Stuck on login screen, can't select a user

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Level 1

15 points

Stuck on login screen, can't select a user

When I boot, I reach the usual login screen, and the two defined users are displayed properly. I can move the mouse pointer but, when I click on a user, nothing happens.

I have at least partial success booting in safe mode but have experienced similar behavior. But I found that if I went away long enough, the condition cleared and I was eventually able to log in.

(Prior to this, I was having trouble re-establishing TimeMachine backups after having not run the regularly for quite awhile.)

Help would be greatly appreciated!

Mini, Mac OS X (10.6.6), 4 GB RAM

Posted on Jan 23, 2011 12:52 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

captfred

Level 7

26,422 points

Jan 23, 2011 1:36 PM in response to DavidAMcL

Next time you have the problem, use the keyboard and hit the first letter of the userid you want and hit enter. This should select the user and move to the password field.

Regards

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Answer 2

Feb 13, 2011 9:24 PM in response to DavidAMcL

Hi
I am having the same problem with my login screen. I have to wait a couple of minutes before I can login. I can move my mouse pointer but I cannot select a user. Keyboard does not respond. After a couple of minutes I can select user and keyboard responds to type in password. Did you find a solution to your problem?
Thanks

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Answer 3

Aug 5, 2017 5:41 PM in response to DavidAMcL

I had this problem today and was able to select user by hitting first letter of user name, as someone here suggested. I found the problem to be related to my Bluetooth mouse (misplaced at the time) to be low on batteries and since it was still "connected" to my mac, it was interfering with the mousepad and USB mouse I was trying to use, disabling the left click. I was able to navigate to system preferences, turn off Bluetooth, then problem was fixed. Once I find my Bluetooth mouse, I'll turn it back on.

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