Q: OS X Lion freezes at login screen + App Store is slow

I can't wait for the fix!!

Same problem here. Early 2011 13" MBP. Snow Leopard was slow at times for login, but Lion is consistently slow. Also I don't have the options to disable graphics switching. :/

My (Lion) copy of Software Update found a new EFI download for my 17-inch 2011 MBP today. Maybe that will also address problems with your 13" MBP. It's worth a shot. If it applies to your specific MBP, it should not matter whether you are running Snow-Leopard or Lion.

Well, this iMac has been the most frustrating thing I've ever purchased from Apple. Everything before this has been incredible. This is a near-dud. Unfortunately, it all seems to be Lion's fault. Apple just resolved via firmware update the other major issue with this computer, that being the WiFi dropping every few minutes...but now this.

Even though most of the posts on this forum are for MacBook Pro's and Mac mini's, I can definitely confirm that I am experiencing the exact issue described here on my iMac 12,2 i7. I don't have any extravagant setup, just two user accounts. Nearly every third time I switch accounts at any given time during the day, the login screen freezes completely. I have to put the iMac to sleep and wake it three times before I can get anywhere and half the time I have to reboot it...just to log in.

I have no idea what is causing this issue, but what's interesting is if you have Apple Remote Desktop or Screen Sharing enabled, you can use another computer to log into your frozen Mac. Seems to be a problem with the actual login screen program. Again, no idea. I'd be happy to hear any ideas for iMac's that may work, but at this point it seems we're all in the same boat waiting for a band aid.

crappplestout: Did your iMac12,2 i7 come with OEM Lion installed? And, in any case, can you turn it into a dual-boot, Snow Leopard plus Lion machine? Using Snow Leopard might be the sanguine way to limp along until Apple fixes Lion (if they ever do - and I am betting they won't. They'll simply bury it under 10.8.x). BTW, Snow Leopard works just fine on my OEM Lion MBP 8,3.

One thing I have done is to create a dual-boot, FireWire 800 external HD that I can plug in to any of my 3 Macs and boot them. It works with my own iMac11,1 i7 with no problems. But I am not converting that "essential" Mac to Lion. It is not worth the risk - especially as tax-time approaches.

I upgraded to Lion from Snow Leopard from the App store.

My laptop is a Macbook Pro Intel Core 2 Duo 2.33ghz from late 2007.

I've got this laptop with Tiger originally installed. Then come Leopard and Snow Leopard and I upgraded.

The last upgrade last january. Installed OS X Lion from the apple store.

A month passed by and the crashes began. My Macbook Pro was freezing at login in screen each time. The only way it worked it it was in Safe Mode.

Well, I tried everything. Hardware Tests, Repaired permission, Repaired HD, Reset SMC, Pram, Vram, etc. I also erased old software that could have caused this. But nothing.  The machine was unusable.

I didn't have any hope. I thought I had to go and buy a new laptop.

Until one day, when my laptop decided to work for 5 minutes I was able to install a little utility called "Lion Cache Cleaner" http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/9503/lion-cache-cleaner

I used this little app to clean OS X Lion cache and now everything is fine.

No more crashes.

Hi crapplestout: If you try the Lion Cache Cleaner potential fix posted by food2prep (above), please let us know if it works for your iMac12,2.

food2prep, would you please explain what part of this multi-utility you used? If you just used it for clearing your cache, I have CleanMyMac from MacPaw and that can achieve the same results. I'll go ahead and run it now, but did you use a specific feature of that application?

In the application Lion Cache Cleaner the windows that pops out has different tab choices.

"System Info, Login Items, Mantain, Optimize, Trash, Caches".

I selected the tab "Caches" and I highlighted "Deep Cleaning".

Then "Clean". And we I restarted the Macbook Pro everything was fine. I am surprised how fast my laptop is running.

STEPS I DID BEFORE INSTALLING LION CACHE CLEANER

Prior to that it always froze at login screen, screen would flicker, etc... My laptop would boot only in safe mode.

