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Login Loop after reboot. Can't login to main account on iMac

I've had this computer for 7 years. This is the first 24" iMac from 2006, running OSX 10.7.5. Daily user computer.


I have tried going in and deleting/resetting the Launch Services cache. I've tried doing the same thing through Onyx. I've tried rebooting in Safe mode. Nothing. Every time I try to log on to my main user account, it just boots me back to the login screen after about 20 seconds.


I've spent most of the day trying to sort this mess out. I've figured out that this is a "login loop" supposedly created from some faulty login items which I can't seem to find.


Any help is appreciated.

iMac 24" Core2Duo, Mac OS X (10.5.5)

Posted on Jul 23, 2013 6:39 PM

Reply
12 replies

Jul 23, 2013 6:46 PM in response to glb

You can try:


Forgot Your Account Password


For Lion/Mountain Lion


Boot to the Recovery HD:


Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.


When the menubar appears select Terminal from the Utilities menu.

Enter resetpassword at the prompt and press RETURN. Follow

instructions in the dialog window that will appear.


Or see Reset a Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Password, OS X Mountain Lion- Reset a login password, and

OS X Lion- Apple ID can be used to reset your user account password.


For Snow Leopard and earlier with installer DVD


Mac OS X 10.6- If you forget your administrator password


For Snow Leopard and earlier without installer DVD


How to reset your Mac OS X password without an installer disc | MacYourself


Then fix the keychain:


First, if you've forgotten your password, you can use the "Keychain First Aid" utility to make the keychain password the same as the login password. This can be accomplished via the following process:


1. Open Keychain Access (located in Applications/Utilities)

2. Go to the "Keychain Access" menu and select "Preferences"

3. Click the "First Aid" tab

4. Make sure the "Synchronize login keychain password" box is checked

5. Close the Preferences window

6. Go to the "Keychain Access" menu and select "Keychain First Aid"

7. Enter your username and password


8. Click the "Repair" button

And, if this all fails to help then:

Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing the Drive


Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.


Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.


When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.


Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.


Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

Jul 23, 2013 7:15 PM in response to Kappy

Thanks Kappy. The issue isn't a password problem. I've had the same password for years. The issue is once it gets past the login it stalls for about twenty seconds and then boots me back to the login screen.


I have also repaired permissions via the OS, Onyx, and booting from the recovery HD. No luck.


Starting to wonder if this is a hardware issue.

Jul 24, 2013 11:03 AM in response to BobHarris

Yes, I've tried safe mode. It does the exact same thing that it does in regular mode.


I have checked the status of the drives and there were some issues, but Disk Utility fixed whatever issues it found.


Also I should mention, I can log into another administrator account on the same computer. My other account works fine.


I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but for some reason now, I can't turn up the volume on my second account. Maybe this is why I feel this is a hardware issue?

Jul 30, 2013 11:49 AM in response to glb

Did you do the reinstall of OS X? Usually, this is the result of a bad file somewhere. However, Apple has suggested that it can be caused by a bad login item and proposes this fix:


You may have an incompatible startup item in your user account. You may need to start the computer in Safe Mode and disable login items by using the following steps:

  1. Shut down your computer.
  2. Wait 30 seconds
  3. Hold down the Shift key after pressing the power button.
  4. When you see the gray Apple logo and progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear), release the Shift key.
  5. If you are prompted to log in, type your password, then hold the Shift key again when you click Log in.
  6. Choose Apple () menu > System Preferences.
  7. Click Users & Groups.
  8. Click your account name, then click Login Items.
  9. Look for any application that has a prohibitory sign (a gray circle with a slash) over its icon. This indicates an incompatible item.
  10. Select the incompatible login item, then click the Delete ➖ button.
  11. Restart your Mac.

Jul 30, 2013 4:32 PM in response to Kappy

Kappy--


I reinstalled OSX and that didn't work. I have booted into safe mode before this. Still having the problem. I booted into Safe Mode just as you said to here and I still can't get into my account. I tried logging in under another admin account and it doesn't let me see login items.


Any other ideas? I'm at a loss here. I'm at the point where I feel like it might be time to do a fresh install...?

Aug 4, 2013 11:04 AM in response to glb

I've spent all morning working on this issue. Re-installed Lion twice in the past week and still can't get my regular username to work.


The only thing that ever gives me some idea that there's something wrong is this error from the Keychain First Aid. This is the error, with **** as my username, obviously:


Verification started

Checking keychain configuration for **** (user ID=501)

Home directory is /Users/****

Checked login keychain

Problems were found; you should choose the Repair option to fix them

Verification failed


Repair started

Checking keychain configuration for **** (user ID=501)

Home directory is /Users/****

Checked login keychain

Warning: some problems were not fixed

Repair failed

Not sure where to go from here.

Aug 4, 2013 11:50 AM in response to glb

Just logged in as root and did the Keychain repair. Now I get this error:


Verification started

Checking keychain configuration for **** (user ID=501)

Home directory is /Users/****

Checked login keychain

Verification terminated unexpectedly


Repair started

Checking keychain configuration for **** (user ID=501)

Home directory is /Users/****

Checked login keychain

Repair terminated unexpectedly

Aug 5, 2013 5:30 AM in response to glb

I've tried everything and the only thing that finally worked was restoring from a Time Machine backup from before this problem started.


I've tried:

-repairing permissions

-booting into safe mode

-Keychain first aid

-resetting the password

-resetting PRAM


None of these things worked. I finally just did a restore, which brought everything back to life.

Login Loop after reboot. Can't login to main account on iMac

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