How do I shut down my mac when more than one user is logged in?

[Nerdy Keith]

When I try to shut down my iMac when more than one user is logged in; I get a dialogue box warning me that I may lose any unsaved. It asks for an administrator name and password. So I entered my name and password; same one I use to log into my iMac when I start it up.

I then get another dialogue box saying I must enter a valid username. Well my settings is an administrator so I can't understand why it won't accept my login details

Any ideas how to resolve this?

 

[chabig]

I have no idea why it's not accepting your admin username and password. Are you sure you're using an administrator account?

Shutting down while other users are logged in is not nice because they will lose unsaved data, as the dialog says. iMacs are not very portable machines, so just let it sleep with the other users logged in. If you really do have to shut it down, then try to get the other users to log themselves out. Administrators cannot log users out. They WILL lose data if you force the machine to shut down.

 

[Thanks pal]

Are you the only account with Administrator status? If not are one of the other Administrator accounts a Root User?

 

[Fishrrman]

Well, if you REALLY want to shut it down, and don't care about the other user accounts, just press the power-on button and KEEP HOLDING IT DOWN until the Mac shuts off.

That WILL shut it down.

Aside:
Others will interject "that's not the way to do it!".
And technically, they would be right if "preserving data" is of the utmost importance.

But if all one wants is the Mac shut down, the above will work when nothing else does...

 

[Command]

Your user name is case sensitive and also exact spacing - so if it's John Smith, that is what has to be entered. Not john smith, johnsmith, etc.* You can find your user name as it needs to be entered by clicking the Apple in the top left and looking at the bottom - Log out John Smith.

You do have to be an admin or use an admin account to do this.

*- I know the home folder name / account name will also work but for this case I am not going into that.

 

[MacGizmo]

It's probably asking for the OTHER user's account name and password. Have you tried entering that info instead?