I was reading other post and I went across the following suggestion which I did. Starting in single user mode (Command+S) and repaired the HD by entering "/sbin/fsck -fy". The first time I ran the command the prompt says "FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED".

Then I ran again the command "/sbin/fsck -fy" again and the prompt says "The Macintosh is ok".

Then I mounted the HD with this command "/sbin/mount -uw /"

Then I entered "reboot" and my laptop was able to login but it would crash and freeze again within 5 minutes of use. And I had to always hard reboot and repeat the procedure that I just described.

In one of those moment that I was able to login I went across the app "Lion Cache Cleaner". I installed and selected the option "Deep Cleaning" that I had mentioned earlier and my Macbook Pro was fixed.

I cannon believe it.

I really hope this can help

The Lion Cache Cleaner(LCC) did help. Thanks so much food2prep for sharing this. I can now login a different account (while also logged in another account) and do my work smoothly. Prior to this, i would get the spinning beach ball all the time.

Although the problem did not really dissapear, the beach ball would come up again if i logged out from one account and try to log in another account, but at least i dont see the beach ball while logged in anymore. In anyway, below is what i normally do when i see the beachball at the Log in screen.

At the log in screen, click on your account. If you see the beachball, hit F12 or F11 ONCE, put in your password, press enter and hit the F12 or F11 again. This normally, i'd say 9 out of 10 times, would get me in to my account. Just don't press F12/F11 more than you need and always enter your password, hit enter then only press the hit F12/F11 again.

Do not do the kext mod until you try Lion Cache Cleaner first

(http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/9503/lion-cache-cleaner), which has fixed the spinning beach balls at login for me (mid-2010 with Nvidia GeForce GT 330M 256MB).  I downloaded LCC (free demo/shareware) and did the deep cache clean (Launch app > Demo > Caches > Choose Deep Cleaning > Check all Clean checkboxes > Clean).  Click Yes for delete each cache.  Be patient as it might take a few moments to clean.  Reboot when prompted.  Again be patient.  I've been beach ball free at login for the past week.

gliderJoe: I agree. It sounds much easier and faster to use Lion Cache Cleaner. If it works then forget about the kext-fix that worked for me. And, of course, do a final backup as step one.

Hi Terry, seems like a lot of work happening on this forum and the Lion Cache Cleaner solution looks promising.

In the meantime, I discovered an easy solution to get the free .me email account working in Snow Leopard

– especially for those who are still locked out or decided to postpone migration to Lion, but who managed to activate their Lion .me email account when originally setting up Mac OS X 10.7.

Just download the Mozilla Thunderbird app. If you already know your .me email address and password, simply enter them in the Thunderbird set-up wizard and voila...

Ahoy Metalizer: Thanks for the tip. But did you mean "iCloud email"? (not Me.com email). Apologies if this is a bit off-topic for this thread.

I think I mentioned earlier that since "moving" my Me.com account to iCloud.com, I have had no problems receiving my iCloud (push) email on either my Snow Leopard iMac or my Lion MBP, or my iPhone 4.

The "iCloud" problem is that the Snow Leopard-native Apps, iCal and AddressBook cannot sync with their iCloud conterparts.

I discovered earlier today that iTunes can be used to sync iCal and AddressBook !!! But it doesn't specifically mention Snow Leopard and I haven't tried it yet; it may be Lion-only.

It's iCloud Mail that I now have set up in the Thunderbird app and I'm using Apple's Mail for my old POP email account(s) (as oddly I wasn't able to configure my POP email in Thunderbird, even manually, but that's another issue).

There were certain indications, at one time, that a 10.6.9 update would bring full iCloud compatibility to Snow Leopard. (Did someone, somewhere, have a change of mind?)

Perhaps, it could still be introduced by way of acknowledging all of the troubles that have been reported by Lion adopters on this forum.