Serious mac problem, advice!

Neil79

Neil79

Neil79

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Joined
8 Sep 2006
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This isn't my mac but my mums, recently everytime she logged into her account it would load the desktop then straight back to the login screen. She could only login to her guest accounts!.

I couldn't fix her admin login, so i created her a new admin account which was a great deal of faffing about with command prompts and folder rights. I basically had to tell the computer it was a new system, i then copied everything over to the new account. Now a week later after everything was working brilliantly, she's turned the system on and same again straight back to the login!

I'm really starting to hate mac systems, they are a pig to fix and my mum is abit upset.
 
Yep when it first happened

1. > Sudo -s no root password so i didnt have to enter mine.
2. > /sbin/mount -uw /
3. > rm /Library/Caches/com.apple.LaunchServices*
4. > reboot
Click to expand...

But i was still not able to get into the account, i had to create another clean one... A week later it happened again, not sure why this looped login keeps happening.
 
Treat it like linux and you wont go far wrong. Should be able to find the root folder for her account, copy all of the directories below this to back up.
Reinstall.
Omit non essential software for a day at a time or so to ensure its not some buggy software you have on the system.
 
FIXED IT! :p:p

I was rather smart in the fact that when i first created the previous admin account before this looped login happened again i had made another account as a backup. I completely forgot that i had made this, so i went into the temp/backup account and looked to see what was going on. First i tried to delete the previous admin account that was broken while keeping the files. It kept on telling me, ERROR COULD NOT DELETE!. Uh oh :eek:

I then dragged the broken admin folder over to the desktop and it vanished, i tried clicking on my default apps/docs/pics YOU DO NOT HAVE AUTHORIZATION RIGHTS. Something wasn't right, even though i was admin i couldn't access anything. Nothing would appear on the desktop and applications would open and avnish.

Did a Hard Drive check, everything was ok bar two files that had bad permissions(shockwave). So i edited every single file/folder with the admin rights that i wanted for the owner. Pics/desktop/user folders the lot Suddenly the desktop appeared and about a 1000 files going right back to 2007 :eek:

Cleaned up all the old apps and start up apps which went back years, then i made two seperate backup admin accounts with my own personal password. Deleted the old admin account and made the new account the home admin.

Rebooted the system not only does she now have access to all her original files she also has access to her email accounts and messangers. She was really pleased.

It looks as good as new !
 
I'd still take a backup of her files and start again. There's no telling how many permissions are now b0rked because of your "fix" ;)
 
EVH said:
I'd still take a backup of her files and start again. There's no telling how many permissions are now b0rked because of your "fix" ;)
Click to expand...

At-least my fix got her entire system up and working and she has admin rights to her system. After all she is the owner and the owner is happy!

Thanks for sarcastically saying i've broken her system ;):rolleyes:

Why are there so many wind up merchants on tonight :(
 
Things went from bad to worse :(

Went to get some DVDRS today to start backing everything up and now she can't boot at all, just a grey screen. Did a hard drive check and it's coming up with a failed volume and lots of other errors. Cannot be repaired is the end result, so all this time it's the hard drive!

64GB worth of family photo's unaccesable, the imac is insured for repair but we need those files!
 
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