Can't login to OS X Lion

I had the same problem and just got off the phone with tech support. Here is the procedure they had me follow:

restart and hold Cmd-R

this brings up the OS X Utility. In the utillities pull down choose terminal.

type 'resetpassword' hit return

this will open the password reset dialog box.

choose 'system admin (root)'

change password.

save.

quit terminal.

quit OS X utility. This will bring up the reset dialog box.

choose reset.

at the login screen for name use 'root' and your new chosen password.

This will get you in. Then go into the system prefs. choose 'users &groups'

add a new user and reenter your old info. Be sure to use the same 'short name' as you did before. If you can't remember, check the users folder on the mac HD.

Hope this helps.

I have the same issue. I can create another user, and log into that fine, but I cannot log into my own account. I thought about deleting my user (after backing up my files) and creating another user with the same name. It seems this is what is being suggested here. When trying to create the same user name as my current user name it shows me an error also. Did you delete your own user and preserve the files then add another user or something else?

I've tries doing this a number of times but it stops me right away because I'm entering information for a user that already exits. It won't even allow me to get to the point where I can submit the information.

For me it worked well.

Good luck

do you see the canvas grey background?

Originally I had the gray canvas with the Apple logo and a textbox for username and password. When I entered a password I knew to be wrong, it would shake at me. When I entered the correct password, it would try to login, go to all-gray screen, and then back to login screen.

I then followed the steps above about resetting the password for root and logging into root. I go into System Preference>Users & Groups and I see root, my regular account, and a guest account.

When I try to create a new account with the same name as the old one(which is still visible), it stops me from filling out any more of the form until I either change the name or just cancel.

I have no problems whatsoever logging into root. Only have issues logging into regular account.

Have you tried changing the password for the original user? I was able too talk to Apple care tech support even though my machine is way out of warranty (the software carries a 90 day warranty). All though it tolok a while for them to figure it out, they were very helpful.

Yeah - That was the first thing I tried. I can access the root user and I can create other accounts which can log in without any issues. I can also log into my own user account in safe mode. Once I logged in in safe mode I removed all the items in my Login items in case they were causing the problem, but not. Each time I log in to my account, my Mac shakes its head and tells me I have the wrong password.

I spoke to support yesterday and they suggested creating a new user and migrating the files there. I started to do that then I realized that many of my program settings, Keychain info etc. will get left behind. Ideally, I want to use the same account. Their other suggestion was to re-install which again loses my data. I'm trying to back everything up now in Time Machine before taking any of the next steps.

Other ideas?

It sounds like something in your main account is loading a preventing the user to login. You might want to try to find out what loads on login and disable those, in safe mode, and then try to log in.

Other than Login items, where else can I check to see what is loading?

**** this ****. it should just work.

its a simple upgrade, and im hung on login.

no excuse, did apple test this install at all?

it will NOT log in.

From their perspective everything was good to go. I agree that I feel like I'm Beta testing something that I thought to be more complete but that's because there are different factors for each mac user.

do you have mouse access but your keyboards get blocked so you can't type in your passwords? It sounds like you guys have a different issue all together then the original poster and myself so explaining your spechs and what you're seeing, do you see the login SCREEN?, could help.

Yes - there seems to be a variety of issues with logging in. I think Apple probably did their best to test and get beta feedback but there's no way they can anticipate all the millions of combinations and configurations being used by users.

In my case, I am able to use my account only in safe mode (boot with SHIFT key held down). So it seems that something in my startup services is causing the issue. I just don't know what. I've removed all the items in my Login Items and I've uninstalled software that I thought might be conflicting (Logmein, GFXCardStatus, Mono Framework etc.). I still can't log in while not in safe mode, so there's something else. I've listed all processes using Launchctl list command in Terminal while in safe mode so I know the processes listed are OK. I don't know how to get a list of the processes that are being started in normal mode in my account to see what may be a problem.

Anyone with the same issues or other ideas?

Thanks!

I solved my problem. The issue was my Centrify Active Directory component. I uninstalled it and all is good.

Thanks all for your help.

How did you remove centrify? I tried to uninstall via terminal and it told me I had an unsupported OS.