Mac , primary,user,account,disappeared

Very much look forward to hearing more on this thread. Just received a call from wife, for third time in last two months the primary user account on her macbook pro has disappeared from the login screen. No errors in system logs, verify/disk repair finds no errors to resolve. I have twice now used a secondary account I have to sudo su - and run a custom script written to make various dscl executions to recreate her primary user account. But that doesn't recover the Keychain. Now facing a third fix episode. Mac OS is most current and kept patched. Seems incredible that almost no one else is posting with this issue?

jarle50,

You may wish to look at this thread from a few weeks ago.

login issue

Some similarity to the situation you describe. Resolved with help from this community and Apple Support, including a trip to the Genius Bar.

Apple Support responded quickly when I ran Apple Diagnostics.

How to use Apple Diagnostics on your Mac - Apple Support

iGardener

I don't know if this will help you; however, he goes: get into System Preferences, click either iCloud or Internet accounts to find your accounts. Your Primary should be in iCloud, find the secondary in Internet Accounts. You probably unintentionally changed the status of them. Good luck!

have this problem too, and find out the solution. At least works for me...

The idea is to delete a config file, and make the Mac think it is a new Mac, then the Mac will bring me to the setup screen, just like what you see in a new Mac.

After that, the Mac will create a new admin account for you, and with this account, you can create back your lost account, or recover any file. The whole steps only spend me 15 minutes.

After the fix, make sure that your Mac got at least 2 GB of free space.

here is the detail instruction

Mac password / account recovery (English subtitle) - YouTube

I have this same problem. Any response?

Sorry this was missed.

Startup holding CMD+r keys, use Disk Utility to Repair the drive... any change?

I have a fusion drive. If I do disk repair, will it wipe the desk clean?

It's not supposed to do that, before choosing Repair Disk, choose Verify Disk & see what that says... it doesn't change anything on the drive.

I have this problem on El Capitan. Started this morning.