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SRLMJ23

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 11, 2008
2,311
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Central New York
I am using APFS (Encrypted) and on my login screen on a cold boot/restart I see four icons. I see two guest icons which should not be there since I turned off guest accounts, my normal login with my picture, and a picture of a HDD that says "Disk Password." Anyone know how to get rid of these except for my login? When installation of High Sierra was done, it asked me if the password I used for my login account could unlock my drive (I guess since it was different than the password I made for APFS Encrypted) and I selected "Yes." Also one of the guest account pictures is all distorted. Just wondering if anyone else has had this issue. On macOS Sierra with FileVault all I had on my login screen was my login picture not guest or disk password. I will post a screenshot in a moment. Thank you in advance!

EDIT: Here is a picture I had to take with my iPhone because it would not let me take a screenshot using the usual keyboard commands. Also, as you can see there is only one Guest Account showing now, but see how it is all distorted? My entire screen works fine, so I do not know why it does that every time I boot. I had to crop the picture way down because it would not let me upload on the MacRumors server because it was too big.
IMG_0016 2.jpg


:apple:
 
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SRLMJ23

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 11, 2008
2,311
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Central New York
Technically it is not new, but I have never seen this before. I usually only see my personal login, as I disable Guest Account (which it is disabled so I have no clue why it is showing) and I am assuming Disk Password is there because I clean installed to APFS (Encrypted). I just want to know if/how to get rid of Disk Password and this rogue Guest User? Thank you in advance.

:apple:
 

forneva

macrumors newbie
Sep 26, 2017
5
0
After updating to high sierra I also found the guest account with the distorted icon showing up. I tried re-enabling the guest account in system preferences to see what would happen, but that actually caused a 2nd guest account to appear as well. Now I have two guest accounts showing up whenever I boot up my Mac, one regular guest account with no password and the other guest account with a password and a distorted icon. Would also like to know how to fix this issue.

I don't have the Disk Password icon showing up though.
 
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ohnosushii

macrumors newbie
Sep 26, 2017
2
0
Same here, clean install on APFS (encrypted) volume, guest disabled in system preferences but shows on login screen with distorted icon.
 
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SRLMJ23

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 11, 2008
2,311
1,416
Central New York
After updating to high sierra I also found the guest account with the distorted icon showing up. I tried re-enabling the guest account in system preferences to see what would happen, but that actually caused a 2nd guest account to appear as well. Now I have two guest accounts showing up whenever I boot up my Mac, one regular guest account with no password and the other guest account with a password and a distorted icon. Would also like to know how to fix this issue.

I don't have the Disk Password icon showing up though.

Did you update to APFS (Encrypted)? Thanks for replying!

:apple:
 

forneva

macrumors newbie
Sep 26, 2017
5
0
Hmm...wonder why you do not have the Disk Password account? Anyway, we need to know how to fix this because it is kind of annoying. I do not see my login screen much, but it still bothers me.

:apple:
I think I found a temporary fix... After turning off Find My Mac and FileVault (had to wait a long time for decryption to finish), the guest account is gone!
 

SRLMJ23

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 11, 2008
2,311
1,416
Central New York
I think I found a temporary fix... After turning off Find My Mac and FileVault (had to wait a long time for decryption to finish), the guest account is gone!

Did you turn back on Find My Mac and/or FileVault to see if that guest account comes back on? Thanks.

:apple:
 

adrianlondon

macrumors 603
Nov 28, 2013
5,025
7,583
Switzerland
I have that "guest account" bug.

I enabled the guest account (APFS encrypted) and got two login icons. One correct, and one with a kind of broken icon. I deleted that one in terminal and now only have the one correct guest account. The "correct" guest account isn't actually a real account. Clicking on it reboots the laptop into a temporary user-space created (I think!) in the recovery partition hence not needing to unlock the APFS (or HFS+) drive. The main use for it is if your laptop is stolen it tricks the thief intp thinking they can bypass all the passwords, when all they can do is surf the net (and in the background, "find my mac" location is sent!)

Anyway, to delete the buggy guest account in terminal:
dscl localhost delete /Local/Default/Users/Guest

If you also don't want the correct guest account, you don't need to disable "Find my Mac" just untick the guest account option in System Prefs / Users & Groups. Turning on Find my Mac usually enables this (as it's useful as I explained above).
 
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forneva

macrumors newbie
Sep 26, 2017
5
0
Did you turn back on Find My Mac and see if that guest account comes back on? Thanks.

