user switch gets stuck at black screen with just a cursor

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Level 1

24 points

user switch gets stuck at black screen with just a cursor

We have multiple accounts on our Mac. Only one is an Admin, the rest are all under parental control.

When switching users, the system does not cleanly switch to the user login screen and allow them to enter their name and password.

The screen will 'rotate' out of the current user, but then is displaying a black screen with nothing displayed but the mouse pointer.

The system will get stuck at this black screen for several minutes, some times indefinitely.

This will often cause the user (kids) to lose patience and simply force shut down the Mac and restart it.

This is a new behavior in 10.10 Yosemite.

We have always used the switch users at the login screen or fast user switch pulldown menu feature and I never encountered this problem in earlier Mac OS releases.

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10), Early 2011

Posted on Nov 4, 2014 7:17 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

hansenodense

Level 1

4 points

Jan 19, 2017 1:45 AM in response to elbenoit

Sometimes a problem in earlier OS pop-up again... I'm on 10.12 (2) – and the problem you describe... if I start up and login to my main user = black screen. If I start up with different user and login to my main user = screen will rotate out of current user, and display a black screen.

If I moved my curser to left corner (hotspot) I could briefly see the dock but only for half a second.

If I typed something on the keyboard if would sometimes return a beep.

The solution *** for me anyway ***: Click the tabulator > enter my username > click tabulator (once or twice – if it beeps, click tab again – retry if it doesn't work) > enter my password... and the dark black screen vanished like a cloud in front of a beautiful blue sky... my desktop image.

I suspect that a dialog was hidden on the black screen... entering my username + password > in blindness > made the world bright again.

Advice: Always create a 'backup user account'. It's nice being able to see if it's the user account that has problem or the computer.

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Answer 2

Jan 31, 2017 2:54 PM in response to elbenoit

I had this problem, I tried the eject and ctrl, with no success, also could not see anything on the screen when I held a flashlight up- what I did was I typed in my password and pressed enter, it worked, but it opened up on my admin page.

Hope this helps.

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Answer 3

Nov 7, 2014 10:34 AM in response to elbenoit

I have this problem with my parental controlled users (kids)

to get things working at all, I have set the accounts to Standard without controls and this allows fast-switching like normal.

I also had no problems before the Yosemite update.

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Answer 4

elbenoit Author

Level 1

24 points

Dec 9, 2014 2:29 PM in response to elbenoit

I am also seeing this black screen when I log out of my user account as well.

The account appears to log out ok but then the login screen never appears.

They system gets stuck at a black screen with just the mouse pointer displaying. It never goes to the login screen.

I have let it sit like this for several minutes (10 - 15) before giving up and force shutting-down the machine.

It is extremely annoying as we have multiple users who are kids sharing this computer. They have zero patience and will just shut off the machine rather than wait to see if it resolves itself.

The result is that we are always force shutting down the system when switching users, which can't be good.

Yosemite 10.10.1

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Answer 5

elbenoit Author

Level 1

24 points

Dec 10, 2014 10:55 AM in response to elbenoit

I have been digging on the web for a while searching for answers to this.. I am of the opinion this is a Yosemite bug.

I have always used fast user switching since I got this Mac in 2011 and I never had this problem on previous Mac OS releases.

That being said:

Possible workarounds: I have read that hitting control + eject might work as this brings up the reboot dialog which allows you to reboot normally as opposed to forced shut down... I have also read that someone held a flashlight up to the screen and could see the login dialog (backlight issue).. I will also try resetting PRAM.

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Answer 6

Eric Root

Level 10

684,033 points

Dec 10, 2014 11:44 AM in response to elbenoit

Send Apple feedback. They won't answer, but at least will know there is a problem. If enough people send feedback, it may get the problem solved sooner.

Feedback

Or you can use your Apple ID to register with this site and go the Apple BugReporter. Supposedly you will get an answer if you submit feedback.

Feedback via Apple Developer

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Answer 7

elbenoit Author

Level 1

24 points

Dec 14, 2014 5:09 PM in response to Eric Root

I had this occur again, opening the lid and trying to wake the computer from sleep.

Control + Eject did not work (no dialog appeared) and holding a flashlight to the screen did not reveal any sort of 'dimmed' version of the login window... The only way I can get out of it is forced shutdown and restart. This problem is getting really tiresome.

This last time I booted into recovery mode and did a disk permissions repair and it did say it repaired private/var/db/displaypolicyd

I have been digging around in the console and can't see any any obvious message that points out the cause of this problem.. Again NEVER saw this in Mavericks..

10.10.2.. fingers crossed...

Thank you for your courage

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Answer 8

Alpina

Level 1

4 points

Dec 14, 2014 5:22 PM in response to elbenoit

I'm having similar problems, but on shutting down rather than switching. do you by any chance have an external drive connected? I have a thunderbolt external drive and it wasn't spinning down fast enough to allow shut down. I now eject it before shutting down. Maybe try ejecting it before switching.

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Answer 9

elbenoit Author

Level 1

24 points

Dec 14, 2014 6:06 PM in response to Alpina

I don't have an external drive connected.

I've also noted messages in the console regarding ambientdisplayagent.

I may try an SMC reset next time it happens..

Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) - Apple Support

(I'm pretty convinced it's a Yosemite bug, due to the fact that I never saw it before in any previous release.)

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Answer 10

Dec 19, 2014 8:37 PM in response to elbenoit

I have been experiencing this periodically with a 2011 MacMini I'm using as a HTPC. Therefore I would be led to believe it's a little more than just a backlight issue. It has occurred both with fast switches to the Login Window (screen locks) and full logouts.

I've never encountered this issue before Yosemite but I also haven't gotten into setting up various user accounts until recently.

When it occurs I usually force a reboot using Ctrl+Command+Power Button. It would seem to be a little gentler on the hardware than simply doing a power button reset.

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Answer 11

elbenoit Author

Level 1

24 points

Dec 23, 2014 6:54 AM in response to Sabretooth78

Thanks if this happens again I'll use the Ctrl+Command+Power Button instead of a hard shut-down. I was not aware of that keyboard combo.

I haven't had it in several days since repairing the permissions in recovery mode and zapping the pram.. fingers crossed..

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Answer 12

g_solon

Level 1

0 points

Jan 3, 2015 8:02 AM in response to elbenoit

Hi,

This is happening to me on my new iMac Retina 5K. It started to happen after I setup a second user account and has done it twice - once when switching users, the other time when shutting down.

Any resolution to your problem?

Regards,

Greg

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Answer 13

Jan 3, 2015 8:27 AM in response to elbenoit

You'll want to contact Apple Care they should have a few steps to resolve the issue with a few command lines.

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Answer 14

elbenoit Author

Level 1

24 points

Jan 10, 2015 10:16 AM in response to g_solon

There is no resolution that I am aware of, other than hoping for a fix in the next point release of Yosemite.

When the black screen problem occurs I now use the control + command + power button combo to soft restart the machine.

As was mentioned above this seems like a gentler way to restart the machine than holding down the power button for a hard shutdown.

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Answer 15

joshmax

Level 1

10 points

Jan 25, 2015 10:42 PM in response to elbenoit

Same exact thing here, had to find this discussion through google.

New Mac mini, new installation 10.10 with user account & parental controls for kids. Besides the usual buggy parental controls, the login screen now becomes completely black with just the pointer. I have no clue where the logout process is up to when this happens, and it's annoying to have to plug out the machine to get it working again. Apple is quiet as usual.

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