System admin appearing on lock screen after stand by

It isn't normal. It should pop up to the user that was active when it went to sleep.

Check in Security & Privacy System Preferences to see if she is set to log out after so many minutes.

The setting is in the General tab under Advanced button. You have to unlock the padlock to get to Advanced.

Also, can you determine if the Mac is crashing while sleeping and automatically rebooting?

etrecheck did not find anything noteworthy. Then I rebooted to single user mode and did fsck. It found and corrected a problem.

Result: the System Administrator does not show up anymore! ✅ Hooray! 🙂

I still cannot login with my Apple Watch, but I guess that's a different issue. 😢

I had the same issue and just fixed it.

If I am right, you have Admin privileges and your wife hasn't (this was my case),

Here are the steps I took to fix this, hopefully it will work for you.

Log Out the user account (i.e your wife's account - It must be logged Out)

Log on your admin account (i.e yours)

Go to System Preferences > Users and Groups

Click the lock to make Changes

Select the user account (i.e your wife's)

Make this account Admin by clicking "Allow user to Administer this computer"

Restart compter

Log onto the user account (i.e your wife's)

Lock screen

Normally the problem has disappeared

Redo exactly the same but remove admin privileges to the user account (i.e your wife)

Restart and check again.

The issue should have gone (It has for me)

PS1: I hope that Apple will sort this out..

PS2: I had too click twice to remove admin privileges to user account, yet another bug for High Sierra (way too many to my taste...)

FIX FIX FIX FIX FIX to this annoying issue!!!!!

I have just contacted Apple about the same issue. They talked me through how to fix.

Took about 10 mins.

You essentially need to do a reboot using command and R.

Make a note of these on another computer/paper as you need to reboot:

Step 1:

Shutdown MacBook.

When MacBook is shutdown, hold command and R then restart the Mac. Note, make sure you continue to hold command and R. This can a while so be patient.

Eventually the screen will go light grey and you will see the mouse arrow. You can now release the command and R.

The 'Mac OS utilities' box will appear.

Step 2:

Mac OS utilities.

Select - disc utility

This will take you to the 'disc utility' page.

Step 3:

On left hand side, make sure 'Macintosh HD' tab is selected.

There is a tab entitled 'first aid' which needs to be selected. If greyed out then you need to click the tab entitled 'mount' and enter your Mac password.

This will then unlock the 'first aid' tab and enable you to select.

Now select 'first aid'. This will repair the Mac.

Step 4:

Click on the apple sign (top left) and restart the Mac.

Problem should now be solved!

Problem solved.

I had this problem too, and this procedure fixed it. Steps to replicate issue:

• two users, both logged in
• goto second user account and lock screen --> Admin account login screen shows up

One difference I had was that the second account was marked as SysAdmin (in the original post the second account wasn't). So I had to reverse the process:

• revoke sysAdmin, reboot
• reinstate sysAdmin, reboot

After each reboot I verified that the problem was resolved.

I too noticed that when revoking sysAdmin, I had to hit the checkbox 2x.

So I've been having this issue on my new MBP - users were restored from Time Machine. What I discovered was that only two users were causing the problem. If I sleep the MBP on my account (admin) there's no issue, wakes and asks for my login. Similar story for my wife (who isn't an admin). However the logins for both my kids result in System Admin after sleep. The fix (or so far it seems to be) was to just delete the two kids logins, including home folder, and create new ones. Looks like something was corrupt in these logins. So worth trying that on any logins you are seeing this issue with.

I got this problem also right after updating to High Sierra: Two users logged in, other one always getting System Administrator login screen when waking up from sleep. I hadn't restarted the computer since the High Sierra installation process, but when I did the problem went away. No more sys admin login screen for either of the logged in users.

I have a sneaking suspicion that our problem is related to this just-discovered issue: https://www.macworld.com/article/3238868/macs/macos-high-sierra-root-security-is sue-allows-admin-access-to-your-macbut-t…

When I tested if I was affected by this very dangerous bug, I was. And sure enough, once "root" was activated via the initial exploit I had an "Other…" option appear on the Login Window. Clicking on this and using User "root" and a blank password, I was taken to a desktop window for an account named "System Administrator".

I've followed the steps Apple's detailed here: How to enable the root user on your Mac or change your root password - Apple Support. "Guest User" is also off. I wonder if this issue will disappear now too...

I've done some more experimenting and the issue seems to be that if a user leaves Chrome running, it continues to generate network traffic in the background of the locked session. If I use my admin session to kill chrome in the other users session via Activity Monitor, the normal behavior of the lock screen returns. I'm not sure if this issue is specific to chrome, or even web browsers, but it at least appears to me that (A) applications running in a locked session can generate low level perpetual sent/received bytes/packets, and (B) this seems to cause the lock screen issue.

It should be noted that there is quite some delay when I click switch user when the System Administrator lock screen shows.

That sounds like it is crashing when you try to switch users.

If you run in Safe Mode, do you still see the problem?

Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac - Apple Support

If you are the first administrator of the computer , in security and privacy > General > check the box of require password as " immediately " ( use drop down arrows to select from options ) after sleep or screen saver begins , in users and groups keep automatic login as off and check the box of disable automatic login .

Have you enabled file vault .Also when file vault is enabled automatic login is disabled .

See this article macOS Sierra: Set up users, guests, and groups on your Mac

Also in system preferences > iCloud keep back to my Mac box as unchecked .

Did the install enable FileVault? Is your wife's ID enabled for unlocking FileVault?

basge123 wrote:

My install has Filevault enabled but there isn't a user specific setting for unlocking FileVault, is there?

Yes, there is. Each user account must be individually authorized to unlock the FileVault volume.

The controls are on the FileVault panel of System Preferences > Security & Privacy, but they only appear if you have some user accounts that are not yet authorized. In the case, you'll see something like this:

it's attached to the other account of my two accounts in this computer.

Can you explain what you mean by that? I've never seen anything "attached" to a user account.

If you mean that you see Other listed on the login screen along with other user accounts, check to see if root is enabled and disable it:

How to enable the root user on your Mac or change your root password - Apple Support

I failed to state the first, most integral step in that you must go into Single User mode first. Please do an external backup if possible, first, and use the following steps with care.

1. Restart your Mac in single user mode:

* (Command - S after powering on)

Continue holding the keys until you see

white text on the screen.

• If you're using FileVault, release the keys when you see the login window. Then log in to continue startup in single-user or verbose mode.
• If you're using a firmware password, you must turn off the password before you can start up in single-user or verbose mode

2. When the terminal prompt appears, you will

enter the following commands. After every

command press enter:

• mount -uw /
• rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
• reboot

3. This will allow you to go into setup assistant, and you can then set up an administrator user. After, you can then change your standard user as an administrator.

Please note:

After you reboot the computer and you are taken to the Setup Assistant, there will come a point in which a prompt will ask you to set up your new user account. This is where you create a new admin account.

*****IMPORTANT: Be sure to name this user account something different than the admin user account that already exists on the system.

When you finish the Setup Assistant, it will automatically log you into the new account.

If setup assistant does not initiate as happens in many cases specific to this, then you would force initiate it to begin setup assistant.

Version 10.13.3/MacBook Pro