Lion login screen stuck in a loop

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Level 1

25 points

Lion login screen stuck in a loop

I rebooted my computer, and at the login screen, I enter my password, the system accepts it, the screen fades to gray for 2 seconds, then goes back to the login screen. It loops like this forever.

I've tried all the standard- repair permissions, disk, reboots, etc. Even brought my macbook air to the genius bar when it happened; they couldn't fix it, and ended up blowing away my OS + reloading a fresh image.

Now the same thing happened to my Macbook Pro. The MBP is a Mid 2010 model, and the MBA is the late-2010 model.

Why is this happening? I'm assuming this isn't an acute issue if its popping up on forums everywhere. Surprised me that the genius team didn't know what was happening. I spent an hour or so with them, and they spent most of the time searching their KB and online for support- to no avail.

Apple- is there a bug in Lion? Will 10.7.3 address it? I'm afraid to reboot my computer now having experienced this on TWO machines within 1 week! What a coincidence?

I don't use any strange software or anything on my machines. In fact, the MBP was JUST upgraded to Lion about a week and half ago. I only installed iWork + CS5 on it.

Please speak up if this is happening to you too. If this is to be fixed, we need to know that it's happening to more folks.

Posted on Nov 17, 2011 10:21 PM

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Answer 1

Nov 17, 2011 10:50 PM in response to slouchsock8

I've tried all the standard- repair permissions, disk, reboots, etc

Did you try Lion Recovery > OS X Lion: About Lion Recovery

If there's something wrong the Mac it's doubtful and "update" will make a difference. Whatever is wrong, needs to be addressed beforehand.

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Answer 2

Nov 19, 2011 7:27 AM in response to slouchsock8

Infinite Login Loop

I am having the same problem for the second time! First it was on my Imac now on my macbook pro.

I see that slouchsock8 mentions that she installed iworks and Adobe CS5. Me too!

The first time, on my imac, I went to the mac store and they had no idea so they reinstalled.

The problem went away. It has been several months and hopefully it stays away.

Now on my MBP, I did a clean install. I reformatted the hard drive and installed Lion from an SD card.

It worked great then i installed iworks and Adobe CS5.

After 2 reboots i got the login loop.

Im going to try a reinstall.

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Answer 3

Nov 19, 2011 8:15 AM in response to thirdgear75

Update...

Infinite Login Loop

I reinstalled Lion from SD card (can be USB or DVD).

I have restarted the MBP about a dozen times now and it seems to be working ok.

For now, no more login loop.

* for those wanting to try this:

I searched for: how to do a clean install on mac os x lion

I hope this helps.

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Answer 4

NoahC

Level 1

19 points

Nov 20, 2011 1:52 PM in response to slouchsock8

I'm having this same problem all of a sudden. I've tried logging into different accounts, re-setting the root password and logging in there, logging in via safe mode - nothing will get me past the login screen.

This is fairly catastrophic as I'm on extended international work trip with no recent backup.

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Answer 5

slouchsock8 Author

Level 1

25 points

Nov 20, 2011 2:17 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

Booting from the Restore partition and selecting 'install a new copy of Lion' did solve this problem. It took a while for it all to download + install, and the first time the install failed, but after everything, it's all ok.

Note- your user data/documents are still in tact if you re-install via the restore partition.

You may want to back up data if you can, before doing this. I booted into Target disk mode & hooked my MBP to my mac mini to backup some crucial data first.

Good luck, and I hope Apple addresses this login issue in the next Software Update.

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Answer 6

NoahC

Level 1

19 points

Nov 20, 2011 2:29 PM in response to slouchsock8

Thanks for the suggestions. I triedn to do restore but with only 11.5 GB of free space on the drive - that doesn't work. Also lacking a FireWire cable to use with my wife's MacBook and TDM.

Apple stores here in Paris have no Genius bar appointments for a week. This is insane.

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Answer 7

NoahC

Level 1

19 points

Nov 20, 2011 10:29 PM in response to slouchsock8

I was able to Eventually do a re-install of Lion overnight and that seems to have fixed it. Fingers crossed this lasts.

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Answer 8

Nov 26, 2011 7:56 AM in response to slouchsock8

I have the same problem on my macbook pro 13 inch! I tried using everything. I have a windows partition that still works so it must just be a problem with lion. Can someone reply to me if it's fixed or anything?

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Answer 9

slouchsock8 Author

Level 1

25 points

Dec 4, 2011 4:35 PM in response to slouchsock8

Just to update everybody, both of my machines were fixed by doing a Restore.

But get this: my mom just got her first mac- an 11" Macbook Air..not 12 hours after taking it out of the box, we restarted the machine, and IT WON'T LOGIN...it got the same issue!

APPLE- PLEASE FIGURE THIS OUT & FIX IT SOON. I can't imagine that this is an isolated issue...how could THREE machines in this household be affected with the same bug. The third computer being a BRAND new machine!

The Macbook Air was merely used for some light web browsing, Software Updates & I helped her install iWork 09.

How could this be that this login screen loop problem is so easily triggered??

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Answer 10

afrayn

Level 1

4 points

Jan 9, 2012 9:10 AM in response to slouchsock8

I'm the IT Manager for a private school. We were stupid enough to upgrade a small handful of machines to Lion... it happens on so many of our machines. Mostly on Mobile accounts from our Open Directory server (10.6 Server).

If you can avoid it, don't upgrade to Lion.

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