Can not log into server computer with any accounts - "You are unable to login to the user account "abcdefg" at this time. Logging in to the account failed because an error occurred."

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Level 1

23 points

Can not log into server computer with any accounts - "You are unable to login to the user account "abcdefg" at this time. Logging in to the account failed because an error occurred."

I have a Mac mini running the latest version of OS X and Server. Been running fine and flawlessly. However, I had a strange problem with the iCloud preferences panel crashing when I tried to access it, so I rebooted. Now I can not log into the system with any accounts. My master admin account (along with all the others) gives me the error:

You are unable to login to the user account "abcdefg" at this time. Logging in to the account failed because an error occurred."

I am able to see the server from other macs and I can log into it using the same account, but it only shows me a few of the shared folders I have access to but NOT to my main directories.

Rebooting into Command-R and doing a disk utility, I try and repair permission on that drive and get a bunch of errors like:

ACL found but not expected on Users

Repaired "Users"

ACL found but not expected on Users/.localized

Repaired "Users/.localized"

ACL found but not expected on Users/Shared

Repaired "Users/shared"

ACL found but not expected on Users/Shared/.localized

Repaired "Users/Shared/.localized"

Permissions repair complete.

But rebooting is no joy...same problem. Any idea what is going on or how to repair it? Should I do a time machine restore? Complete new OS X install? Any idea what is causing this or how to salvage it?

Posted on Feb 14, 2013 2:56 PM

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Answer 1

kb8wfh Author

Level 1

23 points

Feb 15, 2013 5:16 AM in response to kb8wfh

Gave up on recovery of the current build and am reformatting and re-installing. Tried first from a time machine backup. The restore gave me the same problem with login attempts. Tried a OS X reinstall, but that failed "Due to an error" (thanks Apple for such helpful Window-esque error messages). Trying now a format and restore from my oldest time machine backup.

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Answer 2

kb8wfh Author

Level 1

23 points

Feb 16, 2013 2:38 PM in response to kb8wfh

Got everything to re-install and it worked fine...for a few hours. Then I came in to find ALL of my network users deleted. Just GONE. Then found out the Open Directory was trashed and was unable to open, recover or restore from a backup. Looks like I may have a bad drive here.

I installed a new drive in the system, re-installed and so far (for a couple of hours anyway) the system seems to be working and stable.

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