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this computer will restart to a secure safari-only system for the guest user

rhett7660

rhett7660

macrumors G5
Original poster
Jan 9, 2008
14,495
4,638
Sunny, Southern California
Help...

My sisters mac book air is in this and I do not know how to get out of it. I have googled and so far I am finding that you have to be logged into the admin account, however the admin account won't let me in. It will only enter into this.

I have read several posts and threads and they all talk about it, but none of them are for when you computer is in this state.

I have tried restarting it via the select which hard drive I want to boot to and that didn't work.

Is there anything I can do? Apple support is closed and ugh.
 
I'm not sure I understand your question.

Could you please clarify what it is that you are trying to do?
You are saying Safari won't open because you are on a guest account?

If you need a browser immediately, you could find a disc off Amazon for Firefox and download it on your system.
 
Ok,

This is part of the security feature for find my Mac/iPhone etc. When this is activated, all you can log into is the guest account and this is the message you will receive. It activates the find my mac upon log in so you can start tracking your device.

I found ways to turn it off, however you have to be able to log into your admin account and when you are in this state on your machine, you can't log into any other account outside the guest account.

I have yet to find anything that tells you how to get out of this state. I have a ticket open with Apple but they haven't responded yet and it was past the time frame to call them.

I am sure there is good reason why I can't find anything on this since this is part of the security feature, but I was hoping someone here might have an answer for me.
 
When you start the machine you should be presented with a login screen showing the admin account and next to it the guest Safari only account you mentioned. Just click the admin account and enter the admin password there.
 
Weaselboy said:
When you start the machine you should be presented with a login screen showing the admin account and next to it the guest Safari only account you mentioned. Just click the admin account and enter the admin password there.
Click to expand...

Darth.Titan said:
Kinda sounds to me like your sister changed her password and didn't tell you what it is. :D
Click to expand...

@Weaselboy, when she tries this, it doesn't let her in. You are right both show up but when she tries to log into the admin account/main account, it starts the process, gets to her background screen and then kicks her back out to the log on screen. The only account she get to is the guest account.

@Darth.. LOL..

I hope she didn't, I was helping her over the phone!!! :eek: Facetime actually worked pretty well for this I might add.

----------

These are some of the sites I have found that talk about it or tell you how to disable it, however you have to be logged into the admin account to do so:

https://www.google.com/search?q=thi...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Among others.
 
rhett7660 said:
@Weaselboy, when she tries this, it doesn't let her in. You are right both show up but when she tries to log into the admin account/main account, it starts the process, gets to her background screen and then kicks her back out to the log on screen. The only account she get to is the guest account.
Click to expand...

You are not going to be able to do or fix anything from that guest "account" because in spite of its name it is not really a user account at all. All that Safari only mode does is boot into a special Safari version on the Recovery HD and you are really not even logged in to the main OS partition.

So she is positive she has the correct admin password, and it accepts it, then kicks you back out AFTER is logs to the main desktop screen?

You might try doing a command-r reboot to the Recovery HD and run disk repair and a permissions repair both from the Disk Utility. If that does not work, a reinstall of the OS from that same Recovery HD might help.
 
Weaselboy said:
You are not going to be able to do or fix anything from that guest "account" because in spite of its name it is not really a user account at all. All that Safari only mode does is boot into a special Safari version on the Recovery HD and you are really not even logged in to the main OS partition.

So she is positive she has the correct admin password, and it accepts it, then kicks you back out AFTER is logs to the main desktop screen?

You might try doing a command-r reboot to the Recovery HD and run disk repair and a permissions repair both from the Disk Utility. If that does not work, a reinstall of the OS from that same Recovery HD might help.
Click to expand...

You are correct about the ability to not fix anything inside the guest account.

Positive about the password. If it was the wrong password wouldn't it tell her at the beginning and not even let her in to the machine, then kick her out?

I will try the permissions repair from the disk utility and see if that works before she has to take it in.
 
Weaselboy said:
Yes... if you put in the wrong password the password box will jiggle around.
Click to expand...

That is what I thought, it won't start the process of opening up the background picture etc.

That is what this was doing.

Apple support is making her reinstall the OS. They didn't have an option for getting out of this, or I should say the person she talked to did not have an option for getting out of this.

Well at least now I know for next time something like this happens in the future.

Thanks for your feedback...
 
Just give an update on this.

The re-installing of the OS did not help. So now she has an appointment with Apple today to take it in.

If there isn't a secret "switch" I have a feeling they are going to have to wipe the drive and do a fresh install of the OS.
 
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