Can't disable password after screensaver

[noodledog]

Howdy folks. I've been periodically trying to fix an issue I've had for a year, and finally will just be humble and ask if anyone has other ideas.

System: Mojave 10.14.6

This is our family room computer, so have always had the password disabled. For reasons I honestly don't remember, I turned on the password once, and have never been able to remove it since. Currently just making due with a blank password (just hit enter to log in). I have the "Require password after screensaver" check box in SystemPrefs unchecked. And the plist shows:

defaults -currentHost read com.apple.screensaver

{
CleanExit = YES;
PrefsVersion = 100;
"Require Password" = 0;

It always asks for a PW when waking from screensaver. In fact, I now can't even re-check the box in SysPrefs. It just blinks and doesn't 'set'.

I really just want the PW off... Any ideas? Thanks so much folks.

 

[conmee]

Try this:

1. Set the login password to something besides blank (e.g. “Password”) in Users & Groups
2. Reboot and login with the new password.
3. Change your screensaver to something different from the current screensaver and set “Start After” to “Never”
4. Go to Security & Privacy | General and try to now uncheck “Require password….” You should now have to authenticate (click the lock icon) with the new password to make changes and should get the “Are you sure you want to turn off screen lock?” prompt. Turn it off.

If this works you can go back into screensaver settings and select your preferred screensaver and set it to start after whatever minutes/hours you prefer.

Lastly, go back into Users & Groups and change the account password back to blank if you’d like to keep it as blank (you’ll get a warning prompt asking if you want to do this).

Hope this helps.

 

[noodledog]

Thanks so much for the suggestions.

I did steps 1-3, but on #4, (after authenticating) it still won't let me select (its already unchecked) the "Require password..." box. It just flashes, but doesn't check it.

 

[conmee]

Maybe try creating a new administrator account, login as new admin account, and see if the new account can change the setting. If that works, login with the original account and see if it lets you toggle the setting.

 

[noodledog]

New Admin account is able to toggle the setting (and its effective with ScreenSaver).
Switched accounts a few times, but old account still can't toggle it.
Thanks again for the ideas.

 

[noodledog]

Ah, so it is fixed. Followed the instructions here.

Summary is some keychain problem. Deleting what appear to be Keychain caches solved it. Now I can disable screen lock. Thanks for the help conmee!