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underattack

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 15, 2008
83
25
After upgrading to Catalina, whenever the screen saver kicks in, the system is locked and there is no login dialog to enter a password. The only option I found to get my system back is to do a forced power cycle, which of course is far from ideal. Or configuring the system to not ask for a password.
  • The normal login after reboot works fine.
  • This only affects one of the users I set up on this system (2019 MBP). The screen saver works fine for a second test user I set up.
  • After the screen saver comes on, I still see the cursor and can move it, and I do see notifications. But no password dialog to unlock the screen saver.
  • Everything works fine if I don't require a password for the screen saver, but for a laptop that isn't a great solution.

I tried a couple of things (resetting NVRAM, enabling unlock with apple watch, adding a smart card, changing my password...) but no luck so far.

Before upgrading to Catalina, I had an issue where the fingerprint login didn't completely "unlock" the system and I had to always enter my password as well. But at least I was able to unlock the screen saver. Now

Any ideas what may be wrong or how to further debug this? Thanks.
 
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