:apple:
Wow this keeps getting more interesting... Turning Find My Mac back on re-enabled the regular guest account (the one that doesnt require a password to use) but also caused an account named “Other” to show up.

I understand that the regular guest account is used for Find My Mac, but what is the “Other” account used for?

EDIT: Apparently the Other account is the root account. I went ahead and disabled that and now once again only my own personal account shows up on the login screen.
 
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SRLMJ23

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 11, 2008
2,311
1,416
Central New York
I have that "guest account" bug.

I enabled the guest account (APFS encrypted) and got two login icons. One correct, and one with a kind of broken icon. I deleted that one in terminal and now only have the one correct guest account. The "correct" guest account isn't actually a real account. Clicking on it reboots the laptop into a temporary user-space created (I think!) in the recovery partition hence not needing to unlock the APFS (or HFS+) drive. The main use for it is if your laptop is stolen it tricks the thief intp thinking they can bypass all the passwords, when all they can do is surf the net (and in the background, "find my mac" location is sent!)

Anyway, to delete the buggy guest account in terminal:
dscl localhost delete /Local/Default/Users/Guest

If you also don't want the correct guest account, you don't need to disable "Find my Mac" just untick the guest account option in System Prefs / Users & Groups. Turning on Find my Mac usually enables this (as it's useful as I explained above).

Thank you very much. I suppose you do not know how to get rid of that Disk Password account, or if we even can?

:apple:
 

SRLMJ23

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 11, 2008
2,311
1,416
Central New York
First, I just wanted to make it clear that your Terminal command deleted that broken icon Guest Account.

Well I have APFS (Encrypted) which automatically turns on FileVault when installing (doing a clean install) because APFS (Encrypted) is just APFS with FileVault enabled automatically. So yes, FileVault is on. All that Disk Password account does is, once you click on it, it asks for the password you set when you enabled APFS (Encrypted) and then unlocks the disk and then asks you to manually type in your login name and password. Like I said earlier, when installation of High Sierra was done, it asked me if the password I used for my login account could unlock my drive (I guess since it was different than the password I made for APFS Encrypted) and I selected "Yes." So I can use either one of those accounts to unlock my computer, but I really do not need the Disk Password account since I allowed my login password to unlock my encrypted disk. There should be a way to merge these two accounts so it just shows up as one, or make it so the Disk Password account does not show.

Also, there is no directory for the Disk Password "account" in /Users since it is not really an account. It just unlocks the disk and then as I said above you have to manually enter your login name and password and BAM you are into YOUR login account. It is just weird. I had FileVault on in Sierra and I did not have a Disk Password "account" that showed up.

:apple:
 

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,171
15,691
California
Well I have APFS (Encrypted) which automatically turns on FileVault when installing (doing a clean install) because APFS (Encrypted) is just APFS with FileVault enabled automatically.
Just so I am clear... you did a clean install and as part of that your formatted the drive to APFS Encrypted in Disk Util and after that you installed?

I think that is where you went wrong.

Normally one would just format (APFS or HFS+) and install, then after the install turn on FileVault. When you do that it sets up you account to boot to the recovery partition and from there login to the account and at the same time unlock the boot drive. I think by formatting encrypted first and then installing, the FileVault boot routine was not setup properly.

If you can, boot to a USB key then erase the drive to APFS (not encrypted) then install, then turn on FV and see what that does.
 
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SRLMJ23

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 11, 2008
2,311
1,416
Central New York
Just so I am clear... you did a clean install and as part of that your formatted the drive to APFS Encrypted in Disk Util and after that you installed?

I think that is where you went wrong.

Normally one would just format (APFS or HFS+) and install, then after the install turn on FileVault. When you do that it sets up you account to boot to the recovery partition and from there login to the account and at the same time unlock the boot drive. I think by formatting encrypted first and then installing, the FileVault boot routine was not setup properly.

If you can, boot to a USB key then erase the drive to APFS (not encrypted) then install, then turn on FV and see what that does.


That is exactly how I originally installed it. However, once I learned that the Disk Password account would not go away I just reformatted to APFS and installed it and then turned on FileVault once installed, just like you recommended. Everything is fine now, and also I did not get that "incorrect" Guest Account bug. The only new bug I appear to have picked up is when waking the display up from being off (the screen goes off, but I do not allow the computer to go to sleep) for a split second before you see the login screen and being unlocked by Apple Watch there is some weird color distortion. But like I said, it then goes right to the login screen fine. Just a bug that will be ironed out with a .x update. Thank you so much for your help though!

:apple:
 
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