User switching doesn't work properly in macOS Sonoma

Thanks for your incredibly insightful and helpful comment. If you’ve got nothing useful to add to this discussion, or suggestions on how to work around the issue please refrain from posting.

just because it works on your particular hardware/firmware/software configuration doesn’t mean there isn’t a bug with mine.

I assure you “no user education” is required. Apologies for feeding the troll.

"It isn't constant behavior. After restart it works normal. But eventually issue comes back."

So try restarting your Mac in Safe Mode as the link I provided instructs. If fast user switching works while in Safe Mode then restart normally and see if the issue returns. If it does then the possibility exists that some third party extension, plugin, etc. May be causing this. Safe Mode starts up with only Apple’s add ons and nothing else.

Managed to fix this issue for myself by logging into the available user, Apple > Restart… then a dialogue box with a Switch User button appears. I clicked Switch User and it took me back to the login screen and I was able to access the other user account that was affected by this bug.

AFAICR, this problem used to happen when using touch id to switch, and when the two accounts used the same finger - like your index finger. The system would recognize the fingerprint as belonging to the main account and log you in to that account.

One possible workaround was to either use a different finger for the second account, or to type its password instead.

I had this issue as well and it seemed related to the user names.

I had 2 user accounts, niclas and niclas-2.

Then i renamed niclas-2 --> niclas.

So now i had 2 user account names called niclas, but with different passwords.

In the user directory i also had 2 different account directories, niclas-2 and niclas althought the user names were the same.

Now it always logged in to the first account in the list no matter what password i used.

So it seem like the problem is related to:

1. you can actually have multiple accounts with same username
2. the selection of the user based on username is not done correctly.

For me it worked when i differentiated the user names properly. Im suspecting the problem might also arise when you have user names with space in it.

For example: user name, user fullname.

For that case i suggest change the names complete for testing, like randomName, username.

Yes it does work properly. On switching users on the login screen you place the cursor on the avatar of the user and the rest of the users show up. Click on the user you want switch to and enter the password or touch-ID. I have six user accounts on my Mac and can login to any one of them just fine. As a matter of fact I can have up all six users logged in at the same time without issues.

If this is not what you are experiencing then you have an issue with your installation or a misunderstanding, not a Sonoma bug.

Two things to try to resolve.

1. Restart your Mac
2. Restart your Mac in Safe Mode

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

Safe mode performs a bunch of maintenance tasks, clears caches, and many times clears up glitches.

That is what happens for me also. I can neither switch from the login screen nor the circled person screen. It just ignores me. I have two users logged in (work and personal). It worked before the update.

This is absolutely a bug. It’s consistent now that it’s a problem, and it occurred without any additional software being installed or settings changed. I expect not many people have reported it because most users probably only use a single user account.

M2 MacBook Pro, Sonoma 14.2.1

Still an issue I see. Currently using a MacBook Air that doesn't even allow me to see the created Admin account after restart. The user's account is the only account being shown. Dragging or clicking the icon does nothing. Definitely a bug.

Willstar77 wrote:

This is absolutely a bug. It’s consistent now that it’s a problem, and it occurred without any additional software being installed or settings changed. I expect not many people have reported it because most users probably only use a single user account.

M2 MacBook Pro, Sonoma 14.2.1

M1 Studio Max, Sonoma 14.4.1 with six user accounts. No issue at all. Not a bug. User education needed.

Also to add to the useful information. It doesn’t matter if it’s on the Lock Screen , or trying to switch user from inside a session already logged on. The result is the same, click on the other person’s face and nothing happens. Same in control panel.

Even if a reboot temporarily “resolves” the issue, it’s still an issue.

I am running two machines:

MacBook Pro, M1 Max 64GB Sonoma 14.4.1

iMac 24inch M3 24Gb Sonoma 14.4.1

I am a developer. Until this evening I had not experienced any issues with user switching. I now have experienced the issue of user switching as described in this forum, on my iMac. Co-incidentally, yesterday a neighbour who I support, had the same problem with his iMac 24inch, that I put down to user error or other. I suggested Control + Command + Q to log out of the current user to return to the login screen and then select the other user to login in, but this appeared not to work. Without being able to visit him, he ultimately had to power down and back on.

I have now experienced the same issue on my iMac M3 (his machine was also a iMac M3).

There is an issue that needs to be addressed.

So Sonoma 14.5 was release yesterday. Have you updated to see if the problem still exists? Since you are a developer I would have thought you being up to date with beta releases and already have moved to 14.5. No?

The issue has only occurred on my iMac M3 within the last days having already witnessed on someone else’s iMac M3. Neither are development machines hence they are on 14.4.1 and do not run beta releases.

I will, in the first instance, encourage my neighbour to update and see if the problem persists.