I have a macbook with two users, one that has administrator privileges and other one that doesn’t. Whenever i restart or shutdown my computer the user that doesn’t have administrator blocks with a message saying “The user is blocked”. I also make all users in my mac change passwords every 45 days. Is there a way to delete the block on the blocked user?
MacBook Pro (M3, 2023)
are you using Fast User Switching to change users?
Switch quickly between users on Mac - Apple Support
If you are using that feature, precluding shutdown when another User is active in the background is EXPECTED behavior.
To enable the foreground user to shut down, EVERY background user must have already logged out.
I think of Fast User Switching as an unusual or emergency method of allowing two users to access the computer. The FAR more obvious way is for each use to complete their business and then LOG OUT before the second user logs in.
are you using Fast User Switching to change users?
Switch quickly between users on Mac - Apple Support
If you are using that feature, precluding shutdown when another User is active in the background is EXPECTED behavior.
To enable the foreground user to shut down, EVERY background user must have already logged out.
I think of Fast User Switching as an unusual or emergency method of allowing two users to access the computer. The FAR more obvious way is for each use to complete their business and then LOG OUT before the second user logs in.
Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:
Is there more to that error message? what are the EXACT words?
The other possible issue that comes to mind has to do with disk encryption. When you create an encrypted disk, its password is the login password of the original user. When you change passwords, a secondary user may suddenly need TWO passwords -- one for the disk, and one for their user account.
I confess that is do not use this feature, and its details elude me. Maybe someone who does use encryption AND changes passwords can chime in with more information.
Yes, sometimes the Filevault password and the macOS user admin password(s) can get out of sync. When this happens, you need to use the old password to unlock Filevault, then when presented with the second login prompt you need to use the new/current macOS user admin password. When I've encountered this issue a few times some years ago, it only affected the one macOS admin user account and not another.
To realign the affected macOS admin user account, I would go into the Privacy & Security System Preferences and selecting the 2nd or 3rd tab (Filevault tab perhaps? There is only one place with a change password option in that section) and change the password on that tab. Not sure if the System Settings of later versions of macOS still have this option and is likely irrelevant on a T2 or M-series Mac since Filevault is handled differently and controlled by the security enclave chip.
I have some sort of solution but it is temporal, when I login as my main user that has administrator, close session and then login as the user that is supposedly blocked, the block removes and i can continue using the user as normal. The thing is that when i restart the computers the block continues.
Is there more to that error message? what are the EXACT words?
The other possible issue that comes to mind has to do with disk encryption. When you create an encrypted disk, its password is the login password of the original user. When you change passwords, a secondary user may suddenly need TWO passwords -- one for the disk, and one for their user account.
I confess that is do not use this feature, and its details elude me. Maybe someone who does use encryption AND changes passwords can chime in with more information.
I just checked and i am not using fast user switching feature. I just log in as an non administrador user and it pops up “The user is blocked”. I’m guessing the block happens because the user changes the password each month and i don’t know if the keychain saves that password and makes a conflict with the new one.
jsposu wrote:
the user changes the password each month and i don’t know if the keychain saves that password and makes a conflict with the new one.
That is not considered good practice these days because it makes people use poor passwords and more likely to have the password written down somewhere easily accessible. I personally never understood why the industry ever thought it was a good idea.
MacBook user blocks on restart or shutdown
