• in System Preferences, change Home Directory back to Volume (it should be set to Volume 1 at first)

You are prompted to reboot.

On reboot, directly log-in to your external User Account.

It should work, at least it did work for me. Disk Utility states Volume as Mount-Point again.

Of course Volume and Volume 1 are placeholders for your individual Volume names.

And of course, the Folder with name Volume is still there ("Go to…" Menu or Terminal look-up), but it might be safe to delete it later on. I will continue a while with the actual state and as long as nothing unexpected happens, I will most likely delete it.

Now I hope that 12.6.1 does not revive this issue.

Many thanks again to Barney-15E for that crucial hint!

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51 replies

Tom Ritch

Level 2

284 points

Oct 12, 2022 10:54 AM in response to raederlandree

Another user reports the same problem.

macOS Updates - NEVER Do What I Just Did

R.Simon

Level 1

38 points

Oct 12, 2022 3:45 PM in response to R.Simon

just an addition:

the 300+ MB are (of course) the contents of the invisible User Library Folder within the Folder Volume.

R.Simon

Level 1

38 points

Nov 4, 2022 2:58 PM in response to R.Simon

[edit/correction]

The path to the User Library on the FV at the end of point 2) is:

/Volumes/FV Volume/YourUserAccountName/Library

(I forgot the User Name, sorry for that)

R.Simon

Level 1

38 points

Oct 12, 2022 9:01 AM in response to Barney-15E

Visually in Finder nothing has ever changed: the external volume still shows up as always as an external volume (even the custom icon remained intact). Also the expected „Volume“ name (without „1“) is shown.

Disk Utility lists the 3 default levels:

- Media

- the APFS Container disk

- the actual APFS Volume

But the Volume level now shows „Volume 1“ as Mount Point (instead of just „Volume“).

Generally I would assume that changing the Mount Point back to „Volume“ could probably fix the issue, but my Unix skills are more on the „lowest level“, so I would prefer to have it fixed by Apple.

Of course, this might change if 12.6.1 will not fix the issue, but otherwise and as it will probably remain a recurring failure, I’d like to keep the efforts not too expensive for now.

jgvermi

Level 1

12 points

Sep 24, 2022 5:55 PM in response to R.Simon

I have the same issue occurring on an M1 Mac mini. So it is not only an issue with intel Macs. Maybe it will get some attention from Apple.

Tom Ritch

Level 2

284 points

Sep 24, 2022 6:05 PM in response to jgvermi

Thanks for letting us know. Please also file a report with Apple. They are the only ones who can fix this.

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Unable to login with user folder on external drive since 12.5.1 upgrade