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white box user picture login screen

Hi, Thanks for reading this, 


I notice that after a restart, there are white boxes inside of my user picture as it appears on the login screen.  If I login to the user account, and then log back out, I notice that the white boxes no longer appear on the user image.  They are only visible after a restart.  Does anyone know anything about this or how I should handle this?


Many thanks.

MacBook Pro

Posted on Feb 16, 2023 1:21 PM

Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 24, 2023 7:19 AM

I wanted to also report that I am having the same issue. I don't have any answers as of yet, but wanted to leave a breadcrumb to follow back once I've figured this out. So far this is the only post I've found online that discusses this issue. Happy Hunting!

7 replies

Feb 16, 2023 3:20 PM in response to Community User

Updating this thread to include the following…


The system in question is a MacBook Pro running version Ventura 13.2.1 -- 2.3 GHZ Quad-Core Intel Core i7, Intel Iris Plus Graphics 1536MB.


There are two user accounts, an administrator and a standard account.   The effect with the white boxes only appears on the administrator account.  There are no white boxes on the image associated with the standard user account.  


I also using a MacBook Air, also with the same version of Ventura and I do not observe the effect with either the administrator or standard account on that system.  It too is running an Intel Core processor and graphics by Intel.


I don’t notice any issues with performance at the moment. 


I’ve discovered another thread here…

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/254645603


Many thanks for reading..

Feb 17, 2023 9:59 AM in response to Community User

A user in another related thread suggested running the OS in Safe Mode as a diagnostic effort.  Information about using Safe Mode can be found here..  How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support. Restarted in Safe Mode and the problem did not occur.  No boxes on the image.  Restarted back normally and the boxes reappear on the image on the login screen. I installed updates for a number of applications to no avail.  Problem persists.  There are no accessories attached to my Mac.  No printers, USB keys, or external drives to disconnect. I did examine the start up/login items for this user.  There are no items listed under. Open at Login, however there are three background items.  I choose to disable all these. I select restart and I can see the boxes reappear in the user image of the login screen.  No solution found there. I notice that the MacBook Pro is running warmer than I would expect it to given that very little in the way of applications are running.

Feb 17, 2023 6:54 AM in response to Community User

So much about my mac works so well, and there are people on this forum with issues far more important than mine, but I’ll just post this simple update in case it helps anyone..


I’ve tried to resolve the issue by selecting a different image.  Note that I am working entirely offline no internet connection when this is all happening.


- Restarted computer

- Observe white boxes in user picture of admin account on login screen

- Log into administrator

- Enter into User/Groups of System Preferences and changed image of account.

- Restarted computer

- New image appears on login screen as expected without boxes.  Problem appears resolved by the selection of a new image.

- Login to administrator account

- Perform tasks. ( Copy files from USB key into directory on hard disk )

- Restart computer

- Grey boxes appear on user picture in login screen.


Note that some of these boxes on the updated image are grey while others are white.  The boxes over the mushroom itself are white.  That is particularly thoughtful and weird to me.  Like something is aiming for contrast.  Bizarre.


Can anyone tell me the hard drive location from which the file is retrieved in order to be displayed on the login screen?  Thanks!

Feb 21, 2023 7:31 AM in response to Community User

I must revisit my own recommendation.  The dots, squares, reappeared on the image several days later even after having disabled bluetooth.  No longer understanding this situation, I decided to do a back up and do a complete reinstall.  Having done this I have chosen to restore Monterey.  


I wish there was a way to edit the "Best answer".

Mar 10, 2023 8:02 AM in response to Community User

I reinstalled my OS, and did install Ventura.  I was using Ventura without any issue until I enabled FileVault on my machine last night.  Today when I powered up the machine I observed the boxes on the login image again.  That was the first time I saw them since the reinstall.


I will suggest that this issue has something to do with FileVault while logged into the administrator account.

Feb 17, 2023 5:05 PM in response to Community User

I made the … unfortunate… discovery that Bluetooth was enabled and that my Mac was discoverable.

I disabled Bluetooth.  Restarted.

The squares were no longer part of the image.  

The problem appears to have been resolved by disabling Bluetooth.


I can not explain this and will make no further comment.

white box user picture login screen

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