Lion 10.7.2: Guest Account Safari-only bug?

I have realized that after I updated my mac yesterday to 10.7.2 which supported iCloud and its services, there appeared to be a (safari-only) guest account in my login window. After reading a few articles, it appears that this option is used so that it can attract thieves to go into the secure safari-only mode where they cannot access anything else, and connect to the internet so that when we use the 'Find My Mac' service on our iPhones or iCloud.com, we will have a higher possibility of tracking down our mac.

But the problem arises here, when i'm logged into my own account with iCloud enabled; find my mac enabled, I can login to iCloud.com and press the find my mac icon to easily track the location of my mac, send it a message or even remotely wipe the hard drive. But after I entered the safari-only guest account, it appears that when I login to iCloud.com to track my mac, my mac appears to be 'Offline', even after I made sure i was connected to the internet. This is very strange, since this feature should assist the thieves in connecting to the internet allowing users to have a higher possibility of tracking their mac. This happens if I login to another user account on my mac too. I have to enable the option in every user account for it to work.

Has anybody tried this? Any suggestions as to how I can activate the 'Find My Mac' service in the safari-only guest account are welcome.

Weaselboy said:

I believe this is because you are trying to use Find my Mac (FMM) from the same machine and it will not work like that

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Interestingly enough, I actually have 2 macs and tested it on my second mac. I entered safari-only guest account on my MBA and then logged into iCloud.com with my MBP, vice-versa. I'll definitely try again though.

Thanks for all the suggestions, really appreciate it.

Weaselboy said:

I believe this is because you are trying to use Find my Mac (FMM) from the same machine and it will not work like that.

I just did a couple tests and I think everything is working as it should. I have two machines, a Macbook Pro (MBP) and an iMac, both with iCloud/FMM turned on.

The MBP has two accounts. My account as admin and a standard acct for my wife. I turned on FMM in iCloud prefs for my acct and noticed as you did if I check prefs in the second acct it shows FMM greyed out and not checked as on, but it is on as you will see.

Here is how I tested.

MBP on under my admin acct > Shows up in FMM at iCloud.com on my iMac
MBP on under second standard acct > Refreshed FMM on iMac and it still shows up.
MBP rebooted into Safari only guest acct > Refreshed FMM on iMac and it again shows the MBP.

So to summarize, it appears everything is working as it should when checking FMM from a second machine. Looks like they have disabled FMM locate from the source machine. For example, it I go to FMM at iCloud.com from my iMac it does not show the location of the iMac.

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I was just wondering, are you sure that when you refreshed at iCloud.com, that the location of you MBP is a newly updated location? It is because it may appear as e.g. "last appeared 2 mins ago" here. That is because you previously located the mac in your account, but after that when you logged in and refreshed, it still tells you the last known location, but it is actually from a few minutes ago. That might be something you might not have noticed. I may be wrong.

This is getting very interesting, once again i've tried.

On my MBA,
Using i logged into my account with iCloud and FMM activated. Checked using another mac, and it is locatable.

Used second account using another iCloud username, with iCloud activated but FMM (greyed out). Checked using another mac, doesn't locate the MBA

Went into Guest (safari-only mode), checked with another mac, couldn't locate MBA.

This is so confusing. This might be my individual problem.

@Weaselboy May I ask, which mac do you use? Is it 2011 or 2010, because both my MBA is the 2010 version and my MBP as well.

Hugh said:

Well now it's being real strange, it finds my MacBook. When I try to send the tone to it or a message nothing happens. It was working before, too many people on it now?

Hugh

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Yea i agree, this is strange. It seems like everyone is experiencing different things. For example, (weasleboy) could't use FMM on the same mac, but i've tried with my MBP and that actually works. I logged onto iCloud.com, and I can see myself located. Still, I think there is a hidden problem in this system that needs to be worked at.

andrie said:

I'm also having some problems with Find My Mac when logged on using Guest User.

Here's what I have in my devices:
I have a Macbook Air 2011, running on OSX Lion 10.7.2 with Find My Mac enabled in the iCloud System Preferences.
I also have an iPhone 4, running iOS 5.0 with Find My iPhone enabled in the iCloud Settings.
Pretty much I have everything updated and should be working fine.

Here's what I have encountered:
For my iPhone 4, everything is working fine. I can always find it through the Find My iPhone app or the iCloud site. No problem in there.
It's my MBA which is having an issue being found, but only on certain scenario.
If logged in using my account, it can be found through the Find My iPhone app or the iCloud site. Again, no problem in there.
But when logged in through the Guest User option, the one with the Safari-only enabled, it cannot be found.
Yes, it is connected to a Wi-Fi, I can browse the internet with it.
And I am even using it to access the iCloud site to try to find it.
Only that no, it cannot be found through the Find My iPhone app or the iCloud site.

Essentially, what I am experiencing is the very opposite of what that Guest User option is intended for.

Any ideas that may help us out with this?

Thanks, guys!

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That is exactly what my problem is too!
Have you found a solution for it yet?